Are Royal Republic a rock band? They say not, but a capacity crowd at Bloodstock 2023 begged to differ and let’s face it you’re not going to argue with 20000 rabid metalheads, are you? They have been blowing audiences away with their brand of humorous pop-rock patter for a good few years now and here we have a full UK tour in support of their most recent album “LoveCop”. Tonight the Royal Republic train is hitting the buffers in Manchester to show us what they’ve got.
Read MoreTonight we are not in a cellar, which is good. Zanzibar is a decent venue with plenty of space and a good screen so that’s a good start.
Local band Seas Of Neptune kick things off. They play cheerful slightly indie-tinged rock interspersed with a bit of typical dry scouse wit. It’s not outright metal, leaning more towards maybe The Killers or even Arctic Monkeys for inspiration, but it’s hummable and well-performed. At the moment the band are a little raw and unpolished, but with a bit of elbow grease they might turn out to be a gem.
Read MoreTonight Chester is getting its goth on. It’s only two days to Halloween so it’s quite fitting that the self-described mad Frankenstein drag queens that make up Wednesday 13’s entourage are here. It’s equally fitting that England’s favourite glam-goth wannabees South Of Salem are snapping at their heels.
Read MoreThe room we are in tonight is pretty basic for a venue with such a huge history (it’s the old Factory Records HQ). Bare walls, a small stage, not even any proper stage lights. Yep, basic covers it. The bar is well-stocked though and the atmosphere is warm and inviting in anticipation of one of Germany’s finest up-and-coming hard rock bands.
Read MoreLet's be honest with ourselves, in a band as cool as Guns n’ Roses (and there was a good chunk of time in the late 80’s when they were as cool as fuck) Duff McKagan was the really cool one. When we were miming in the mirror to our bootlegged copy of “Appetite for Destruction” he was the one we wanted to be. Whilst the others came from the lineage of glam metal, Duff with his short hair and snarl was 100% punk. He brought the aggro, he brought the attitude, he was the linchpin that stopped Guns n’ Roses from being yet another Los Angeles vanity project.
Read MoreHave you ever been to a gig which you suspected was going to be good, but when you got there it exceeded all your expectations? Well if you managed to catch The Lazys and Junkyard Drive on their current run of UK dates you may very well have. Both are not regular visitors to these shores, with The Lazys hailing all the way from Australia and Junkyard Drive hopping over the North Sea from Denmark, and both absolutely brought their A-game to the Tivoli on this occasion.
Read MoreFirst visit to Percy’s tonight and wow, what a venue. It’s small, cosy, quirky and interesting. The band room is out the back and despite being fairly cramped the sound is good so if necessary you can sit in the comfort of an ex-aeroplane seat (with table in the arms and a working recline button) or dentist chair, with your drink on an NHS trolley, and watch proceedings on a video screen.
Read MoreAfter a hectic week or so of dashing around the world in pursuit of musical excellence it’s good to be back in the dark, cool confines of The Tivoli for 2 of the UK’s finest alliterations, Tigertailz and Takeaway Thieves. The bar is cheap, the atmos is friendly and the crowd is keen – just how a good gig should be.
Read MoreWhen you think about The Wildhearts, there are certain pictures that immediately come to mind. From a musical point of view they are very positive, but from a relationship point of view there has been a toxic dynamic for a long time. The band thrives, falls apart, splits, reforms, thrives, falls apart, splits in an endless cycle that has gone on for years now. Eventually there has to come a point in any dysfunctional situation where you have to walk away for the sake of your own sanity, and it seems that after many years of being drawn back in for the highs, CJ has finally managed to find himself in a situation where he is older, wiser, and comfortable in his own skin.
Read MoreMetal’s inexplicable love affair with Eurovision seems to be baked into our psyche. In recent years many “big” names from our world (The Rasmus, Blind Channel, Voyager and Lords of the Lost) have taken part and even bigger names (Avantasia and Keep of Kaslin) have unsuccessfully tried to be selected for their respective home nations. This is alongside the fact that every Baltic state entry seems to sound like Evanescence and Italian alt-rockers Maneskin triumphed in 2021 with a ditty that sounded all the world like a shunt job between Rage Against The Machine and Jane's addiction.
Read MoreThere’s an old joke that goes “what’s the best thing to come out of Norfolk? The A11!” Tonight though I am here to witness the re-emergence of something else good coming out of Norfolk, the country-tinged blues rock of Bad Touch. They have been around on the circuit for a while, I think I first encountered them well over 10 years ago, and with at least 5 albums under their collective belts their popularity has ebbed and flowed like the tides that erode their home county’s coastline over those years. I don’t think I’ve seen them yet post-covid, so tonight I’m looking forward to getting re-acquainted with them. Enough poetic imagery though, we have bands to watch!
Read MoreOn the eve of their biggest headline show in a packed out Wembley Arena, the award winning, Tik Tok trending powerhouse of UK metal that are Skindred are warming up at a sold out Manchester Academy. As always, Skindred promise to bring their usual high energy party vibes to the masses, and as always, the clientele is a fantastical mix of full-on-metallers, wide-eyed ravers and those of us who happily swing both ways.
Read MoreWe were having a discussion at ROCKFLESH Towers the other day, wondering which band we have reviewed the most since we started. General consensus was that as we are a local website for local people, it would probably be a local band. In the end we decided it was likely to be Massive Wagons, who seem to have stayed true to their local roots too despite achieving not just national but international success in recent years. Tonight we are just up the road from their hometown, so I settle in my usual position lurking at the back to see how they are doing these days.
Read MoreI may take on assignments that take me all over metal’s glorious multi-verse of genres, but my home will always be the scuzzy outlier that is sleaze rock. Pretty Boy Floyd are an original 80s purveyor of the art form (despite there only being one original member left) and The Midnight Devils are upstart pretenders to the glam rock crown, so tonight I can breathe a sigh of relief and bask in the musical familiarity that surrounds me.
Read MoreOne of the things I like about the Tivoli (apart from the newly-refurbished jungle-themed ladies loos and the cheap rum) is that they always try to get at least one local band on the bill. This is a huge boost for the local rock scene, and I applaud it wholeheartedly.
Read MoreOpeners Kaine play basic metal. They're very Iron Maiden, the music is fast and furious and the band seem very angry about something. I'm trying to work out what they're singing about and it’s hard to decipher. It might be Bastille, it might be something made of steel. Either way they seem a bit pissed off about it! There’s a song called ‘Slave To The Grind’ but it's not that one, it's a double paced headbanger with a slow guitar bridge. Widdly instrumentals abound and there’s a huge amount of echo on the singer's voice.
Read MoreYou could think of far worse ways to spend a beautiful sunny day in Manchester on a Sunday evening. It wasn't just the heat outside that needed turning down, the heat is turned up to boiling point inside the Academy 2 with blistering performances all-round from perhaps some of the most underrated AOR and melodic bands still performing and going strong some 30 plus years after their inceptions. It’s certainly a mouth-watering affair and one that goes down better than the obligatory pint of overpriced lager from the bar. If value for money is your thing, then you’ve certainly got that in spade loads on the music on offer tonight.
Read MoreLater on this evening, Baz Mills from Massive Wagons makes a very profound statement about a time when he was lucky enough to meet the late great Lemmy. “Lemmy told me there are only two types of music” he said, “music you like and music you don’t like”. As I review my notes from The Virginmarys set tonight, I reflect that this is true and that The Virginmarys are unfortunately very much in the second section for me. There are only two of them, one providing guitars and vocals and the other doing a very energetic and entertaining turn on the drums
Read MoreWe start tonight with Tarah Who? They are punky, indie kids with female vocals and a bass player with lovely hair. There's lots of movement and energy but not a huge amount of power in her voice and I find them a little bit uninspiring. I'm not really seeing anything new here and nothing really grips me - they weren't bad but they weren't brilliant either.
Read MoreThe crowd is a bit thin when Warrington lass Kim Jennett hits the stage, but she doesn’t let that bother her. Despite her tiny stature she can really belt out a tune. Not only that, she uses her body to illustrate the songs as well, making her point with full movement that verges on being theatre at times. She’s supported tonight by guitarist Tyler Kent who is set to be a member of the new Kim Jennett Band that she has just put together. Tyler is quieter, sitting calmly on his chair, smiling at Kim’s antics and letting his fingers do the talking on his fretboard.
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