 |
| Classic Albums Live Presents Supertramps’ Breakfast In America – Phil Naro, Mia Sheard |
February 17 2013 – Breakfast in America was served at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts on Friday (February 15th 2013) night as part of the ongoing Classic Albums Live series. It was a special night as 10 musicians took us back to the late years of the classic rock era with a show featuring Supertramps’ epic album. (See bottom of this article for full list of musicians)
 |
| Classic Albums Live Presents Supertramps’ Breakfast In America |
Breakfast In America was the Brit supergroup’s 6th album, released in 1979. The album boasted a number of hit tracks including The Logical Song, Goodbye Stranger, Breakfast in America and Take the Long Way Home. As a kid, I recall these tracks seemed to own the radio airwaves as Disco was taking its last breath, Punk rock was becoming mainstream, and new wave was in its infancy. At the time, Supertramp remained one of the few acts holding the torch strong for the classic rock genre as music seemed to be splitting off into many different sects in search of a new music king post-disco. Breakfast in America went on to win two Grammy awards and, in France, is the biggest selling English language music album of all time, and 3rd biggest seller overall.
 |
| Classic Albums Live Presents Supertramps’ Breakfast In America – James Grey, Will Hare, Braxton Hicks, Russel Grey |
Last night, ten musicians came together to bring us back to when this superband was in its prime, and they did a wonderful job of capturing and presenting the unique Supertramp sound. The Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts provided a great venue for this special evening.
 |
| Classic Albums Live Presents Supertramps’ Breakfast In America – Marty Morin |
The Classic Albums Live series is all about reproducing the album as close as possible to the studio release recording and their motto is “note for note”. This requires superb technical skill on instruments involved, but to really nail down the complete sound, it helps to have the vocals that sound like those of the band that produced the record in the first place. Last night, Phil Naro and Marty Morin did a great job alternating on lead vocals taking on the roles of Supertramp’s Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies respectively. Mia Sheard helped on backup to add to the richness of the vocals on the high end. Naro, with support from Sheard had no problem capturing the high pitched vocals of Roger Hodgson and Morin nailed down the more loungy vocal stylings of Davies nicely.
 |
| Classic Albums Live Presents Supertramps’ Breakfast In America – Braxton Hicks, Will Hare, Russel Grey |
One of the highlights of last night’s show was intimate performance of the Lord Is it Mine track, when Naro captured full attention of the audience and showed and showed off his extraordinary vocal range. The familiar songs on the album were very well received particularly the opening 1-2-3 punch of Gone Hollywood, The Logical Song and Goodbye Stranger. This is now the third Classic Albums Live band that we have seen Naro take the lead on, and he really exceeded all our expectations on this one. [Ed Note: Naro also does Robert Plant for the Zeppelin Classic Album Live shows reviewed here, as well as Freddie Mercury for the Queen shows reviewed here]
The rest of the ensemble was perfect in capturing the Supertramp sound with special kudos to the keyboards (Hare and Gray) and wind (Hicks) sections. As a classic rock band, Supertramp was unique in having both piano and saxophone in the forefront and as the backbone on many of their songs and this sound was well represented by the musicians involved. The show had two sets with an encore.
 |
| Classic Albums Live Presents Supertramps’ Breakfast In America |
The first set consisted of Breakfast in America (in order), superbly performed, and appeared to serve as a warm up for the second set. In the second set, the band appeared to loosen up more as they performed many other well-known tracks from Supertramp’s library. All in all, it was a special night and the audience really got into the show in the second half and even demanded a second encore. The way that the Classic Albums Live shows are presented are the spotlight album is presented in it’s entirety and the second half is the “best of” set of the band featured. The most impressive display in the second half was Fool’s Overture – a 10 minute epic which even featured a reproduction of Winston Churchill’s speech at the beginning of the song. Pure magic.
We can no longer see many of the bands of the classic era live, so do take advantage of the Classic Albums Live series when you get a chance, and get yourself transported back in time.
 |
| Classic Albums Live Presents Supertramps’ Breakfast In America |
Verdict: 4.5 out of 5. A very powerful rendition of Breakfast In America which featured a mind blowing number of instruments and tools to replicate the album along with a fun filled best of Supertramp for the second half. Kudos to the Classic Albums Live series for keeping these Classic Albums alive in our consciousness.
 |
| Classic Albums Live Presents Supertramps’ Breakfast In America |
Set One (Breakfast in America):
Gone Hollywood
The Logical Song
Goodbye Stranger
Breakfast in America
Oh Darling
Take the Long Way Home
Lord is it Mine
Just Another Nervous Wreck
Casual Conversations
Child of Vision
Set Two:
School
Bloody Well Right
Dreamer
Even in the Quietest Moments
Give a Little Bit
Fool’s Overture
Encore:
Rudy
 |
| Classic Albums Live Presents Supertramps’ Breakfast In America – Russel Grey |
Performers:
James Gray – Keyboards
Will Hare – Keyboards
Braxton Hicks – Horns
Russel Gray – Guitar
Phil Naro – Vocals
Mia Sheard – Vocals
Des Leahy – Guitar
Troy Feener – Drums
Johnny B – Bass
Marty Morin – Vocals/Percussion
 |
| Classic Albums Live Presents Supertramps’ Breakfast In America – Des Leahy |
BONUS COVERAGE
What do rock performers do when their gig is over? Well if you are Phil Naro you finish your Classic Albums Live show and by 10:30 pm you rush downtown for a gig that starts at 11:30. The chameleon of rock was performing with his Phil & John Show (John being John Rogers of Brighton Rock). The venue was the Underground Garage and there was an average age difference of 30 years between the audience of the Classic Albums Live show and this gig. Phil, John, and the gang played some wicked cover tunes including some Alice Cooper, Journey, Rush, Led Zeppelin and even Iron Maiden. We ended up listening to Naro almost 5 hours this night and that is without a doubt a lifetime record of hearing one person sing in one night.
 |
| Phil Naro |
 |
| Enzo Lapadula |
 |
| John Rogers |
Wow, I sure would have liked to have seen that concert..was always a Supertramp fan.. hopefully they do this album again in more locations.. Thanks for the review