Read All About It!

What is this that stands before me? Figure in black which points at me… Yes, it is the prince of darkness Mr John Michael (Ozzy) Osbourne himself. Was it a “Symptom Of The Universe” or did I step “Into The Void” to witness both “Heaven And Hell” in one glorious sunny day at Villa Park? It was fitting after some 57 years that Black Sabbath ended their glorious career a few miles from their birthplaces in Aston, Birmingham.

Having missed out on the inaugural Tower Of Fire due to location and other family disasters, when I found out that the sequel would be at the excellent Nightrain in Bradford, I made concrete plans to attend, and it turned out to be a wise decision! The entire event, organised by Greg and Adele Dean from Towerok Management Services and our very own CEO Bruce Mee, was superbly run and acted as a stark reminder of why we need to have these types of events

There’s no doubt that New Model Army is an appropriate choice for support for this gig in terms of their vintage and likely cross over in terms of fans. While they have always been in a bit of a class of their own, they were always more Goth than Rock and this expresses itself in lyrics about bodies, war and death. These days they very much look like a Rock band and they are very loud, but the haunting storytelling nature of their songs persists.

I wouldn’t have necessarily put The Spangles in the same breath as The Electric Boys, but there’s no doubt that the former were very pleased to be on the same bill. Full of beans from the off, they are lively and engaging. They play Punky Rock ‘n’ Roll right up my street, so a win for me. Not far into the set Ben Marsden on guitar and vocals declares “We don’t give a f*ck we’re not in Wembley... Might be selfish, but I’m here for a good time too!”

When I first saw this advertised, I made the mistake of not reading it correctly, and thinking it was a different version of G3. Roll forward to last week, and I suddenly realised it wasn’t.

The 100 Club is a historic venue that has hosted many greats over the years and on offer tonight was a great roster of acts, starting with opener Kirris Rivière and The Delta Du Bruit who brought a lovely helping of Ol’ Black Blues, a mixture of originals and covers such as Muddy Waters’ ‘Can’t Be Satisfied’. The fact that they sat beside one another so easily is a testament to their songwriting and chops.

So it’s Call Of The Wild again, a festival I have now been at for six consecutive years. It’s lovely to see it grow and keep the family feel, but also get more polished and executed with cutting edge professionalism. It always takes a couple of years for a festival to get going and it’s now on a roll. It’s getting more diverse now, not solely Glam Sleaze, it embraces heavier and Goth bands and the Saturday night headliner is usually a crossover mainstream band. For those into

The weather is glorious and I’m in North Wales for a long weekend, however all I can think about is the gig on Sunday night. After a two-hour mad dash I’m outside the Ritz and there is a sizeable crowd already gathered. Once inside you can sense the night is going to be special – it doesn’t get much better than my all-time favourite musician performing my all-time favourite live album in full.

I still remember my first Bryan Adams concert very well, especially given it was my first concert in general. He was the main support for ZZ Top at the Milton Keynes Bowl on a hot sunny July day in 1991. There is even a very nice, wide-angle photo of that day in the program that I bought later that year during the continued ‘Waking Up The World’ tour. Since then, I have seen him somewhere between the late twenties and early thirties.

There has been much excitement about this Scandinavian Sleaze orientated festival with every band being from Sweden. It’s all the nicer for me, as one of the promoters is a lady I used to go clubbing with back in the day, someone I know is passionate about the music and not doing it for the money.

I arrived at Venue 23 in Wakefield, not knowing anything about it, but left ten hours later having gained a lot of respect for both it and the owner, Karl Johnson, who made sure that things ran smoothly on and off stage, whilst also performing with his band, Spin - more on that later!

If there was a league table for the hardest working bands, then Californian Southern rockers Robert Jon & The Wreck would be a permanent fixture in the Champions League positions. They tour Europe and the UK at least once a year and are continually writing songs and releasing new albums.

The Frontiers Rock Festival in Italy provided a nice opportunity for Canada’s Harem Scarem to take a quick flight across Europe for a headline show in London (amongst a handful of others that followed). In addition, the Saturday and Sunday festival openers – Seventh Crystal and Cassidy Paris – made up the rest of the triple bill.

Cardiff is the second date on this very short tour (five dates) of the UK. It is a place that Joe Bonamassa has played many times in the past and is one of the larger venues in Cardiff. Tonight that venue is filled almost to its capacity of three thousand people. This tour is billed as The Spring Tour, and unusually for his tours there is no new album currently to promote on it. I believe the new album will be released in July. As usual with any Bonamassa gig, there is no su

As my sister and I approached the venue, I began to worry that we were not going to make it to our seats for the scheduled start time of eight o’clock. The queue we were in literally snaked around buildings approaching the train station entrance; however, once it began to move, it did so very quickly.

I first heard of Henge due to the internet. (How different the world would be without it.) I cannot remember if it was via video on YouTube or just audio from some place, but I remember thinking “who, and what, is this”? I thought it was amusing and intriguing, reminding me quite a lot of the band ‘Gong’, only not as serious. They played quirky songs, but also the kind that get in your head, and when I found they were touring and playing about an hour away from home… well, I

Support this evening was something a little bit different by way of Dikajee, self-proclaimed Progressive Chamber Folk Rock. The Russian (St Petersburg) born Olja “Dikajee” Karpova tonight was accompanied by Sarah Lambert-Gates (Daughter of the Water). The duo took to the stage unobtrusively with Dikajee’s piano and Lambert-Gates’ mic-stand adorned with flowers, with the front woman immediately addressing the crowd, “We’re not Blues; however, our music is sad and miserable…”.

To dry ice flowing like a river across the stage and into the audience, The Darkness came on stage triumphantly with their first song a

Skin bounced on stage in an oversized overcoat and enormous Balenciaga bovver boots as big as her head.

I’m sure I am like many of us who go to gigs regularly. More often than not, a gig is just that, a gig… a band/artist I have seen several