Event Reviews

The second day at the HRH AOR and Prog event started early as I was interviewing Arthur Brown two hours before the first band started.  Sadly that meant two hours less sleep than I’d have liked, but the early start was well worth it to chat to such an amazing …

This weekend was to see the first HRH AOR festival and the first HRH Prog festival.  Uniquely both events were being held at the same venue on the same weekend.  This sounded like a crazy idea at first, trying to run two events side by side, but the organisers had …

Tonight was a great lineup – Serenity who once again are playing London, and with them are Visions of Atlantis, here for their first ever UK show.  Both bands have new albums released around the day of the gig, so fans are expecting to hear some new material as well …

This was gonna be a night I was really looking forward to. Three bands who should work well together at the sold out Shepherds Bush Empire venue in London. The blues based groove of The Graveltones, The blues/glam/rock&roll/classic/Indie you name it every kind of influence of Ulysses and the classic …

They’re headlining the second stage at Download Festival this year, they’re on the bill at Glastonbury and they’ve sold out London’s Hammersmith Apollo. And yet, here they are on a UK tour playing venues that have no more than a capacity of 600. But then, Enter Shikari (9) have never …

Tonight, for the second time in a week, Shepherds Bush Empire is playing host to a night of great blues music.  Last week it was Joe Bonamassa, and tonight it’s Eric Johnson.  Less well known in the UK than Joe Bonamassa, Texan guitarist Eric Johnson is here as the first …

Is there such a thing as a perfect gig? Well after going to them for over 30 years then this one was as close as you can get. A packed venue, a near perfect setlist ( The Wildhearts played the whole of their debut album Earth Vs The Wildhearts for …

It was one of the strangest twists of fate that put me with photographers Anthony May, Sean Larkin and George David Ellis at Nottingham’s Rock City on the 31st of March. We were there to meet and review the bands on behalf of the Planet Mosh web site that were giving their …

Billed as the “guitar event of the year”, Joe Bonamassa was back this week to trace his London gigging footsteps through venues of increasing size since 2006; starting at The Borderline on 26th March, followed by Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 27th, Hammersmith Apollo on 28th and The Royal Albert Hall …

Voodoo Six are a relatively new discovery to me, and after checking out a lot of their music I was really looking forward to the night’s entertainment billed at King Tuts Wahwah Hut, Glasgow. First support band Toby Michaels Rolling Damned begin proceedings tonight. A highland band from Inverness, and …

It’s the last Saturday in March, and just hours before the clocks are turned forward the start of what is supposed to be British Summer Time – what a feckin’ joke!  Outside, the temperature is barely pushing above zero degrees, and inside… well, I swear it’s even colder, with the …

The Pint venue has undergone a revamp. The owners and promoter have increased the size of the stage, invested in a quality lighting rig, improved the sound system, and spoiled us with air conditioning. All of these improvements have made the Pint THE best venue in Dublin for underground metal …

Tonight was the third of Joe Bonamassa’s run of four London shows within a week.  Each show is at a different venue, with different musicians involved at each and a different setlist at each show.  Having played the Borderline and Shepherds Bush Empire earlier in the week, tonight’s show was …

  The AOR night begins with Vega. It has been almost two years since I last saw them at AOR Firefest in Nottingham Rock City. Vega opened with “Kiss of Life” from their debut album, noted as an AOR masterpiece. They captured an great 80’s feel with crowd pleasing songs …

It was a freezing, Glasgow March night at The Vale. I was there to witness, for my very first time, Aberdeenshire band Estrella perform a full set. I had seen them perform a 25 to 30 minute set at the Highway To Hell 3 competition last year, but this was …

A cold Saturday night sees me standing outside the sold out O2 ABC venue in Glasgow to witness what was originally the last date on Wilko Johnson’s Farewell tour, but due to demand to see the Canvey Island bluesman one final time

While those with a lot less sense were out ‘drowning the shamrock’ and “celebrating” what laughingly passes for the ‘national saint’s day’ in this corner of the world, by getting as hammered as possible as quickly possible and then hammering the living daylights out of each other in an unprecedented …

Flamenco-metal is what we have come to enjoy tonight, but not before we have taken the time to check out the other three bands on tonight’s bill at The Garage.   First up are Seven Deadly, a melodic thrash metal band. There are some familiar faces of metal in this …

As I sit here nursing my coffee whilst causally gauzing out at the sunlight illuminated fog which currently shrouds Hollywood in its intimidating mysteriousness I am trying to move mind into gear and stop gauzing  out of the window and towards finding a starting point for this review. This actually …

Tonight’s bill is a typically eclectic one – ranging from classic thrash through dark sludge to ambient black metal – ensuring a healthy crowd drawn from a wide spectrum of Belfast’s metal community, with the added advantage of it being the beginning of (for many) a long holiday weekend helping …