Tonight’s gig was at the Thousand Island venue. If you’re wondering where that is, the old name is far easier – “Upstairs at the garage”. Yes it’s the small room at the garage, that’s been done up with dozens of glitter balls hanging from the ceiling. Sadly they seem to …

Following on from the critically acclaimed and commercially successful third year in 2017, Ramblin’ Man Fair returns in 2018! This year the festival will move from its traditional end of July slot to the 30th June and 1st July 2018. Ramblin’ Man Fair is pleased to announce further acts for …

Download Festival, the champion of rock events, has today announced the grand return of WWE NXT LIVE! to the hallowed grounds of Donington Park. Fans will be electrified with incredible displays of skill and athleticism, as the hugest names in sports entertainment deliver the fully-fledged NXT show to a full-scale …

BLOODSTOCK is racing towards the weekend with some heavy metal Easter treats! Six more bands for August’s best heavy weekender, the first wave of club nights and the annual Easter Egg hunt on the BLOODSTOCK website, kicking off Friday 30th March! Check out www.bloodstock.uk.com from 8am Friday for details on …

Tonight’s gig at the Craufurd arms is another visit from Canadian band Sumo Cyco. Support tonight comes from Uk band Skarlett riot. For this tour they’re without their usual bassist, Martin Shepherd so have got Tim Chambers from Sister Shotgun helping them out by taking his place till his return. …

Tonight is a punk night – two punk bands and one punk/steampunk band. The night opened with Jonny and the mental breakdowns, a local band who were a late addition to the lineup. That meant that they were a man short, so the singer had to play bass, which he …

Tonight at the Garage was a celebration of Blues guitarists, with several playing this mini tour organised by Provogue records. Gary Hoey, Eric Gales, Lance Lopez and Quinn Sullivan have been playing the various dates, and rotating the running order so there’s a different headliner each night. The events are …

IDestroy have just released their second EP, Pure joy of life. The Bristol based all-female trio are out on tour at the moment across the UK and Germany. They describe themselves as “party punk”, which really is a perfect description for this EP. It’s got that aggressive and fast paced …

Tonight’s Venom inc gig had an early start – always a headache mid-week as it meant I wasn’t able to get there from work till after the first two bands (on a five band bill). Happily though I was in good time to see Brazilian thrash band Nervosa. I’d been …

Tonight’s stop on Joe Bonamassa’s uk tour saw him playing to 3000 fans at the Genting arena in Birmingham. As always he plays with no support act and comes on stage at 8pm. Luckily these days most people know he does that but I did spot a few people arriving …

Sadly due to unforeseen transport issues due to idiotic protesters blocking railway lines, I got to the venue just as the first band, Bad Touch, were finishing their set. A shame as I was looking forward to seeing them. Toseland were up first. They’re a good solid band, and former …

Bring Me The Horizon have a lot to answer for. In the years since ‘There is a Hell…’ and ‘Sempiternal’, hundreds of bands have merged elements of electronica into their metal in order to emulate their success, to varying levels of quality. To be a trailblazer in a genre is …

For over 20 years, Arjen Lucassen’s band Ayreon has existed purely as a studio project with no live shows. The reason for that is because he always thought a live show would be impossible to do – the albums typically have a dozen or so singers, who generally have their …

Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy has a new solo album – Year of the Tiger. If you’re hoping for something similar to Alter Bridge then you may be disappointed – this is very different – it’s a solo acoustic album. Check out the video for the title track, Year of …

The night kicked off with Rebecca Downes, a blues-rock singer with a fairly powerful voice. She sang the first song while her band played, but after that she strapped on a guitar and played as well as singing. The set tonight included “Believe”, the title track of her last studio …

Jesus Jones – there’s a blast from the past. Big in the early 90s, they pretty much disappeared at the end of the 90s, with their final album, “London” failing to sell well in 2001. They’ve done a few shows since then but had really disappeared off the radar for …

Blues guitarist/singer Danny Bryant releases his new studio album, Revelation, on 20th April through Jazzhaus records. It’s his fourth studio album, and based on his two previous studio albums (“Blood money” and “Temperature rising”) I was expecting a lot from this album. Despite me having high expectations, this album surpassed …

Kris Barras is a former MMA fighter with a 10 year career while at the same time being a guitarist. Now though he’s retired from Mixed Martial Arts so there’s no danger of him injuring his hands and being unable to play, although he still trains MMA fighters when not …

SHINEDOWN has announced the release of sixth studio album, Attention Attention on 4th May via Atlantic Records.  The lead single Devil is out today along with the track’s accompanying video –   Directed by Bill Yukich (Beyoncé, Marilyn Manson, Wiz Khalifa), the visual for Devil is a dramatic and visceral …

Hard rock juggernaut HALESTORM are delighted to announce plans for their 6-week UK & European headline tour, kicking off in Moscow on 14th Sep and wrapping up in Madrid on 25th Oct. Widely acknowledged as one of modern hard rock’s most dynamite live acts, the trek includes 8 UK/Irish dates, …