On this day in 1987, Rory played at the Hummingbird in Birmingham. This was part of his autumn UK tour to promote the release of Defender. Rory performed for over three hours, with Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs joining him in the encores. I recently acquired 90 minutes of audience footage from the concert, which I am delighted to share with you all!

Here’s also a little account of the gig from Pete Wood who was there:

“It was in 1987. Defender tour. I was in a horrible job being bullied at work working for the firm Tarmac, but no one bullies me, so going to see Rory again was a massive pick-me-up . We were living in Cannock, so it was a 20 mile or so trip to see my hero Rory! Arrived at the club, it was a West Indian club, hence the name as these birds are common in the West Indies. They had a loud disco going on in the basement gig site of the venue. LOUD! Rory was playing on the upper deck.

I sneaked my video 8 camera in and filmed 90 mins of it, the first part. Poor quality as I was covertly filming it. The gig was great […] The gig was a typical great gig around 3 hours. The encores started and Rory then said, “I want to bring up a good friend of ours, TONY MCPHEE”  [of The Groundhogs]. Rory had played a lot with him throughout his touring career. On other Defender gigs around this tour time, Rory also brought in Tony.

I felt sorry for Tony as Rory was absolutely buzzing like a KING BEE at this encore stage and throughout the gig, so Tony had to TRY to hit the stage running. To me, he did not. My eyes and ears were on Rory.

I went with six friends. We loved it.

A few days before, I had bought the Defender CD in Birmingham, so I could learn the songs a little. We went back to my newish Cavalier company car. The window had been smashed and the stereo was ripped  out, but this was small beer. I was myself too also buzzing from this great Defender tour gig. This kept up for a few weeks and I enjoyed my 90 mins of poor-quality videoing.”