Blaze Bayley Winchester Tower Arts Centre 17th February 2010

My 44th birthday was approaching and I needed to go to a gig. On searching the net I quickly found that Blaze Bayley was playing Winchester on my birthday. As NH tells me on a regular basis I never saw Maiden with Blaze(he did) even though I have seen Maiden 24 times so now seemed a good time to break the duck.

Spent the day in Winchester (again a place I have never visited. Very nice!! Superb cathedral) before a drive up to the north of the city to the gig in an old water tower on the site of Kings School. Holds about 200 and the place was pretty full.

Only £8 to get in and first up a local band Saqqara who played a good 25 minute set. Metallica influenced with Robb Flynn of Machine Head on vocals is a good description. A new song War Machine was excellent.

Next up Sinocence from Northern Ireland. Now NH saw them in Leeds last week and bought the cd for a £5 called Scar Obscura. I've had a listen to it and it's not bad at all .Their 40 minute set went past in a flash heavy hook laden metal. They went down well with Perfect Denial going down especially well. Managed to get NH's cd cover signed by the band afterwards. Nice guys and one to look out for.

So in support of new excellent cd Promise And Terror Blaze and his band hit the stage for a 95 minute set which was as follows

Madness And Sorrow

Voices From The Past

Faceless

City Of Bones

Blackmailer

Waiting For My Life To Begin

Letting Go Of The World

1633

Blood And Belief

The Launch

The Brave

Futureal

The Clansman

The Man Who Would Not Die

Robot

And and encore of   Kill And Destroy

Well what can I say?  The band were fantastic Lawrence Patterson on drums, David Bermudez on bass and the twin geetar attack of Jay Walsh and Nicko Bermudez.

Blaze sang his heart out. He got a lot of stick from his Maiden days about his register but with all these songs written by him for him and singing in a lower key he was excellent. He is a great showman expecting the crowd to give their all as he does. We clapped,sang and cheered as conducted to by him.  A great cross section of his solo career with 2 Maiden songs with The Clansman getting the first pit of the nite award.  5 songs off the new cd fitted in well too. Good sound in a such a small venue too.

Blaze came out almost immediately and signed a couple of cd covers I had to round off a great day all round.

If only all gigs were this intimate and 3 bands for £8 great value for money.

10/10 ME

Video Archive - February

Haven't done this for a while..but figured it was worthwhile resurrecting it as we know some of you like to look back and find the videos that we've featured.

Rocksugar - Don't stop the sandman Journey meets Metallica
ZZ Top Gimme all your lovin/ sharp dressed man Classic Videos from people even older than us.
Clutch - Electric Worry  - absolutely bloody ace
Blaze Bayley - Watching the Night Sky Blaze mentioned this clip on his recent tour..
Blackfoot  - Good Morning This is the new incarnation of Blackfoot with Bobby Barth replacing the mighty Medlocke.
Steel Panther Death to all but Metal It's taking the piss but it's ace.
Europe - Last Look At Eden Wonderful title track from the new album
Am I Evil - Diamond Head One of the pioneers of the NWOBHM - a classic later covered by Metallica.

And as an added extra..
FM - Over you live at the Roundhouse earlier this month.
Giant - Promised Land The new version of Giant doesn't feature Dan Huff, except on a few solos - is it as good as the old stuff? You decide.

Diamond Head – Europe, Oxford 02 Academy, 22nd February

I've looked forward to this one for a long time. With support Diamond Head a great double bill was expected and we weren't let down.

To a sizeable crowd Diamond Head started with an oldie but goldie with It's Electric .A NWOBHM classic with vocalist Nick Tart giving his all. A good voice and great stage presence and with Abbz on second geetar giving Brian Tatler (the only original member) the chance to show us why Metallica's Lars Ulrich followed the band around the UK nearly 30 years ago. Classic stuff.

What followed was a good mix of old and new. We had from the 2005 cd Alimony, Give It To Me and and the excellent Mine All Mine. But for us oldies we got Sucking My Love ,Heat Of The Night and lastly Am I Evil? It will be interesting where they go from here. A new cd is needed soon, but the wife will be kept happy in the meantime as she got a Diamond Head drumstick.

Now unlike our Northern correspondent NH, I have been a fan of Europe since 1984's Wings Of Tomorrow cd and was lucky enough to see them on both the Final Countdown and Out Of This World tours. Sadly John Norum (geetar) had left by then but since the reunion of 2004 I have had the enormous pleasure to see the original band back together twice and after last years stunning cd Last Look At Eden and the Relentless Garage show in November how had the 3 months since then seen the new music grow into the set.

With a setlist like this how could they  go wrong?

Last Look At Eden

Love Is Not The Enemy

Superstitious

Gonna Get Ready

Scream Of Anger

Let The Good Times Rock

No Stone Unturned

Oxford Town

Open Your Heart

Carrie

Optimus/Seventh Sign

New Love In Town

Start From The Dark

Cherokee

Rock The Night

Encores The Beast

The Final Countdown

From the opening seconds Joey Tempest (vox) treated the small club like it was a stadium playing to the gallery and his voice was in excellent shape. Jon Norum really is a geetar god. His solos are all so melodic and tell a story every time. To see him so close was a joy. The rhythm section of Jon Leven (bass), Ian Haugland (drums) and Mic Michaeli (keys) all are so solid giving the 2 main men the front of stage.

As you can see from the setlist we had a new song; Oxford Town .Made up on the spot with Joey and Mic taking over as Jon's bass rig had gone down. We then got a stunning Open Your Heart again acoustic with Joey in top form. Then onto Carrie played half acoustic and then electric with a bit longer acoustic then usual as the rig was still down. John Norum was goofing around pretending to fall asleep an top of his amp due to the 10 minute bass rig collapse. Like the consummate pros they are, it was all done so well and the acoustic set was fab. Top marks to the sound man for a crystal clear but loud mix and great light show too.

The whole set was a highlight and the usual pandemonium broke out for The Final Countdown. Fab!

They have said the will return and lets hope they continue their journey back to the top of the melodic rock tree where they rightfully belong.

ME 12/10.

( all photos (c) Ian Harvey )

Dumpy Rusty Nuts + support – Banbury – The Mills Art Centre 19th Feb 2010

The Mills Art Centre doesn’t sound very Rock n Roll but it’s a good hall with decent ale and the entrance fee was just £10 so I can cope with the display of hand made mosaic luv hearts and weird painting for sale in the lobby.

Arrived a bit early, so I was enjoying a pint of Abbotts when the man himself (Dumpy) appeared in the lobby with his trade mark bottle of Newcastle brown, I had a good chat with him, I’m not sure he could remember the last time we spoke which was in the Gents in at Rio’s in Bradford.
The first band was Peoples Republic of Mercia as you may guess from their name they come from Brum, they got a great rhythm going in there songs, not heavy just good enjoyable rock’n’roll
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7i8dyY-9bc
Second band was some bloke from Basingstoke who played an electric mandolin! Yeh my memory is *******, I can’t remember his name, playing metal far too loud is my excuse. To be honest he was good but I’m sure I’d enjoy him more is we were sat round a camp fire having one drink too many. Finished with Steve Earles Copperhead Road.
Dumpy and his Rusty Nuts, what can I say, Dumpy never let’s you down, this is the fourth time I’ve seen him and don’t be fooled, they may have a laugh but the band can play. If you want to see a man who loves his job you need to watch Andy on drums, a right nutter! All the usual Dumpy hits plus a good selection of covers. You ain’t a rock fan unless you have seen Dumpy so watch his web site and don’t miss out! Riffs Bar in Swindon 22nd April should be good. http://www.dumpysrustynuts.net/

CT

Diamond Head – Europe, Leeds 02 Academy, 18th February

This was the first night of Europe’s UK tour. Support is being provided by Diamond Head. Most of you will already know that guitarist Brain Tatler is the only remaining member from the NWOBHM period but don’t let that deter you, this band are a fine outfit in their own right. The evening kicked off with It’s Electric and included many older classics as well as new songs recorded with the current and excellent vocalist Nick Tart, including Give it to Me and Alimony from the brilliant All Will be Revealed CD. Proceedings were brought to a close with arousing rendition of Am I Evil.

Now I’ve always considered myself as a bit of a sceptic when it comes to Europe (both musically and politically) but my musical views have changed quite rapidly over the last 6 months or so with the arrival of Last Look at Eden. I had no hesitation in naming it as one of my top CDs of 2009. Would the live show live up to my expectations?

Photo Credit: © Edward Fielding

Europe burst onto the stage to rousing applause with their opening song Last Look at Eden; this was the first of many from the new CD which included Gonna Get Ready, No Stone Unturned and excellent rendition of New Love in Town. From the back catalogue we had songs like Scream of Anger, Let the Good Times Rock, Superstitious, Always the Pretender, Start from the Dark and of course we all sang along to Carrie. Throughout Joey Tempest led the band with the swagger of an experienced front man. I’m not sure who would win a microphone stand twilling competition between him and David Coverdale. I also have a new guitar hero in the shape of John Norum he was so melodic and his solos really added to all the songs. The main set was brought to a close with Rock the Night. The band came back and sung three encores starting with UFO’s Only You Can Rock Me, then my favourite track from the new CD, The Beast, and of course we finished with The Final Count Down which caused pandemonium in the audience!!

Well musically I’m now fully pro Europe, whether I’m keen on the Euro replacing the Pound, well that’s another matter.

The tour continues through out the UK, details are on the band’s web site.

NH

Street Sleeper – The Drop Kick Wyke nr Bradford – 12th February 2010

Tonight was the final performance of this line up of the band as guitarist Craig is off to pastures new.
A fine evening of great rock music was delivered, with a bit of Dire Straights thrown in for Craig as a bonus.
The band have a new guitarist lined up, so keep an eye open for them at a venues around Yorkshire.
I understand that front man Bob has also agreed to front Jagged Edge, so I’ll be looking forward to see how that goes as well.

NH

Blaze Bayley – Rio’s Leeds Sweeney Todds - 9th February 2010

I’d not been to this part of Rio’s in Leeds before. It’s a small cellar bar with a stage at one end. Unfortunately there is pillar right in front of the stage which slightly spoils the viewing experience. The other down point was no beer on tap, only lager.
Support was from Sinocence, I caught the last song. They sound very good, what also impressed me was that after their set the band walked round the crowd to try to sell CDs. This direct approach resulted in large number of sales, including one to me. Well done lads.
On to the Rock god that is Blaze Bayley, every time I’ve seem him he gives 110% and tonight was no exception. Blaze soon got round the problem of the pillar by standing on a speaker in front of it giving the impression that he was standing in the crowd, and gave a great opportunity for close interaction with the crowd. There was plenty of audience participation throughout the set that was mainly made up of songs from the new CD Promise and Terror and the previous CD - The Man That Would Not Die. From his Maiden days we had Futureal. Also from his own older material we had the likes of Identity and Kill and Destroy.
A great show put on by a great band with a great front man, all fans of metal should make the effort to see this tour.

NH

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