Wednesday 31st October
Thanks as usual to Mr Dave Lewis for sending
a copy of the latest issue of his ever-excellent Zeppelin
magazine, Tight
But Loose. No.#33 turns the spotlight on the year
1972 and offers a handy transcript of the band’s
recent London press conference to promote the long awaited
live release ‘Celebration Day’. Cheers also
to Alan Byrne for his newest book on Philip Lynott, Renegade
Of Thin Lizzy. At the moment I’m wading through
a hardback edition of Steven Tyler’s Does The Noise
In My Head Bother You? (purchased for the princely sum
of £3 at Fopp a few weeks ago), but Byrne’s
tome is next on the agenda.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Tuesday 30th October
I love Julian Speroni. That’s in a manly
way, obviously. Crystal Palace’s Buenos Aires-born
goalie has now played more than 250 goals for the club
since joining in 2004 and is often named Player Of The
Year. He’s also a huge fan of rock music –
check out this great photograph.
Speroni was recently asked about the unexpected departure
of CPFC boss Dougie Freedman, and can only be applauded
for the candour of his reply: “I could be political
and say that it’s just football and that these things
happen, but to be completely honest, [when I heard the
news] I felt like someone had kicked me right in the testicles.”
I know the feeling, Jules…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 29th October
With the new issue of Classic Rock Presents AOR
going into production (it hits the stands on December
6), much of the coming week will be spent transcribing
previously conducted interviews. Meanwhile, still in a
melodic rock vein, my friend Andy Nathan has posted a
rather good review of the recent Firefest weekend. Read
it here.
My Sunday lunchtime was occupied by a phone interview
with Andy Cairns of the band Therapy? Before making the
call I stuck on the ‘Troublegum’ album, on
green vinyl. I had almost forgotten why it was such an
important record... That opening couplet: “I’m
gonna get drunk/Come round and f**k you up” is still
pretty hard to beat. Cairns is a top fella. I had to smile
at his greeting of: “Congratulations on Crystal
Palace’s victory at Leicester. You must be very
happy?”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 28th October
There were a nervy last few mins as manager-less
Crystal Palace hang on to beat league leaders Leicester
City by two goals to one in their own back yard. Those
lucky wine gums certainly seemed to do the trick! That’s
10 games undefeated and the Eagles are now just one point
from an automatic promotion spot!
Still buzzing from the victory I dashed off for a few
pints with Mr Beare at Shinedown’s Brixton Academy
gig. The Floridian band’s newie, ‘Amaryllis’,
is among my fave releases of 2012, so this was a show
I’d been looking forward to for quite a while. Apart
from the fact that we were rushed nine pounds and ten
pence for two ciders (we demanded to pay double!!), all
I recall about the show is that it featured lots and lots
of pyro, also that the music was embellished by backing
tapes, but only for intros and general colouring purposes.
Luckily, frontman Brent Smith had cut down on his between-song
banter, though many of the things he *did* say seemed
to have been lifted from a tacky greetings card. However,
the consistency of the group’s songs is quite remarkable,
and I swooned along to an encore that included the exquisite
‘Second Chance’, safe in the knowledge that
Shinedown are only set to become bigger and bigger. Here’s
the set-list: ‘Sound Of Madness’, ‘Diamond
Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)’, ‘Enemies’,
‘The Crow & The Butterfly’, ‘If
You Only Knew’, ‘Fly From the Inside’,
‘Amaryllis’, ‘I’ll Follow You’,
‘Unity’ and ‘.45’, followed by
‘Devour’, a cover of Skynyrd’s ‘Simple
Man’, ‘Second Chance’ and ‘Bully’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Saturday 27th October
Although I’m very partial to a bit of Jettblack
I must put hand on heart and fess up that the High Wycombe
group’s second album, ‘Raining Rock’,
hasn’t grown on me in quite the same manner as their
2010 debut ‘Get Your Hands Dirty’. In fact,
for a while I was slightly worried that Jettblack would
have been usurped by their opening act Night By Night
at last night’s gig at the Underworld in Camden.
Night By Night have come on in leaps and bounds over the
last few months. Blessed with impeccable vocal harmonies
and a confident swagger the five-piece are developing
the presentation skills to match the potential of material
such as ‘Holding On’, ‘It’s Not
Faith’, ‘Can’t Walk Away’ and
the riff-heavy video song ‘Time To Escape’.
However, there was no cause for alarm. The venue filled
up nicely as our libido-charged headliners prepared to
hit the stage for what was to prove a fairly short set.
Though I’m starting to harbour one or two doubts
about Jettblack’s star potential there’s no
denying that the quartet had the audience exactly where
they wanted them, digging up most of their best tunes
from the debut (‘Get Your Hands Dirty’, ‘Slip
It On’, ‘Not Even Love’, ‘When
It Comes To Lovin’’, ‘Fooled By A Rose’
and ‘Two Hot Girls’) and its slightly hit-and-miss
follow-up (‘Temptation’, ‘Less Torque,
More Thrust’, ‘Sunshine’, ‘In-Between
Lovers’, ‘The Sweet And The Brave’,
‘Prison Of Love’ and ‘Raining Rock’).
However, had they played for much longer than an hour
the note of triumph may not have been anywhere near as
emphatic.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Friday 26th October
A few quick-fire spins of ‘Never Too Late’,
the new album from Survivor’s Jimi Jamison, left
me reeling (and smiling like a loon) ahead of last night’s
phone interview. Released via Frontiers on November 2,
there’s not a bad song on it. Its producer/main
songwriter Erik Mårtensson of W.E.T./Eclipse fame
is a modern day melodic rock genius. The chat with Jamison
was great; he’s a lovely bloke who laughs at his
own jokes a lot. It’s contagious.
Still in a melodic vein, I’m enjoying the Rock Candy
re-master of Teri DeSario’s ‘Caught’.
It’s a record that I’ve owned on vinyl for
many, many but I’d forgotten the full scale of its
magnificence. The same package from Rock Candy also contained
re-mastered versions of the first three albums from seminal
US pomp-rockers Angel, namely ‘Angel’, ‘Helluva
Band’ and ‘On Earth As It Is In Heaven’.
They sound brilliant and the sleeve essays from my buddy
Dave Reynolds are splendid…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thursday 25th October
Last night I visited the Underworld in Camden
to take a look at Knock
Out Kaine, a young band from Nottingham that a reviewer
from Finland recently called: “A bastard child of
Guns N’ Roses and Mötley Crüe.”
Their debut album, ‘House Of Sins’, has become
a bit of a favourite here at Ling Towers and I’m
pleased to report that its contents translate well onto
the stage. As part of a three-band bill that had attracted
a measly 15 people, I felt a little sorry for the quartet
but frontman Dean Foxx took the mickey out of the situation
by referring to the audience as “Wembley”
and KOK refused to let it bring them down. Given that
they had only 30 minutes, it was kinda surprising that
their six-song set included two covers – a rousing
hair-metal rendition of Queen’s ‘We Will Rock
You’ that kicked off the show, and an even more
unexpected re-make of ‘Copperhead Road’ by
Steve Earle – whilst omitting ‘House Of Sins’
and ‘Liquor Up’, the best two songs from the
album. (For the record, the originals they *did* play
were ‘Skinstar’, ‘Set The Night On Fire’,
‘Time’ and the ballad ‘Coming Home’).
The band has some gig with Status Quo coming up, which
should give their profile a welcome and deserved boost.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wednesday 24th October
So the rumours are actually true: Dougie Freedman
has left Palace to manage Bolton Wanderers. I have just
one question: Why? I just don’t get it. Freedman
is a living legend at Selhurst and under his stewardship
the club was really starting to go places. Anyway, caretaker
bosses Lenny Lawrence and Curtis Fleming did a good job
of steadying the ship as the Eagles returned to London
with a point from last night’s game at Barnsley.
It took an inspired curler from David Perkins to restore
parity five minutes from time after Glenn Murray had given
CPFC a lead which by all accounts they looked like holding
onto. Darn it, but a run of nine games unbeaten is still
bloody impressive.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Tuesday 23rd October
I’m home from a wonderful weekend at the
Firefest. There was just enough time to put down my overnight
bag before heading off to Leicester Square to meet my
friends Steve Hammonds and Andy Sneap for the red carpet
premiere of Alan G Parker’s Hello Quo! movie.
I already knew the film was great thanks to a secret preview,
but during the Q&A that followed there was an interesting
run-in with Paul Gambaccini. After a poor interview with
the current members of the band, during which he referred
to Andy Priest (sic) of The Sweet, Gambaccini threw the
floor open to questions. The response was pretty dismal,
to say the least. But when I stuck up my hand, intending
to ask Francis and Rick to recall their emotions as they
met Lancaster and Coghlan in the car park at Shepperton,
also to quiz director Parker about any outtakes from the
Frantic Four reunion that might be on the DVD edition,
the room let out a gasp of shock as the MC said: “Okay,
we'll take a question from the guy that looks like Jimmy
Savile.”
Am very happy to say that I refused to take the bait and
sat back down again, flicking the Vs and refusing to engage
with the stunned host, who only proceeded to dig himself
in deeper into the mire. Still in disbelief of what had
just happened Mr Sneap and I headed back to the Crobar.
This morning I’m still slightly stunned. Thanks
to all of those that texted, sent messages of support
or even called (especially in the case of Simon Porter,
Quo’s manager, who wanted to apologise on behalf
of the band) after I mentioned it on my Facebook page.
Gambaccini has just conducted a radio interview in which
he claimed to have known what Savile was up to, and has
been quoted as suggesting
– without evidence!! – that he was a necrophiliac.
What a repulsive, conceited, attention-seeker. When the
Beeb’s internal housekeeping mission is done ‘n’
dusted, he’d better be squeaky clean…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 22nd October
Yesterday was the final day of Firefest. I spent
it most productively: Some additional tape transcription,
brunch with my old pal Dave Reynolds and his other ’arf
Andrea, followed by a most pleasant interview with Mitch
Malloy. With the ‘London contingent’ –
Malcolm Dome, Jerry Ewing, John Dryland and Lauren Archer
– around and in thirsty mood and a catch-up drink
with Dan Tobin from Earache arranged, I didn’t see
as much of the show as during the two previous days.
In fact, I didn’t make it into the hall till just
before the UK debut from FIONA (7). Miss
Flanagan was working with the same band that had shared
the stage with Robin Beck, plus a male backing vocalist.
After recovering from a slight bout of nervousness she
seemed to enjoy herself a great deal, giggling contagiously
whilst introducing ‘Hearts Of Fire’, which
had appeared in the movie of the same name (“I hope
you were drunk when you watched it”). Highlight
of her 40-minute set was ‘Treat Me Right’
from 1992’s ‘Squeeze’ album, and she
exited to a reworking of the Pat Benatar-popularised ‘Shadows
Of The Night’ from last year’s indecently
fine comeback opus, ‘Unbroken’.
There was no way on God’s green earth that I’d
be caught dead watching a band with the word Br***ton
in its name (only kidding Br***ton Rock fans!!), but alcoholic
refreshment was a-calling me. Joining the Crobar crowd
in an adjacent boozer, tales of the previous night’s
sambuca-soaked drunkenness abounded. Malcolm Dome’s
conversation with a fruit machine is pretty hard to top.
I kid you not.
Things were threatening to get out of control all over
again so I wandered back into Rock City for the excellent
LILLIAN AXE (8). Wow… what a great set.
With ‘All’s Fair In Love And War’ and
‘Show A Little Love’, the latter among the
best songs that Def Leppard never wrote, the New Orleans-based
veterans achieved a near flawless blend of muscle and
melody. I loved them! Much as I’d liked to have
seen the Stage Dolls, a long night was on the cards and
food began to seem increasingly important.
With guitar hero Andy Timmons long gone (replaced these
days by the soaring exploits of Rob Marcello) and the
much loved Ted Poley once again occupying the microphone,
DANGER DANGER (9) pounded the shots and
cranked up the riffs, turning in a gloriously dumb, drunken
and decidedly flashy display to close Firefest 2012. With
a little less chatter and procrastination they’d
have been just as perfect as the front of house sound,
mixed by HammerFall’s Pontus Norgren. Poley ventured
out into crowd to perform the outrageously Leppard-like
‘Don’t Walk Away’, and the quintet were
joined by Mitch Malloy and various musician friends, plus
members of the FF crew (was that really Kieran in a monkey
suit??), during a chaotic yet triumphant two-song encore
that must have lasted for about 25 minutes. Here’s
the set-list: ‘Rock America’, ‘Beat
The Bullet’, ‘Shot O’ Love’, ‘Killin’
Love’, ‘Don’t Walk Away’, ‘Don’t
Blame It On Love’, ‘Hearts On The Highway’,
‘Feels Like Love’, ‘Bang Bang’,
‘I Still Think About You’ and ‘Crazy
Nites’, followed by ‘Monkey Business’
and ‘Naughty Naughty’.
If you’ve never experienced a Firefest weekend then
it’s hard to explain the feeling of camaraderie
that’s involved. Do yourself a favour and get along
to next year’s tenth anniversary event.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 21st October
I arrived back at Rock City in time for the second
band of the day, having spent the morning locked into
interview transcript mode. Down in London Crystal Palace
had gone 2-0 up in their local derby with Scumwall, then
been reduced to ten men as the visitors converted a penalty
before the game finished 2-2. It’s a tribute to
the excellence of WORK OF ART (9) that
I was able to put the beautiful game out of my mind for
40 mins. Kicking off with one of the weekend’s most
exquisite tunes, a pants-wettingly brilliant version of
‘Here Comes The Rain’, the aptly-named Swedes
delivered a hi-tech barrage of Scandi-AOR. ‘The
Great Fall’ was nothing less than momentous and
‘Carmelia’, which sounded like an outtake
from ‘Isolation’, reminded us why the group
once jokingly listed their influences as “Toto,
Toto and Toto”.
Making her long-awaited UK debut, and backed by a backing
band that included Tommy Denander on guitar and her hubbie
House Of Lords frontman James Christian on bass, ROBIN
BECK (8) was far, far better than I’d expected
and/or hoped. ‘If You Were A Woman And I Was A Man',
‘Save Up All Your Tears’ and ‘Tears
In The Rain’ were just immense. She probably should’ve
finished with her biggest hit, ‘First Time’,
instead of an unreleased song from her next album but…
hey ho, great set.
It’s hard to believe that I last saw Canadian trio
SANTERS (7) at Hammersmith Odeon three
decades ago, supporting Magnum. Their presence at Firefest
represented a brave gamble by the organisers though the
group's keyboard-less, chunky hard rock was a little misplaced.
There were quite a few nice moments – ‘Mistreatin’
Heart’, ‘Time After Time’, 'Dreamin',
‘You Turn Me On’, ‘Can’t Shake
You’ and ‘Road To Morocco’, for instance
– but I could have done without drum solo and cover
of ‘All Right Now’ (“See if you recognise
this one” indeed…). A case of good band, wrong
festival.
I nipped out for a quick nosebag break during XYZ, who
were going down a storm upon my return. It’s hard
not to like MITCH MALLOY (8), who was
joined by Danger Danger bassist Bruno Ravel during a well
deserved encore of ‘Shine’. Like a thoroughbred
racehorse Malloy has great teeth and hair, and his disarming
smile is as effective as the likes of ‘Anything
At All’, ‘Mission Of Love’, ‘Stranded
In The Middle Of Nowhere’ et al.
Thanks to the Swiss group’s much maligned comeback
opus, ‘Firebirth’ (their first with new singer
Nic Maeder), I approached GOTTHARD (9) with
a great deal of apprehension. This turned out to be unnecessary.
Maeder has a strong voice that’s quite different
to the late, great Steve Lee, and with the benefit of
the weekend’s best front-of-house-sound, Gotthard’s
new songs translated surprisingly well onto the stage.
Prefacing the excellent ‘One Life, One Soul’
with the words “Sing this one for Steve” Maeder’s
performance brought up goosebumps, and the whole place
bounced along joyously to ‘Lift U Up’. Steve
Lee may be gone but the spirit of Gotthard remains. Here’s
what they played: ‘Dream On’, ‘Gone
Too Far’, ‘Starlight’, ‘Top Of
The World’, ‘Remember It’s Me’,
‘Sister Moon’, ‘Fight’, ‘Hush’,
‘One Life, One Soul’, ‘Shine’,
‘The Story’s Over’, ‘Fist In Your
Face’, ‘Gimme Real’, ‘Mountain
Mama’, ‘Right On’ and ‘Lift U
Up’, followed by ‘Master Of Illusion’
and ‘Anytime Anywhere’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Saturday 20th October
After a nice, leisurely journey to Nottingham
I arrived in plenty of time to check into my room and
freshen up before the first band of Firefest weekend.
With Rock City sold out in advance for the first time
in the show’s history, the vibe inside the hall
was great and the addition of video screens came as a
most welcome enhancement.
Although the guitars could have been a touch louder in
the mix from my vantage point in the balcony, a half-hour
spot from Italy’s LIONVILLE (8) got
the event off to a flying start, thanks to the excellent
vocals of Work Of Art loanee Lars Säfsund and some
quality songs such as ‘Here By My Side’, ‘Power
Of My Dreams’, the shimmering ballad ‘The
World Without Your Love’ (co-penned by Richard Marx),
also a preview of the new album II which I think was titled
‘All We Need’.
The best thing about not having to work this year was
being able to duck out for a relaxed pint of Old Rosie
(7.1 per cent) when the mood took me, such as before the
arrival of TEN (7). The guitars and keys
suddenly sounded great but to these ears the vocals of
a slightly well-fed-looking Gary Hughes needed considerably
more welly. No such qualms with the set-list, though,
which offered songs old (‘After The Love Has Gone’,
‘Ten Fathoms Deep’, ‘The Name Of The
Rose’ and the ‘Still Of The Night’-esque
‘Spellbound’) and selections from the group’s
excellent new record, ‘Heresy And Creed’ (‘The
Lights Go Down’, ‘Gunrunning’ and ‘Unbelievable’).
Headliners TYKETTO (10) knew what they
had to do, and by golly they did it. Blessed with a crystal
clear sound they threw in the occasional song from the
current album ‘Dig In Deep’ but chose mainly
to concentrate on the classics. The audience's singalong
during an encore of the unofficial Firefest national album,
‘Forever Young’, was just incredible to behold.
Here’s their set-list: ‘Strength In Numbers’,
‘Faithless’, ‘Burning Down Inside’,
‘Lay Your Body Down’, ‘Here’s
Hoping It Hurts’, ‘Catch My Fall’, ‘Sail
Away’, ‘Standing Alone’, ‘Rescue
Me’, ‘Meet Me In The Night’, ‘The
Fight Left In Me’ and ‘Wings To Fly’,
followed by the aforementioned ‘Forever Young’.
After a performance that seemed to roar ‘FOLLOW
THAT!’ it was time to wet the whistle. You won’t
believe this but when fellow scribe Rob Evans and I headed
to the bar of the Welbeck Hotel for “one drink;
just to see who might be around”, I had no idea
I’d be leaving when it closed at 3.30am. Honestly!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Friday 19th October
Okay... 6am run completed. Black pudding sandwiches
are made. My final Classic Rock news stories have been
emailed. In a while I shall be off to the Firefest. Besides
a weekend away from the insanity of Ling Towers, I am
especially looking forward to seeing Danger Danger, Tyketto,
Work Of Art, Ten, Fiona Flanagan, Mitch Malloy, Santers,
Lionville, Stage Dolls and Lillian Axe. Look out Nottingham
Rock City, here I come!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thursday 18th October
My phone interview with melodic rock songwriter
extraordinaire Erik Mårtensson was a lot of fun.
When I asked about his growing reputation as the ‘go-to’
guy of AOR, Mårtensson (who has written albums for
the likes of Jimi Jamison and Toby Hitchcock) likened
his craft to that of a proficient builder. The quote isn’t
exact, but he said something along the lines of: “It’s
like if I built kitchens for a living… if you do
a good job then you get recommended to others that want
their kitchens done, too!”
Before heading off to the Borderline again I watched England’s
rearranged game with Poland. A 1-1 draw seemed a fair
result and the point could come in handy in the reckoning
hour of final qualification.
I had decided to check out California-born, Nashville-based
singer and harmonica player Stacie Collins on the recommendation
of my pal Andy Beare. Visually speaking, Collins, who
has been produced by Dan Baird of Georgia Satellites fame,
reminded me of a less curvy though equally flirtatious
version of ex-Emmerdale minx Kelly Windsor. She’s
a great harp player and for the most part I really enjoyed
her set. The problem is her tendency to lapse into Yee-Haw
territory with songs such as ‘Rambling’, a
ghastly country-meets-rockabilly abortion’, or a
rendition of Gram Parsons’ ‘Ooh Las Vegas’.
But when she was good… kicking ass with the likes
of ‘Baby Sister, ‘I Won’t Do Way Like
That’ or her swansong of AC/DC’s It’s
A Long way To The Top… Christ, she was pretty damned
wonderful.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wednesday 17th October
The least said about the postponement of Poland-England
the better. What a washout!
Last night was spent at the Borderline watching ex-Mama’s
Boys guitarist Pat McManus, one of the most likable men
in rock music. I’ll be honest, this being Pat’s
solo debut in central London and with Richie Somewhatboring
playing at Shepherd’s Bush Empire and Joanne Shaw
Taylor just a few blocks away, the attendance might have
been appalling. In fact, the turnout was rather respectable.
As part of a tight, punchy three-piece unit, McManus displayed
true class. Okay, his voice is a bit of an acquired taste
but there’s little doubt that hiring a bona fide
lead singer would sacrifice vital charisma in the music.
From ‘Short Sharp Shock’ to ‘Same Old
Story’, ‘Got The Right’ and the boogie-tastic
‘Dogging Me Around’, his solo material is
consistently strong, and those tributes to Rory Gallagher
(‘Return Of The G man’) and Gary Moore (‘Belfast
Boy’) were unmistakably heartfelt. In terms of Mama’s
Boys tunes, the inclusion of the sensitive instrumental
piece ‘Last Thing At Night’ was a thrill,
as was the dedication to yours truly and fellow scribes
Neil Jeffries and Geoff Banks that preceded ‘Runaway
Dreams’, complete with fiddle solo. The show finished
with ‘Needle In The Groove’ and an appropriate
cover of ZZ Top’s ‘La Grange’. Great
stuff.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Tuesday 16th October
Classic Rock is once again on monthly production
deadline which is always a pretty stressful time. My evening
began pleasantly enough, however, with a phone interview
with Steve Overland of FM. Top bloke is our Stiv. He always
makes me laugh.
I’ve been listening to the new four-song EP from
Hand Of Dimes, a brand new five-piece featuring Neville
MacDonald of Skin and the singer’s former Kooga
band-mate, Neil Garland on keys. It’s great, hook-laden
stuff. ‘Haywire Riot’, the new album from
Skinny Molly, has also been on heavy rotation here at
Ling Towers. I’ve had my differences with Mike Estes
in the past, primarily over SM’s onstage reliance
upon Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes, but his new material is absolutely
cracking!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 15th October
My Sunday was spent penning some notes for the
programme of the Hard Rock hell Festival – enjoyable
stuff.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 14th October
Thanks to some assistance from a Minidisc recording
of Styx at Wembley Arena yesterday’s10k run was
completed in 53 minutes – more than a minute inside
my personal best! I finished second overall. I’ve
never won anything at sport before so it was nice to take
home a shiny medal. I’ve just signed up for another
six-week running course... hope to push on and do a half-marathon
in the not too distant future.
With no game for the mighty Eagles due to the international
break I met up with Monsewer Beare for quite a few liveners
before Y&T’s gig at the Garage. I was determined
to catch a bit of their support act The Jokers, but as
I entered the venue their guitarist was engaged in an
Angus Young-style walkabout on the shoulders of a roadie
which turned out to be the final song of the night bar
a rather inconsequential encore cover of Zep’s ‘Communication
Breakdown’. Bah!
Despite the Garage’s 10pm curfew forcing them to
play a slightly shorter display than usual (only two hours
and ten minutes this time!), Y&T were simply stunning.
I was especially pleased by the return of the first album
classic ‘25 Hours A Day’, and Jeff Scott Soto
sent the place wilder than ever with his now habitual
guest spot on set-closer ‘Forever’. The full
song-list ran as follows: ‘Black Tiger’, ‘Hard
Times’, ‘Dirty Girl’, ‘Rock ‘N’
Roll’s Gonna Save The World’, ‘Meanstreak’,
‘Rhythm Or Not’, a rearranged ‘Midnight
In Tokyo’, ‘Shine On’, ‘Blind
Patriot’, ‘Winds Of Change’, ‘25
Hours A Day’, ‘I'm Coming Home’, ‘I’ll
Cry’, ‘Hurricane’, Drum Solo, ‘Gimme
The Beat’, ‘Squeeze’, ‘I Believe
In You’, ‘Forever’ and a encore of ‘Rescue
Me’.
Having realised that further liquid refreshment was required
Mr Beare and I ran into JSS and his manager Andy down
the road in Big Red. A few more bevvies were consumed
and a mighty fine time was had by all.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Saturday 13th October
England’s World Cup qualifying victory
over a San Marino side that hadn’t scored an international
goal in four years was a bit of a foregone conclusion.
The visitors now have an unenviable record that reads:
P111 W1 D1 L109. Indeed, commentator Clive Tyldesley pointed
out that you’d have got shorter odds on a sighting
of the Loch Ness Monster than San Marino triumphing at
Wembley (TRUE!). The ITV panel were predicting a victory
by eight, nine or even ten goals, with former CPFC star
Gareth Southgate the lone voice of reason with his insistence:
“Let’s get the game won first before worrying
how many we might score.” In the end, despite hogging
86 per cent of possession against a team of semi-professional
players, it took England 34 mins to get off the mark –
with a penalty! Truly unbelievable. The final score of
5-0 was just about acceptable, I suppose, but the performance
desperately lacked spark and guile.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Friday 12th October
I’ve been off sick with a cold so awful
that I actually lost hearing in one ear. Back to work
at last... Think I’ll kick things off with a bit
of Gentle Giant to start the day, followed by some tape
transcription.
Anyone that knows me will be aware that I never encourage
nationalistic stereotypes (not much... ahem!) but I just
called Matti Alfonzetti, the singer of the excellent Swedish
band Impera (he’s also a member of Red White &
Blues, of course) for a pre-arranged phone interview and
he chuckled: “You’ll never guess when I am...
IKEA!”
Oooh look: Crystal Palace boss Dougie Freedman has been
named the Championship’s Manager of the Month for
September. CPFC striker Glenn Murray has also been named
Player of the Month. Niiiiiiice. Don’t worry Scumwall
fans, Kenny Jackett has been voted Plum of the Month,
also coming top in the ‘most likely to be relegated’
category.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wednesday 10th October
A chunk of the past few days was filled by phone
interviews with vocalist Ashley Holt, bassist Roger Newell
and drummer Barney James – all members of the group
that recorded Rick Wakeman’s Jules Verne-inspired
1974 coffee table masterpiece, ‘Journey To The Centre
Of The Earth’. The tale of their recruitment is
a cracking yarn. Wakeman’s management was insistent
that the keysman should engage the likes of Clapton or
Blackmore to form an all-star group to back him on the
project, eventually recorded live at Royal Festival Hall
with the London Symphony Orchestra and the English Chamber
Choir, but Rick being Rick dug in his heels to use a relatively
insalubrious group of muso friends that he’d been
jamming with at a pub called the Valiant Trooper. 14 million
sales of the album later, you might say that Wakeman had
the last laugh…
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 8th October
With Overkill playing not too far away at the
Islington Academy, the crowd at Voivod’s gig was
somewhat sparse… certainly at the start. Wouldn’t
it have made more sense to have put both acts on the same
bill?
Annoyingly, the show began 40 mins earlier than I’d
been told, and Serpent Venom were already two songs into
their set by the time I bowled up at the Garage. The schedule
switch was infuriating as the London-based Doom veterans
are colossally heavy, and I’d never seen them before.
Oh well… another time.
Semi-legendary Brummie-based grindcore crust merchants
Doom were celebrating their 25th anniversary after a reunion
two years ago, tearing through twenty songs in 45 corrosive
minutes. The likes of ‘Police Bastard’, ‘Pro-Life
Control’ and ‘Antisocial’ have lost
little of their political bite, and I really enjoyed them.
However, the night belonged to Voivod, whose awesome 90-minute
set introduced three extremely promising songs (‘Target
Earth’, ‘Mechanical Mind’ and ‘Kluskap
O’kom’) from their forthcoming 13th studio
album, ‘Target Earth’, due in January. The
experiment of adding Jason Newsted to their line-up now
long behind them, the French Canadians once again feature
three original members, with the excellent Daniel Mongrain
taking the place of guitarist Piggy, who died in 2005.
Vocalist Snake’s silly gurning and the look of sheer
bemusement as the crowd broke into regular chants of the
band’s name was something to behold. The set-list
covered just about everything from the primitive earliest
albums ‘War And Pain’ and ‘Rrröööaaarrr’,
taking in the arc of near-impossible creative growth that
took place in later years. Amazingly, the full 17-minute
rendition of ‘Jack Luminous’ from 1993’s
‘The Outer Limits’ was also included in a
display that closed with their inspired cover of the Floyd’s
‘Astronomy Domine’. Here’s the full
set-list: ‘Voivod’, ‘Ripping Headaches’,
‘Target Earth’, ‘The Prow’, ‘Forgotten
In Space’, ‘Mechanical Mind’, ‘Nothingface’,
‘Jack Luminous’, ‘Kluskap O’kom’,
‘Psychic Vacuum’ and an encore of ‘Overreaction’,
‘Tribal Convictions’ and ‘Astronomy
Domine’.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Sunday 7th October
There's nothing like an 8K run, completed in
43 mins, to get the blood pumping. Endorphins were well
and truly buzzing as I set off for Crystal Palace’s
clash with Burnley at Selhurst Park. For the second consecutive
home game the Eagles generously handed their visitors
a two-goal start, then roared back to steal the points.
The final score-line of CPFC 4 Burnley 3 propelled the
club into fourth place. The fact that we have collected
19 points from a possible 21 and vanquished pre-season
promotion candidates Wolves, Bolton, Cardiff and Nottingham
Florist along the way is pretty unbelievable and suggests
that this could be a very memorable season indeed.
It was time for some screaming metaaaaaaal, and plenty
of booze: DragonForce and their new singer at Shepherd’s
Bush Empire. Sadly (and rather predictably), I cannot
provide anything like a detailed analysis of what happened.
Beyond that fact that new singer Marc Hudson is rapidly
finding his feet, and the excellence of ‘Cry Thunder’
from their latest disc ‘The Power Within’,
it all became a bit of a blur as one trip to balcony bar
lead into another. I have very dim memories of a post-show
dressing room conversation with guitarist Herman Li and
DF manager Steve McTaggart, demanding to know why the
band had parted ways with their ex-singer ZP Theart, before
ending up back at the Crobar, then taking a night bus
– the *wrong* night bus, obviously – traipsing
halfway across South London and being awoken on the sofa
with a combination of pity and amusement by my eldest
lad Eddie at 7am. Anyone got a spare Alka-Seltzer?!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Saturday 6th October
Oooh, this
is nice. It looks as though I’m going to be
doing some work on it, too. Hurrah!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Friday 5th October
Ever since I saw him at the Reading Festival
back in 1980, Pat Travers has been among my favourite
artists. Despite being truncated by curfew issues last
night’s gig at the Beaverwood in Chislehurst affirmed
that faith. In keeping with the Beaverwood’s better
attended shows, the stage had been set up against a long
wall as opposed to its normal place the room’s far
end. Sound and visibility both tend to suffer as a consequence
but it allows promoter Mr Feenstra to squeeze in a few
extra bodies and it was terrific to see the place so full.
Looking impossibly fit and healthy for a 58-year-old,
Travers tore out of the blocks with a trio of classic
hard rock runes – ‘Life In London’ (I
still love that lyric about “changing dollars into
pounds” and a drink costing fifty pence!), ‘Crash
And Burn’ and ‘Heat In The Street’,
before dropping the pace for Ray Charles’ ‘I’ve
Got News For You’. Surprisingly this was followed
by the full-length version of American Ram Jam Band’s
‘Black Betty’, a latterday song called ‘Josephine’,
then Blind Blake’s ‘Black Dog Blues’
from a new album titled ‘Blues On Fire’; a
collection of obscurities from the 1920s. The place went
wild as the Canadian broke into the distinctive introduction
to ‘Stevie’, from 1977’s ‘Makin’
Magic’. A spontaneous rendition of Howlin’
Wold’s ‘Spoonful’ served as a preface
for Travers’ rearrangement of the Hendrix standard
‘Red House’ – check out the killer YouTube
footage here
– and the show stepped up several gears with the
closing one-two punch of ‘Snortin Whiskey’
and ‘Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights)’, a thoroughly
deserved encore of ‘Getting’ Better’
concluding a first-rate performance.
I also ran into Marcus Malone of the excellent 1970s band
Marcus, whose self-titled debut for United Artists is
a bona fide Strictly For Connoisseurs hard rock gem. Malone,
who was present to see his former drummer Sandy Gennaro
playing with the PTB, invited me to check out his current
solo group at the Beaverwood in a week’s time, which
I’m almost certain to do.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thursday 4th October
Well… yesterday was quite a day. I conducted
four interviews in nine hours – Conny Bloom of the
Electric Boys, Coheed And Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez,
Turbonegro’s new frontman Tony Sylvester and Mikael
Åkerfeldt of Opeth/Storm Corrosion – for various
different magazines or record label projects. This total
excludes the one that got cancelled, and the previous
day’s encounter with Steve Harley of Cockney Rebel
fame. Relax… and… breathe…!
With gigs thin on the ground I’ve been catching
up on The Newsroom, an excellent US TV series recorded
a few months ago on the Sky+. Absorbed by its brilliant
casting – till now I only knew Jeff Daniels (who
plays grumpy but charismatic Newsnight anchorman Will
McAvoy) as the gloriously idiotic Harry Dunne from Dumb
And Dumber – I found myself devouring all ten episodes
of Series #1 in just three days and evenings. It was heartwarming
and then disappointing to see Maggie and Jim get it together
and then chicken out as the finale drew to a close. Are
McAvoy and his ex-flame MacKenzie McHale (played by Londoner
Emily Mortimer) destined to fare any better in the future,
or will the tension between them just continue to crackle?
Who knows until June 2013, but meanwhile… what a
bloody great show.
And finally (as Will McAvoy might say to conclude a particularly
depressing broadcast), here’s the best possible
news from that useless twat Morrissey: “The Smiths
are never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going
to reunite – ever”. Hallelujah.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Wednesday 3rd October
If only I’d been able to go to last night’s
floodlit game at Molineux. Two quick-fire goals from Wilfried
Zaha were enough to cancel out Sylvan Ebanks-Blake’s
fortuitous opener for Wolverhampton Wanderers. Now unbeaten
in six fixtures, the 2-1 victory lifted the Eagles into
the Play-Off places; pretty incredible given that Palace
were rooted to the bottom of the table at the season’s
start. Zaha’s second represented a world class piece
of solo skill. Wilf’s fans have become sued to chanting:
“He’s just too good for you” at the
defenders left sprawled in his wake. The sad reality is
that the 19-year-old is too good for *us*. If he hasn’t
been sold to a bigger, richer club by Christmastime then
I’ll be amazed (and of course utterly delighted).
Until then… keep banging ’em in Wilf!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Tuesday 2nd October
My appreciation of Rival Sons seems to come and
go. They flattered to deceive at the High Voltage fest
in 2011 yet blew me away just a few months later during
a low-key set at the Crobar. And then, on a bigger stage
supporting Black Stone Cherry at the Forum back in March,
they were no better than adequate. So I’m happy
to say that the new album, ‘Head Down’, is
their best work to date. The Los Angeles-based retro-rockers
are certainly winning over some high powered followers.
The ‘sold out’ sign up was up for last night’s
gig at London’s Electric Ballroom, with the names
of Jimmy Page and ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris
at the top of the guest list (indeed, the latter introduced
their set).
Bravely, the quartet began the show with a huge chunk
of material, spitting out its first eight songs in uninterrupted,
consecutive order (overall, everything from the new album
was played except ‘True’, ‘Nava’
and ‘Three Fingers’). I was particularly impressed
by the Zeppelin-esque slow blues of ‘Jordan’.
And yet to these ears there’s still something about
them that doesn’t quite click. Is frontman Jay Buchanan
just a wee bit too stand-offish, maybe? Or for all their
fire-power do the band’s songs lack that oh-so-crucial
originality? Whatever my own mild reservations, the Electric
Ballroom went bonkers. One thing’s for sure: Rival
Sons certainly make The Answer look pretty feeble.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Monday 1st October
Is it October already? Jesus wept. Oh well, it’s
time for those monthly updates of the Playlist
and YouTube pages.
My friend Paul Gillooly has just pointed out that tomorrow
marks the 30th anniversary of Genesis’ Six Of The
Best show at Milton Keynes Bowl with Peter Gabriel and
Steve Hackett (on the encore)... YIKES!!! I will never
forget that torrential rain. Must dig out the bootleg
cassettes later on. In fact, I saw Genesis four further
times on that same tour in 1982 – in Brussels, Hammersmith,
St Austell and... ulp... at the Marquee Club in Wardour
Street (billed as The Garden Wall). Halcyon days indeed.
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