This is from a clippings pack so I don’t know the date of the magazine source. Number 7 on the rear is for an entirely different band so I assume this is from some sort of ‘best of’ list.

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
IN A sense these Hyde Park gigs were a double-edged sword for the Chili Peppers. On one hand it was a triumphant celebration. They played to 85,000 people two days in a row in the centre of London. Then, as if not satisfied, they came back a week later and did it again. It was all the capital could talk about, their most cherished park overtaken by a rock concert that was simply huge. And it meant that the Chili Peppers had reached superstar status — that they’d achieved the virtually impossible of appealing to everyone from the most ardent record buyers to those who only fork out for one or two records or shows a year.

This was their celebration: the party they held to let everyone know they’d made it. The problem was, they didn’t look as if they enjoyed it a whole lot. They only managed two songs from ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’ and nothing from before it, then stuck almost exclusively to songs from their last two albums which, fine as they are, left some of the fans with a feeling that perhaps they’d been cheated. They played them well, though, with the fire and energy that you’d expect, but it wasn’t until they ripped out a cover of .45 Grave’s ‘Black Cross’ that they turned off the autopilot and cut loose.

There’s a sense that this is the last gig of this size the Chilis will ever do — a final hurrah, a last blow out to prove their enormity and, for those who were there, it will always be memorable. For those who weren’t, there’s a good chance the next time you see them it will be somewhere more intimate and with a view that doesn’t involve craning your neck over tens of thousands of other people. (TB)

HIGHLIGHT Show opener ‘Can’t Stop’ – who says the Chili’s don’t have the funk these days?