The Doors of the 21st Century, Wembley Arena, 11 December 2003

 A sell-out. 12,000 people in Wembley Arena, a cold, concrete affair from the days when cold concrete architecture was OK. Tickets said support band on stage 7:30 so we made sure we were there shortly after 7. Crowds going in; a buzz in the air...first UK gig for 33 years(?!); anticipation, excitement - a reminder of what gigs were like when we were young. T-shirts nothing to write home about, but had a beer and went in.

Not much happening in the Arena. Stage to our right and below but we were the just the second block along, so not too far from the stage, on the end of a row. Not as good as being down on the floor near the stage (whole Arena was seating), but OK. Amazingly the two seats in front had an obscured view so stayed empty. Big screen hanging above the stage.

By 8 p.m. nothing had happened. Where was the support band?

8:20 and the auditorium has filled up. The lights go down, a cheer goes up, and an image of "Jim Morrison 1940-1971" appears on the screen. Then suddenly the band is on stage. Manzarek nearest us, Astbury in the middle, Krieger on the other side with a bass player(!) behind him and drummer at the back in the middle. We’d guessed ‘Roadhouse Blues’ or ‘Soul Kitchen’ as the opener and smiled at each other as the Krieger belted out the opening riff for ‘Roadhouse’. A high-octane intro and a wildly energetic solid vocal from a black-clad Astbury. My brother Mark was on his feet right away; I wasn’t sure, with everyone behind and around us stuck to their seats. (Of course the people on the floor were up already, but there wasn’t much movement visible.) With Astbury wisely missing the scat section, the band closed the number to huge applause and the band went straight into ‘Break on through’.

Well that was enough for me. I hopped over the seat in front and got down to it! Mark joined me on the row below our seats and away we went. Yeah we were probably in somewhat in the way for some people behind, but heck this was THE DOORS!!!  (An usher kept walking up and down the steps and I expected him to ask us to sit down, but he was only looking for smokers to tell off. An hour later we were still the only people up and partying in our section!)

‘Break on through’ was pretty close to the recorded version, but the next number just took the studio version and hurled it into hyperspace. From the opening bars of ‘When the Music’s Over’ you just knew it was going to be monumental. Astbury’s voice could have been created for this music – perfect in strength and pitch for the emotion embedded in the lyrics – in no way trying to emulate Jim, but just giving it his all. The screen, previously kaleidoscopic light-show images, now showed flashes of burning and destruction, demonstrations and street fighting, sticks of bombs tumbling earthwards from the bowels of huge B52s. The song’s climax seemed endless, the singer turning and leaping, jumping with the rhythm and crashing notes from the guitar and keyboards before they finally let us down gently(ish) with the closing verse.

‘Love me two times’, ‘Alabama Drinking Song’,  ‘Back Door Man’, and ‘Five to One’ followed. At some point Manzarek introduced the band and Krieger introduced Manzarek. The two former members sported short hair, Astbury shoulder-length black like the rest of his outfit. He was taking Jim’s stance, weight on one leg in, both hands on the mike, from time to time, and clearly used some of his dance moves, but without overtly imitating him. (Later we even got a ‘Do you want to see it?'!, but the overall effect was somehow not cringe-making like an ‘I’m the new Jim’ approach would have been.) 

Then the rhythm section took a break, Astbury took a seat (but didn’t stay in it long), Krieger switched to acoustic, and the threesome went into ‘Crystal Ship’ and ‘People are Strange’. Here Astbury’s voice lacked the resigned melodic quality that these slower softer songs need. Nevertheless they were well received and important for the set. Then they left the guitarist alone on stage for an extended flamenco section, which was a predictable intro to Spanish Caravan. After 5 minutes back came the band for the song proper. Again Astbury’s voice couldn’t quite cut it, but what the hell.

Then Manzarek introduced a section dedicated to the memory of Jim: ‘a bunch of songs from LA Woman that we never got to play live with him’. The band was obviously enjoying themselves and very pleased to be in London (perhaps the Paris crowd was less enthusiastic?). Now they gave us ‘Changeling’, an unexpected choice, followed by a rockin’ ‘Love her Madly’, ‘Been Down so Long’, and (blood surely IS "the rose of mysterious union"!) a fanatical ‘Peace Frog’.  The tempo dropped as the familiar bass line for ‘Riders’ emerged from the applause. At this point somebody turned the keyboard feed way too high; overall the volume was up but the keyboard came over horribly distorted. The overall effect was far from the melodic-hypnotic sound we expect but rather layers of noise not unlike the Velvet Underground at their most cacophonic. Never mind – the energy was there if not the finesse, and the soloists delivered on cue.

‘Texas Radio’ followed by ‘Hyacinth House’ and ‘Crawling King Snake’ brought the tempo down somewhat (I think I sat down for a rest here) before the last number which, of course, had to be ‘LA Woman’. There was no holding back as the band ripped into a turbo-charged version complete with black and white images of LA streets (CITY OF NIGHT!!!) and sixties footage of the Krieger, Manzarek, Densmore and Morrison in the desert.

At some point Astbury jumped off stage and into the audience briefly while the band played on; fine soloing and interchange between keyboards and guitar. Moments like this underlined the quality of the band – hearing the songs live was not the thrill it might have been had I never seen a Doors cover band, but the cover bands only play the recorded versions and here we were getting raw spontaneous playing. Some excellent improvisation from Manzarek and plenty of unheard licks from Krieger. The latter may not be among the great improvisers but what he plays is always apt, never cliched, and an integral element in the music’s excitement.

Finally the band left the stage and the house lights came on. As we filed out some guy tapped me on the shoulder to say "You guys rock!".  A perfect end to a wonderful evening.