Event Reviews

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 …

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 …

Another year, another Bad Ass Bash summoned up as ever by the superhuman efforts from promoter Martin Short, once again handpicking bands to play for us, all of whom played for no fee with profits totalling £588.42, made up to £600 by Martin for the chosen charity Chart Children’s Hospice …

The night kicked off with Italian band Klogr. It’s heavy alt-rock/metal and sounds pretty damn good as they play a set that includes material from their first two albums as well as their latest one. “Pride before the fall” in particular sounded great. It’s just a shame that the early …

Sunday’s main stage lineup kicked off with Fire red empress. More rock than metal they’re still more than heavy enough to be on the bill here and singer Jennifer Diehl does a good job of waking up the slightly sleepy and hungover members of the audience with her powerful vocal …

This year’s HRH Metal took place at the weekend in Birmingham. It’s the second year of the event, and the lineup was definitely appealing. The festival appeals to a lot of the same people as Hammerfest but for many people Birmingham is just easier to get to. With three stages …

Tonight’s sold out show saw fans queueing well before doors opened, and by the time the doors opened the queue stretched a long way. Thankfully the security team did a good job getting people in quickly and by the time the first band, Tribulation came on stage the place was …

Almost two years ago Canadian metallers Anvil played the Tivoli in Buckley for the first time supporting ex Accept vocalist Udo Dirkschneider and to say they gave the headliners a hard act to follow is an understatement and now they return as headliners to a packed out venue on a …

Support tonight came from US band Night Demon. Their latest album, 2017’s “Darkness remains” is a great album so I was looking forward to seeing them live. A three-piece, they’ve got a real NWOBHM influenced sound although the bands that inspired them had 4 or 5 members, so to have …

For this leg of their European tour, Arch Enemy have three support acts – Jinjer, Tribulation and Wintersun. Tonight’s gig in Gothenburg is one of the closest they’re playing to their hometown of Halmstad so a good atmosphere was expected. With four bands on the bill, doors opened at 5pm. …

Cancer On The Rocks was a great day out, to say the least, in the normally quiet Cheshire town of Nantwich. Local boy Rick Palin, managing director of Skyfire International and owner of Firebrand Radio handpicked ten fantastic rock and blues bands to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Research after …

As someone who really doesn’t like tribute bands, going to see Maiden uniteD may seem like an odd choice of gig, but while they only play Iron Maiden covers, unlike most tribute bands, they don’t just try and replicate the originals. Instead, Maiden united rearrange the songs and play them …

Ahead of the release of his new album, The Truth, Laurence Jones played the Borderline in London. It’s not too many months since he last played here, so to see the venue busy on a Monday night was a great result and a good sign of his popularity. The night …

Tonight’s gig was Lacuna Coil’s 20th aniversary show. 119 is a special number for the band, so the date of 01-19-2018 (using the US date format) tied in nicely. Originally due to be at Shepherds Bush Empire, the show sold out so quickly they upgraded to the Forum and that’s …

‘The First Lady of the Blues’ may be a somewhat overused tagline but in the case of Sari Schorr, and based on this performance at the superb St Helens Citadel Arts Centre, it is extremely difficult to think of a more fitting description. A powerhouse performance saw Schorr bravely air …

The night kicked off with floodlights on stage sending their rays of light out over the crowd as the PA played sounds of explosions. Gradually these turned into heavy bass and guitar riffs as the band took to the stage and things kicked off with the first song – Sway. …

First up tonight were Fyresky, a fairly new band from Kent/Essex. I’d seen them play in August, and while four months isnt a long time, there was a clear improvement in how they sound and perform in that time. They’ve got a strong visual image and seem very confident, not …

Tonight kicked off with the awesome Dan Reed Network. With Extreme having the hit, “Get the funk out”, having Dan Reed Network support them is an inspired choice as there’s plenty of funk in their music. Dan Reed and his band clearly love performing and seem to be having just …

Eight years since they last played Manchester, London based punk rock band Towers of London are back. There was never any official break-up, more of a hiatus, with a single Shake It released in 2015 and a handful of gigs. They have a new (third) album set for release next …