Show Five: Sunday 12 September 2010 at The Picturedrome, Holmfirth

It’s been a long week for both band and crew. The first full week of shows in the UK, five consecutive non-stop performances. From Cardiff to Wolverhampton to Birkenhead to Glasgow and now onto Holmfirth.

Set List: Confessin’ Midnight; Lady Love; Somebody Calling; You Can Find Me; Twice Removed From Yesterday; Extermination Blues; Day of the Eagle; Bridge of Sighs; Shame the Devil; The Turning; Too Rolling Stoned; Little Bit of Sympathy. Encores: Rise Up Like the Sun; Not Outside - Inside..

The Kirklees town is famous as the location and setting for the BBC sitcom The Last of the Summer Wine, one of the best-loved British series of all time, launched on our television screens in the same year that the Trower band released its debut album, Twice Removed From Yesterday.

The town is also home to The Picturedrome, an exquisite 1913 cinema building, lovingly restored and reopened in 1998, the venue for tonight’s show.

The week’s 666-mile round trip has clearly taken its toll on Robin and the band as they rip into Confessin’ Midnight. Yet any signs of fatigue are quickly dispelled by the warm and enthusiastic applause and encouragement flowing from the vociferous West Yorkshire crowd. I can see Andy P and his young son, up at the front, centre-stage.

Robin growls, snatches and spits out the notes in his extended outro to Bridge of Sighs. Pete and Glenn crash, glide and then syncopate their lines in the nervous energy that is the night’s Too Rolling Stoned. Leading the charge, Davey brings the show to a crescendo by provoking yet more participation from the audience at the end of Little Bit of Sympathy.

The final number of the night is Not Inside – Outside. It’s a brand new three and a half minute rocker, built around a strong noughties Trower riff, a perfect vehicle for improvisation, and with a short four bar middle section over which Robin speaks (think Twice Removed from Yesterday).

The curtain closes on this cinema show and we are soon back on the streets heading home. A very big thank you to my hosts Matthew G and Penny.