I 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 MoreFirst band tonight The Clan I have mentioned in these hallowed pages previously. They are a local 3-piece, competent, who play pub rock. Dad rock even. They have all the clichés (waistcoats, raccoon tails, synchronised guitar necks, songs about rock and motorbikes) but they do it with a smile. They are easy on the ear, they won’t set the world on fire but I bet they play at an awful lot of bike rallies.
Read MoreThe night didn’t start well. The Creamfields Festival was on the same weekend in my home town of Warrington, and I forgot. This meant that I spent a whole lot more time than I had planned for sitting in barely-moving traffic on the M56, resulting in me completely missing tonight’s first band Hollowpoint. Bah. Sorry Hollowpoint, I’ll catch you next time. The next thing I realised was that my “proper” camera, which had been on the coffee table in my living room while the battery was charging was….. still on the coffee table in my living room. Damn. So I apologise in advance if the pictures aren’t up to our usual standard, the bands were great, the lighting was great, your reviewer is a fuckwit. Onwards!
Read MoreThe Tivoli kept up its practice of giving us a local band as opener by tonight presenting The Clan. Rumour had it that they were yet another pub-rock covers band, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that actually they play original (if derived) traditional British blues rock. Think back to the early 80s (if you are old enough) and there were dozens of bands like this all playing their hearts out and dreaming of following in the footsteps of Iron Maiden or Saxon to the charts and being asked to go on TOTP.
Read MoreWith no particular expectations as to what the evening may bring, I am, tonight travelling down the M56 to the Tivoli in Buckley. Once again, as well as photographing I am back on penning duties. Rock writers these days are as unpredictable in their delivery as a deal for Brexit.
Blaze Bayley is currently on a 4 date mini UK tour before heading for the continent, showcasing his latest release “The Redemption of William Black”, the final instalment of the trilogy “Infinite Entanglement”. Blaze Bayley is infamous for being the guy who was a lead singer for a decade in the band ‘Wolfsbane’ with no notable success (compared with his peers of the late 80s). That is, until Blaze got to be that guy who was picked to replace Bruce Dickinson; Iron Maiden lead singer during the mid 90s Just for a couple of albums whilst Bruce Dickinson was going through a bit of a midlife crisis, being an airline pilot, writer in no particular order. Anyway, I digress.
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