overlap

In a world where tickets come with postage fees and handling fees and all manner of administrative charges that appear to have minimal background in people actually doing anything for the money, proper value for money is something you don't see much of at events these days. But you can have too much of a good thing.

I missed the very first band, and of the next two I especially liked the cover of 3 Colours Red's Nerve Gas and a track called 'Sorry Ain't Enough'.

Touring support band Fury UK take to the stage long after I've started getting twitchy about just how late a night this looks like being, nevertheless I'm pleasantly distracted by them. There's only so much you can do with a trio, but they seem to be plentiful enough. Drummer Martin McNee sports a beard that would easily get him past the first audition for ZZ Top, and brothers Luke and Chris Appleton complete the line-up with (respectively bass, and guitar and vocals). There's no shortage of technical skillz on show, and to be honest I'd rather Chris either played and sang another song or that they got off the stage rather than the guitar showboating that closes the set. That's one way to stick in people's minds, that they want you to get off so the next lot can get on, so they can go home before tomorrow, and while it may not be their fault it does demand an extra special show to overcome it. Like 'em, yes. Want to watch *anybody* while every song makes for a further delayed trip home, definitively no. And you might guess what I'm going to say about that name - hilarious logo opportunity though the F UK abbreviation provides, if you really can't come up with a name nobody else has used and have to tag on the UK then it doesn't make me think I should be expecting vast amounts of originality and imagination in your songwriting either.

On the stroke of 23.15, it finally looks like we are ready to get the hell on with it, and with the characteristic intro - My name is Blaze Bayley... This is the Blaze Bayley Band... We. Play. METAL. - the set begins. While stood around waiting, it occurs to me that this is within touching distance of the 21st anniversary of the first time I saw Blaze laying waste to a stage. Blaze can never be accused of not trying, of not putting everything into his show, and there really is nothing quite like standing within touching distance of his intense frame as he reaches out into and around the front row, demanding attention and insisting on more hands in the air. This is British panto metal at its finest and all the more thrilling for the backing of an effortlessly capable line-up of musicians. I finally got a couple of pictures of Larry, and having done my best to get a few pictures from close range I moved backwards out of the immediate front of stage area.

Writing this several days later, I'm no longer sure of exactly which tracks were played, but Kill And Destroy and Ten Seconds were definite highlights. An hour into the set, I found myself increasingly fussy and considering leaving, which is something I've done before the end of few enough gigs that I can still count them all on one hand. As far as I'm concerned, Iron Maiden broke up my favourite band, and though I've long since got over it, listening to Blaze doing Maiden songs isn't something that's going to make me resist further the pull of the road and of my bed. If it had been two hours earlier I'd have stayed. I'm a big fan of Blaze, and I'm not complaining about him doing whatever material he chooses, and I can do nothing but applaud his commitment to metal and to playing music. But I'm also perfectly comfortable with walking out as he introduces The Clansman - some unfamiliar Maiden track that means nothing to me has no appeal. Having seen four bands for under eight quid, there's no shortage of value for money, and once again I'm going home with money in my pocket that I might have spent on merch if I'd felt the show was an absolute killer and I'd still been there at the end.

* 'Oh, let me go home' is a line from Blaze's song 'Smile Back At Death', and in itself should be explanation enough!

Labels: Blaze Bayley, gigs, metal, Wolfsbane

Ok, I'm so I'm a little over-interested in the names people pick for their musical projects. But when it's just an individual, and not one using it as an umbrella term for him/her and whoever they are collaborating with this time, it's begging to be asked why you would bother. Enter Martin Lucas, or "The Celturian", or "Martin Celturian" as he was introduced this time around. He plays solo acoustic guitar instrumentals, in a variety of styles from straight blues to Scots reels and all manner of traditions in between, and you can easily imagine his music providing a soundtrack for whatever goes on at Blackmore's Night Towers. You can see for yourself below his stunt of playing with three capos, and while he's undoubtedly staggeringly proficient technically, er, so's Malmsteen. It's all very interesting, once, but for someone whose major interest in music is having something to sing along with, I'll leave it to you to complete this sentence on your own. Next up were Gone Til Winter. Another non-fantastic name, and after a quick run through the few tunes they have on myspace and I'm not really moved from my initial comparison with Within Temptation. There's a certain polished dynamic about the four guys getting thirty seconds into the first tune before the female singer Talena joins them on the stage, and she certainly has a presence. There's a trace of Cher's back-of-the-throatiness at times, likewise Ann Wilson's raspiness and all layered over some rather robust prog metal. They strike a visually incongruous note, bass player with hair down to his waist, guitarist and keyboard players looking fresh out of accountancy school, and goth-lite frontwoman with a bright pink fringe in the otherwise none more black hair. If you ever wonder whether you are in muso trouble, one way of telling is if your eye is drawn to the guitar neck, wondering if it looks a bit wide, until you realise it's a seven string. And that possibly sums them up, there's just a bit too much much really. The music is polished and proficient, but where WT have a bit of space in the vocal and keyboard melodies, GTW seem just to power through it all. There's a sense in which Talena reminds me of Sporty Spice, and much as La Chisholm is my favourite Spice Girl on account of being the only one who appears to love music for the music rather than as a means to an end, I think she's suffered at times from her choice of material. I dare say she'll lose no sleep over my opinion there, and nor should Gone Til Winter. After a very challenging six months which have seen him lose his wife after months of illness, Blaze Bayley could be forgiven for wanting to give up. I'll be honest, but for those events, I'd have been far less likely to go to this gig, but in the circumstances showing a bit of support for the frontman of the best British metal band of all time (flame me now!) is the least I can do. When I first saw Wolfsbane over twenty years ago, it was obvious Blaze was a man who lived for being on stage, and that hasn't changed. This must be third different incarnation of the Blaze Bayley band that I have seen, and it wipes the floor with the others. In Dave Bermudez' gurning and fist-pumping there's a frustrated frontman waiting to burst out if he ever tires of the bass. In Jay Walsh and Nico Bermudez there's a pair of guitar players who combine twin riffing with fluid solos, ably backed up by Larry's blockbuster drumming. They've been playing together for a while now, and it shows. The setlist includes eight songs off current album The Man Who Would Not Die, the title track of which is a perfect way to launch into two hours of fist-pumping, headbanging, floor-shaking rocking. I don't believe I've ever hear Blaze's voice sounding this consistently good, and while he's always looked perfectly at home on stage, with this line-up he has every reason to be supremely confident that they all deliver, every time. There's a touching tribute to late wife (and band manager) Debbie before the first encore track, While You Were Gone, and anyone who hadn't seen the tributes on the website would still be left in no doubt about the man behind the metal. For all it was written well before Debbie became ill, the amount of death references on the new album seems strangely anticipatory, and even if he isn't always smiling back at death, on this form Blaze and band should survive, and thrive. * Smile Back At Death is the third track on the album The Man Who Would Not Die

Labels: Blaze Bayley, gigs, Gone Til Winter, metal

Girlschool were one of the first bands I ever saw, and even twenty years ago their heyday had gone, as had Kelly from the line-up that I saw. All the same Screaming Blue Murder is a track I'm rarely without on my mp3 player, and Yeah Right is just genius. There are few enough women in rock, and especially so at that point in time. Other than Rock Goddess, you start looking quite hard pretty quickly and that's even if you include The Runaways. And forty nine isn't much of an age for anyone, on this part of the planet at least. Rock on, Kelly.

Labels: Girlschool, Kelly Johnson, metal