Live Review : GUN @ Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on February 28th 2024

Thirty-five years is a long time in music…   

Cast your minds back to the end of the eighties (if you can remember that far) and the musical landscape of the time was very different. Grunge was yet to come along and cause the sea change in the rock world whose ripples we are still feeling to this day, and nu-metal and the genre mutating new styles that would characterise the new century were still more than a decade away.

And it was at the tail end of that most glorious of decades that GUN released their debut album, the acclaimed “Taking on the World”, spawning the first of a run of chart bothering singles with ‘Better Days’, numerous Top of the Pops performances and increasingly successful tours. 

But that was then; jump forward to 2024 and the question is, can a band with almost four decades of history under its belt, still be credible, vital and worth your time?  Well, tonight’s performance, a true showcase of where GUN have come from and where they are heading, answers that question with an emphatic “yes”!

There is a remarkable energy and sparkle on show here tonight, an enthusiasm and verve which would put many a fledgling band to shame.  Lead singer Dante Gizzi, in fine charismatic form throughout the evening, tells us later in the set that writing, playing and sharing new songs is something that enthuses and inspires the band and this is mirrored in the evident fun and camaraderie that is plain to see between the band members.  Managing to shoehorn seven musicians onto the Waterloo stage, there’s not a great deal of room to manoeuvre, but in spite of this – or maybe even because of it – the band work hard to create a dynamic, energetic and engaging spectacle. There’s a lot of smiles, laughter and good-natured banter, those on stage looking like they’re having as good a time as those of us in the crowd.

Blackpool is the second in a short run of album launch shows ahead of the April release of “Hombres” and as you would expect much of the set highlights tracks from this new opus. What becomes immediately clear is that this isn’t the sound of a band resting on their laurels, content to sit back and rely on their back catalogue, but one that is excited to be carving the next chapter in their history.  The sound quality as we have come to expect from the Waterloo is top notch, with a wonderfully meaty bottom end, underpinning the consistently excellent guitar work, led by founder member Jools Gizzi and complemented by the dazzling skills of newest recruit Ru. Special mention should also go to The Sisterhood, whose smooth backing vocals not only make things easier for Dante (his words!) but also provide a welcome layer of added melody depth and sophistication to the GUN sound.  

‘Lucky Guy’, the first of the newies leads the charge, and with minimal talk between the first three songs, it’s a storming ‘Don’t Say It’s Over’, that really kicks the energy levels into overdrive.  And whilst tonight’s all about the new material, it would be inconceivable that the band wouldn’t include some of the best-known songs from their back catalogue alongside the new gems.  These are carefully placed in the set and deployed to great effect.  So, we get ‘Better Days’ (sounding just as fresh and exciting as it did back in the day) sandwiched between the upbeat first single ‘All Fired Up’ and new album track ‘You Are What I Need’. This approach works excellently, with the new songs sitting smoothly alongside their older more familiar brethren, with many of them surely to be mainstays of the GUN set for years to come.  As the set progresses two of the newer tunes stand out, the dramatic ‘Falling’, a future classic in the making, and the rip-roaring, crowd pleasing ‘Take Me Back Home’.

The crowd are behind the band all the way, with many of them clearly along from the very early days; I hear snatches of fond reminisces of gigs of yesteryear, the Astoria in ’92, appearances at Hard Rock Hell and even the last time they played the Waterloo. What is it about a band that captures the hearts and minds of fans and continues to do so for years?  If I knew the answer to that I’d be a very wealthy man, but in GUN’s case it appears to be in no small part down to a combination of great songwriting, musicianship and a disarming honesty and openness that enables the band to easily connect with their followers.

With a number of the new songs slated to be included on the soundtrack to a forthcoming movie, and what sounds like an album that could be up there with the best of their much-loved back catalogue, could this be the start of a GUN renaissance that will see them return to the heights of their eighties and nineties heyday?  Only time will tell, but tonight showed that GUN remain focused on producing new material of the highest calibre and have set their sights on the highest of targets once again.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
GUN