Forever Young [Gig Review]

Tyketto + Bonfire + Summers

Wulfrun Hall

Wolverhampton

22.03.14

Incredibly its twenty five years since Tyketto released their first album Don’t Come Easy on Geffen Records and the ensuing single Forever Young will be forever their signature song as well as mine and many other rock fans’ mantra. To celebrate this quarter century milestone Tyketto have embarked on a five date mini-tour of the UK before heading off to the Caribbean to take part in the luxurious festival that is the Monsters of Rock Cruise.

Tonight’s venue is the Wulfrun hall in Wolverhampton, that’s the smaller stage at the back of the civic theatre but with nigh on a thousand people in for the three band line-up it makes for an electric atmosphere. First up are self styled Southampton stadium rockers Summers, formed in the late noughties by brothers Crash and Ricky Summers this five piece melodic rock band were entertaining enough but they didn’t capture my attention half so much as the array of merchandise they were selling, you could even buy a ‘Summers’ novelty condom, for goodness sake what next? Mind you at the other end of the merch stand was, shall we say less of an array of commodities, Tyketto were selling a DVD, that’s it, just a DVD, no shirts, patches or prophylactics for that matter.

Moving quickly on and special guests for this micro-tour are some of Germany’s finest sons, Bonfire have been around for a very long time and made many studio and live albums however it is with their earlier material many folk are primarily familiar. Albums like Face The Light, Fireworks, Point Blank and Knock Out released in the late ‘80’s and early ‘90’s are what this band are remembered for the most. Tonight front man Claus Lessmann seems in fine form as between singing some great rock anthems like Sweet Obsession, Never Mind and American Nights he regales us about last night’s show at AOR Hard Rock Hell in Pwllheli North Wales and how we English have many different unintelligible accents. It has to be said for a German he does speak better English than a lot of us natives. It was a bit of a nostalgia trip watching Bonfire tonight, I missed them last year when they played Rock City in Nottingham and have only vague memories of seeing them play that very same venue in 1989 so to hear these great songs from one of the unsung heroes of the ‘80’s rock scene after all this time was an awesome way to warm myself and the crowd up for the headliners.

It was about a year and a half after first seeing Bonfire that I got to go to a Tyketto gig, well actually it was a White Lion gig, Tyketto were the support band on that occasion. After a few short years in the limelight sadly they vanished into the ether like so many of their contemporaries did at that time, however lead singer and all round good egg Danny Vaughn would frequently return to play solo shows, Tyketto numbers would inevitably be included in his set.

Danny was only on the first two studio albums back in the day so when in 2012 Dig In Deep was released, his first studio album with the band for eighteen years it injected new impetus into both Tyketto and their fans. Tonight no fewer than four songs from that album are included in their set and although they didn’t get as big a reaction from the crowd as the ‘classic’ songs I’m sure this is just because of unfamiliarity and not because those numbers are not liked.

Opening with Burning Down Inside and following this up with Rescue Me, Tyketto had the Wolverhampton horde eating out of their hands right from the get-go, it was apparent straight away that something special was happening. Sadly though this ‘special happening’ was taking place without lead guitarist Brook St. James who had other obligations when these spring dates were offered to the band so deputising for him on this tour is Chris Green a more than competent stand in who sounded and looked like he’d been with Tyketto forever, the rest of the dramatis personae are Jim Kennedy (bass) Ged Rylands (keys) and Michael Clayton Arbeeny (drums).

Danny Vaughn not only sings but also plays the six and twelve string acoustic guitars as well as harmonica on occasion, he’s a bit of a wit and raconteur and his mix of American and West Country accents adds to his charm. He tells us, with great amusement from the audience, that his band members have ‘come to England from the USA to get a suntan, this was going great then we went to Wales’.

With no less than seven of the ten tracks from their first album having an airing tonight backed up with the best from their second and newest albums the ninety minutes or sow the band were on stage seemed to flash by in a blur. Loads of singing along to the songs is always encouraged and lots of dancing and jumping was the order of the day, I’m pretty sure everyone in attendance at the Wulfrun Hall went home happy and happy in the knowledge that Tyketto return. The guys of Tyketto will have a great time on the Monsters of Rock Cruise in Florida (the line-up for that is astonishing) then it will really be time to top up their tans for sure maybe in an attempt to stay Forever Young.

Check out all tonight’s bands on their websites…

Tyketto: http://www.tyketto.de/seiten/index2.htm

Danny Vaughn: http://www.dannyvaughn.com/site/

Bonfire: http://www.bonfire.de/

Summers: http://www.officialsummers.com/

GD Manofmetal.

Video by GD @ The Wulfrun Hall Wolverhampton:

Voodoo Cruz [Gig Review]

Voodoo Six + Santa Cruz + Fahran

Rock City

Nottingham

20.03.14

Filthy weather and a gridlocked Nottingham is the starting point for this evening’s night out and having made an ungainly exit from the bus (via the fire escape door, don’t ask) I’m just in time to see the first of tonight’s three band line-up playing the basement here at rock city. Voodoo Six along with their special guests from Finland, Santa Cruz are just over halfway through a ten date tour of England and Scotland by the time they hit Nottingham and Voodoo Six are pretty much heading straight off to mainland Europe after the tour is over to support rock legends UFO.

Anyway like I said the first band on tonight are the local (ish) boys Fahran, formerly known as Toxic Federation this five piece hard rock outfit have undergone several line-up changes over the years I first saw them in 2008 but only lead guitarist, Jake Graham and drummer Josh Windsor are left from those days and along with Chris Byrne (guitar) Josh Ballantyne (bass) and new boy Matt Black on vocals Fahran are a totally different prospect from way back then. I really think that they have turned a corner in their musical career, many comparisons can be made between them and Heaven’s Basement who they supported last year, both groups have undergone many changes only to come out the other side stronger and more popular than ever before. Many influences go into the style and sound of Fahran, I haven’t time to go into all that now but suffice it to say they never fail to entertain and if you don’t believe me then please go and check them out at a live show soon.

Special guests this evening are Finnish hard rock sensations Santa Cruz, initially inspired by bands such as Skid Row and Guns n’ Roses this Scandinavian four piece comprises of Archie (lead vocals/guitar) Johnny (guitar) Middy (bass) and Taz (drums). Receiving an ear impaling ovation from the throng of female fans at the front as they hit the stage, Santa Cruz are more than just big hair, good looks and glam rock poses, they have pleasing songs too. Songs like Aiming High and Restless Renegades to name but two, the appeal of the familiar works in their favour, bags of catchy riffs and sing along lyrics abound but they also have a quality to them as well. You definitely couldn’t fault these young guys for the effort they put into their thoroughly entertaining set, using the bar as a ‘catwalk’ was definitely in vogue for Archie and Johnny during their show. Not every band can reach the dizzying heights of stardom but I’m damned sure Santa Cruz are gonna give it

their best shot and they may just succeed as well.

Rock city basement only holds a few hundred people and tonight sadly it’s not full but to say it’s a Thursday night and persisting it down with rain outside I think the crowd is admirable as well as enthusiastic. Voodoo Six keep the ball rolling as they take to the stage; it’s about six years since I first saw these guys play live, supporting Baze Bayley here in Nottingham and although they’ve been around for some time 2013 was a big year for them. With the release of a new album, Songs To Invade Countries To, they also were main support on Iron Maiden’s Maiden Europe European tour which took in twenty eight shows over eighteen countries playing to an estimated 300,000 people, a cool statistic to add to your CV and no mistake.

Voodoo Six personnel consists of Luke Purdie (lead vocals) Matt Pearce (guitar) Chris Jones (guitar) Tony Newton (bass) and Joe Lazarus (drums) and although they appeal to fans of ‘classic’ rock they do have a harder edge to them, if you look at the success bands like Black Stone Cherry have been enjoying recently you can see Voodoo Six basking in that sort of adulation before too long. They have an impressive repertoire of songs and tonight they played over an hour of crowd pleasing material. I can’t finish this review without mentioning bassist Tony Newton, he is very sprightly on stage brandishing his bass guitar like a violin one minute and at others like a semi-automatic machine gun, he also plays very intricate bass lines, he told me after the show the reason for this was that he gets paid by the note, boom boom. After the gig pretty much all band members were milling about willing to chat, sign merchandise or have photos taken with the fans making this evening an enjoyable one. The Santa Cruz boys even came back to the Tap n’ Tumbler around the corner for further drinks (with the girls) oh to be young again.

Check out all three of tonight’s bands at their respective websites…

Voodoo Six: http://www.voodoosix.com/

Santa Cruz: http://www.santacruz.fi/

Fahran: http://www.fahran.com/

GD Manofmetal. 

Rock Until You Drop [YNT Videos]

Four videos from YNT the Y&T tribute band who played Rock Until You Drop @ The Salutation Nottingham on the 15th March 2014.

Rock Until You Drop is a bi-monthly 'classic' rock night held at the Salutation on Maid Marion Way Nottingham on the third Saturday of every other month. 

YNT: https://www.facebook.com/pages/YNT-Tribute-Band/627408520650179?fref=ts

RUYD: https://www.facebook.com/bud.chatwin.1?fref=ts

Knocking on Heaven’s Door [Gig Review]

Heaven’s Basement + Glamour of the Kill + The

Dirty Youth

Rescue Rooms

Nottingham

14.03.14

After travelling to pretty much all points of the compass including Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada in recent months, those lovable hard rockers Heaven’s Basement have returned to more familiar shores. It’s only the second date of their Welcome Home tour and already they’re playing to a sold out show here at the rescue rooms in Nottingham, the tour covers most of the UK in March and many countries in mainland Europe during April.

Over the last couple of years Heaven’s Basement have grown from strength to strength and with the release of their 2013 album Filthy Empire on Red Bull Records they have gathered around them an even bigger fan base than they had before.

I’ll keep the history lesson brief, I first saw the beginnings of this band a whole decade ago when they supported the mighty Queensrÿche in 2004, called Hurricane Party at the time the only member of that line-up in today’s band is drummer Chris Rivers. Moving on to the monsters of rock festival at Milton Keynes in 2006 and now going out under the moniker of Roadstar I caught up with the guys again, this show was guitarist Sid Glover’s first gig with the band so I’m reliably informed. 2008 and Roadstar become Heaven’s Basement but still many trials and tribulations befell the band until the beginning of 2011 when the current line-up of Aaron Buchanan (lead vocals) Rob Ellershaw (bass) Sid Glover (lead guitar) and Chris Rivers (drums) released the Unbreakable EP and thankfully three years later they’re finally breaking into the big time.

Nottingham has always been a happy stamping ground for Heaven’s Basement in the past (Trashstock, Wildside etc.) and tonight’s show is no exception, the enthusiastic crowd were packed into the rescue rooms to see the boys play a blistering set of old and new songs. As you might expect they opened up with Welcome Home the first track off the Filthy Empire album, a lot of the songs from that album are in the set tonight but I’m glad Heaven’s Basement haven’t forgot their older material. Lead guitarist Sid sings his now trademark song Paranoia about halfway though the show and the band finish off with a couple of old favourites, Reign on My Parade and Executioners Day as well as an encore of Jumping Jack Flash just for the hell of it.

It’s been about a year since I last saw Heaven’s Basement, this band have grown into a top act with stage antics by belt and braces front man Aaron Buchanan always making an impact, tonight he walked out onto the audience's hands and clambered up onto the balcony before later in the set, crowd surfing on his back whilst still singing, I remember seeing him at the High Voltage festival in London 2011 making a similar move, always impressive.

I would say tonight’s audience were bordering on 50% male to female ratio and as you probably know for rock bands this is unusual, I’m guessing both Heaven’s Basement and the main support band tonight, Glamour of the Kill are responsible for this statistic, to say they were eye candy for the girls would be a little rude so I’m not gonna say it (Oooops).

And so onto Glamour of the Kill and they’re a band I’ve not seen before, made in Yorkshire this four piece band more than held my attention for their entire set. Heavier than the headliners GOTK play slick heavy metal with very powerful double kick drum beats and a full guitar sound and although there was some ‘growly’ vocals on the whole you could hear the lyrics as being sung by front man/bassist Davey Richmond who is ably acompanied by Chris Gomerson (guitar/vocals) Mike Kingswood (lead guitar/vocals) and Ben Thomson (drums/vocals) I would go and see these guys again they seem like they’re going to be around for a long while yet.

Tonight’s show was opened by Welsh rockers The Dirty Youth, I saw them a couple of years back but sadly tonight with the show being sold out the delay between opening the doors and the first band coming on stage is very marginal for everyone to get into the venue in time to see the first band. Why it takes so long to get everyone through the doors I do not know, the queue meandered around the block so by the time I got in I only saw the last two songs of their performance. However on a more positive note the lead singer of The Dirty Youth Danni Monroe assured me they would be embarking on a headlining tour of their own later in the year so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for that.

Below: GD Manofmetal & Danni Monroe.

Check out all of tonight’s bands on their websites…

Heaven’s Basement: http://heavensbasement.com/filthyempire/

Glamour of the Kill: https://www.facebook.com/glamourofthekill

The Dirty Youth: http://www.thedirtyyouth.co.uk/

GD Manofmetal.

Videos From The Rescue Rooms By GD Manofmetal:

Discworld 2014 [Eximius Humanus]

Morpheus Rising - Eximius Humanus [CD Review]

Melodic Revolution Records

Released: February 2014

Formed in 2008 Morpheus Rising are a five piece rock/metal band based in York and although  they released their debut album Let The Sleeper Awake in 2011, I have to confess they didn’t come to my attention until last year when Ex Saxon & ODS drummer Nigel Durham joined the band. Now a couple of years on from that debut CD and the band have another album out on Melodic Revolution Records titled Eximius Humanus which they launched in February at the Robin 2 Bilston.

Heavily inspired by the NWOBHM genre Morpheus Rising (MR) also combine many other influences in their music, the new album is ten tracks of heavy metal for the twenty-first century but there’s also a progressive sound to some of the songs on Eximius Humanus reminiscent of prog metal bands like Queensrÿche for example.

Track one; Super Human is really only an intro to track two, Looking For Life, the latter with it’s sci-fi concept of searching for a new earth combining with the formers search for the superman we all hope lurks within us all and while track one is an electronic jingling build up, an overture if you will to track two which sounds more typical of MR, all powerful riffs and durable drum beats.

All ten songs have been written by Pete Harwood (guitar) and Si Wright (lead vocals) and the rest of MR’s line up is Damien Sweeting (guitar) Andy Smith (bass) and the aforementioned Nigel Durham (drums) together they’ve produced a commanding, well crafter album that almost seems like a concept album so significant are the lyrics, no insipid love songs or brash battle metal anthems will ye find here.

Day Number One is the third track, a song about getting back to the beginning, starting again, renewing our view of the world, it’s a melodic number with lots of harmonising backing vocals. Mega City One comes next and is one of the best songs on the album, you’ll know all about this distopian vision of the future if you’ve ever read a Judge Dredd comic book. Musically Mega City One has catchy riffs, blistering guitar breaks and a sing along chorus; it leads directly into Fly Higher an uplifting tune about achieving great things, lyrically a complete antithesis to the previous number.

Tracks six, seven and eight are all weighty hard rock songs with tantalising guitar riffs and lead breaks. Eximius Humanus’ penultimate song, Touch The Sky is slower in tempo, it’s a kind of superpower ballad and for all it’s popular familiarly the lyrics don’t dumb down any “Ectopic beats born through anxiety, My heart skips another beat and I’m far away, into the blackening blue, I dream I’m flying with you, higher and higher we climb, I never want to Wake” is the opening verse, weighty stuff I’m sure you’ll agree.

The album concludes with the excellent Superpower and we’re pretty much back to where we started, as I said earlier this isn’t a concept album but many of the underlying themes of the individual songs imbue the listener with a sense of the familiar. An overall anticipation of achievement coupled with the fear of disaster pervade throughout every song on Eximius Humanus in short an album packed with thought provoking lyrics, backed up with exemplary tuneful heavy metal music.

Get your copy of Eximius Humanus on Morpheus Rising’s website:

http://www.morpheusrising.co.uk/

GD Manofmetal. 

Nine Men in Black [Gig Review]

JD & The FDCs [FDCs] + The Idol Dead [TID]

Tap N’ Tumbler [TNT]

Nottingham

27.02.14

This week I’m off to see two bands that I’ve not only seen many times before but two bands I’ve already seen this year. JD & The FDCs and The Idol Dead are playing the Tap N’ Tumbler in Nottingham on the last Thursday in February and I for one am not gonna miss this show. Back in the middle of January I caught up with them both at the twelve band extravaganza that was Martin Short’s sixtieth birthday bash at the Maze. Tonight however they will both get a longer set than they did that night, the FDCs are headlining so it’s the turn of some of Yorkshires finest sons in the form of The Idol Dead to play first.

With bottled water and towels in place on stage courtesy of Craig the land lord (all it needed was some Robertson’s barley water and you’d have thought we were at Wimbledon) and its show time. Opening up with the brilliantly fast paced Buckle N’ Howl (note to self: video this next time) TID immediately invigorate the crowd with chant along lines like ‘hell yeah!’ and fuck yeah!’ this is a great song to open with. The Leeds based band’s personnel are Polly Phluid (lead vocals) Tim (lead guitar) KC Duggan (lead guitar) Suggy (bass) and Nish (drums)looking resplendent as they do in their black shirts and lime green ties. TID play post punk hard rock (a cliché I know) but then again fulfilling clichés are one of the bands ambitions apparently. Although all the members of TID give it 100% on stage a special mention has to be made about the over excited antics of KC on guitar and Polly’s St Vitas dance like movements they both draw the eye. The poignant song Travelling Man is one of the highlights of their set for me but the only draw back is they only played half a dozen songs or so; a few more would not have gone a miss. I.D.O.L is the final song it’s a rip roaring sing along number with mucho contributions from the audience as a microphone wielding Polly Phluid weaves his way in and out of the masses. Both bands tonight have an array of merchandise on sale but I have to mention TID’s green and black ‘punky’ teddy bears, you wouldn’t give one to a small child in case they had nightmares. 

If you was wondering why this review is titled Nine Men in Black then wonder no longer, when the FDCs take to the stage they always wear black shirts with white armbands sporting the legend FDCs so tonight we’ve seen nine similarly clad band members on the TNT stage (like nine back riders in the lord of the rings) ok well not really like that but it’s what ran through my weird imagination at the time. Opening up with Ujpest Dozsa an upbeat song that’s become a staple of the FDCs set it’s swiftly followed by This Ship is Going Down, the crowd are ‘up for it’ as JD leads his band of merry men through an unfamiliar set which contains three brand new songs even I’ve never heard before. For those of you reading this who aren’t familiar with the FDCs they are Jamie ‘JD’ Delerict (lead vocals/guitar) Dazmondo (lead guitar/vocals) Joey Strange (bass/vocals) and Danny Gunn (lead drums) this band seem to be constantly on the road and have reached a wide audience over the last four years or so that they’ve been together. Although front man JD was struggling a bit with a bad throat the new stuff came across well and the man flu didn’t effect his sardonic banter with the crowd and with his fellow band members, I think Dazmondo has been ‘sacked’ at just about every gig they’ve played. The penultimate number of the FDCs set is the now anthemic Burn This City Down, with audience participation at maximum it would be easy to finish on this one, however no FDCs gig would be complete without the trademark Stupid Music Played by Idiots (whimsically dedicated to The Idol Dead) another crowd participation song, many of the audience shying away from JD as he pounces on unsuspecting victims to sing along. In fact the FDCs are a band that get the crowd joining in all the time, from ‘Slade thumbs’ to constant shouts of YES! A word written on the back of Daz’s guitar lest we forget it. They’re a band that you either ‘get’ or you don’t get, it makes no difference to Jamie he is a man driven by the force of rock n’ roll and I think he’s never gonna stop. 

If you were at this gig tonight you will have witnessed two groups who express the real meaning of what live rock music is all about, I also know many like them that give so much of their valuable time to the cause for very little financial reward. I’d better get off my soap box now before I get started on about bands with no more talent than these guys who manage somehow to get away with charging exorbitant amounts of money to go see them in an arena… Never… Gonna… Stop!

Find both tonight’s bands on their websites…

JD & The FDCs: http://www.jdandthefdcs.com/

The Idol Dead: http://theidoldead.com/

GD Manofmetal.

Both videos bellow shot @ The Tap N' Tumbler Nottingham by GD: