Time is relative. For some, it passes slowly and as inexorably as the tides lap against a shore. For others, it speeds past like a bullet from a gun, bearing down on its inevitable end. For Northern Ireland’s hardest working hard rockers, The Answer, the past decade has been something …
Read More »Romeo’s Daughter / Safire – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club – 21 May 2016
It must be admitted that the focus of attention on the beer bus en route from Belfast to the depths of the Antrim hills was not on the music which awaited its passengers at the other end, but rather on the small matter of the outcome of a certain football …
Read More »Corrosion Of Conformity – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 1 May 2016
The island of Ireland holds a special place in the collective hearts of the members of Corrosion Of Conformity. Although the classic line up of Pepper Keenan, Woody Weatherman, Mike Dean and Reed Mullin had got their act back together a few months previously, and played their first live show …
Read More »Cradle Of Filth – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 14 March 2016
It’s a Monday night in Belfast and the legions are gathering, their faces painted black and white and their armour made of leather and/or PVC. Which can mean only one thing: Cradle Of Filth have returned to the city after a 15-year gap, on the final night of their latest …
Read More »HRH AOR – Pwllheli – 12 March 2016
Saturday morning at Camp Hard Rock Hell dawned crisp and bright, with the day going on to prove to be warmest of the weekend. And so, as the sun made its first appearance, and after a morning of hanging around the press area waiting on bands not turning up for …
Read More »HRH AOR – Pwllheli – 11 March 2016
Thanks to a mizzle which had blown in from the Irish Sea overnight, the first full day at Camp Hard Rock Hell dawns damp underfoot, as the faithful thousands wake from their late slumbers and prepare for the entertainment coming their way across the three stages. Having travelled from about …
Read More »HRH AOR – Pwllheli – 10 March 2016
Despite its remote location – in the crook of north Wales’ Llŷn Peninsula, between Snowdonia and the Irish Sea – Hard Rock Hell is undoubtedly one of the UK’s favourite festivals, often booking out a year in advance… and even before a single band is announced! That was evinced yet …
Read More »The Quireboys – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 11 March 2016
On an unusually mild, bright early Spring evening in our wee neck of the woods off I set to what, according to the poster promises to be a great night of good old fashioned rock n roll.. As the lights go down, the opening band Massive Wagons take to the …
Read More »The Cult – Belfast, Mandela Hall – 6 March 2016
It had been quite some time since yours truly last descended the steps into the hallowed Mandela Hall… almost exactly 18 months in fact. And, as I stood outside the chilly Sunday night air awaiting my photographer, I could not help but note the eclectic nature of the hundreds of …
Read More »Zlatanera – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 27 February 2016
It always amazes me how certain social media channels are always filled with whinging, so called “rock fans” who complain that there are never any gigs on… I don’t know what sort of cloud cuckoo land they live in, because this, the official launch of Zlatanera‘s debut album, ‘Legerdemain‘, was …
Read More »Exodus / Lost Society – Belfast, Limelight 2, 29 February 2016
It may have been just a relatively short six years since thrash legends Exodus last graced this very stage, but it has been a lot longer since the Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza fronted incarnation was last in these parts… almost 27 years and 1989’s ‘Fabulous Disaster’ tour. In fact, not one single member …
Read More »Blazefest ‘Battle Of The Bands’ – Belfast, Voodoo – 25 February 2016
For those unfamiliar with the event, Blazefest is an annual fundraising show in aid of the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. It is inspired by a very brave young man, Blaze Shields-Pettitt, who, in his short life, has endured a lot more than many of us old fogies could …
Read More »Ensiferum / Metsatöll – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 21 February 2016
“And lo, the [heathen] hordes from the East did descend up the city at the mouth of the river called the Farset… and they did lay waste onto the same with their furious vengeance and the spilling of much ancestral blood.” OK, forgive the pastiche of sub-Biblical phraseology, but it …
Read More »RavenEye/Selene – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club – 13 February 2016
There are some artists who just love to play live, and seem to get itchy feet if they are more than a few minutes away from treading the boards of the stage. Just off the top of my head, I can think of two homegrown Norn Iron talents who definitely …
Read More »Soulfly – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 3 February 2016
Max Cavalera certainly believes in keeping it in the family. Or maybe it’s a case of keep your friends close but your family closer. Whatever it may be, the last couple of Soulfly tours have gone out under the ‘Maximum Cavalera’ banner, with bands featuring both his sons and his …
Read More »The Pat McManus Band – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club – 30 January 2016
Pat McManus gigs are always special. So much so that many people go that extra little bit further to sit at the feet of the man affectionately known for a little more three decades now as ‘The Professor’ and bask in his talent. On this occasion, your PlanetMosh team thought …
Read More »Ricky Warwick – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club – 2 January 2016
A little more than three months after he last graced this same stage – then accompanied by his Black Star Riders bandmate Damon Johnson – Ricky Warwick returned to one of his favourite haunts for this special New Year show. In fact, Warwick had forsaken the somewhat sunnier climes of …
Read More »The Answer – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club – 19 December 2015
Some people would go to any lengths for a great party… and, by this, I don’t just mean those of us who regularly board the Beer Bus for the regular trips to the best little rock club in the country: no, I mean some of the determined folk who have …
Read More »Trucker Diablo – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock City – 12 December 2015
It’s two weeks before Christmas, and the dreaded party season is in full swing. Bars in the centre of Belfast – in common with those in most towns and cities – are filled with what in these parts refer, rather disdainfully, to as “oncers”: those people who only get out …
Read More »Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses 2016 Belfast launch – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 5 December 2015
And so it is almost upon us again… the annual Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses competition, with it’s reward being the much coveted and desired chance to play the New Blood stage at Britain’s favourite bespoke metalfest alongside the likes of Slayer, Mastodon, Twisted Sister, Venom and a host of …
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