Writer & Photographer : Jo Crosby

Jo went to her first proper gig in 1979, so the first band she ever saw on a theatre stage were Def Leppard. This marked the beginning of a lifelong passion that continues to this day and is the bane of her Grumpy Husband’s life. However, he does get good holidays when she drags him all over the world to see them so it’s not all bad!

Jo represents the lighter end of the ROCKFLESH team, specialising in melodic rock, 80s hair metal, glam, sleaze and surprisingly (or not when you remember how old she is) a bit of NWOBHM and power metal just to confuse people. She also had a teenager in the 90s so whilst other reviewers were wandering in the post-grunge wilderness she managed to develop a love of pop-punk and emo that allows her to occasionally go to gigs where she is likely to be mistaken for the band members’ mother.

These days she is striving to develop an enyclopaedic (and intimate) knowledge of Scandinavian bands in guyliner and lycra, and she strongly disapproves of bands in plaid shirts unless they come from Finland.

By day Jo manages the office for a construction company with a diverse and mostly European workforce, which means she can now tell you to f*** off in seven different languages.

Somebody taller (which is pretty much everyone to be fair) always stands in front of her at gigs, and she can usually be found as far away from any hint of a moshpit as possible drinking rum and complaining that it’s not like the good old days and her feet are killing her.