I’ve mentioned before on these very pages that I seldom book an act blind (to play at the Office) unless they come strongly recommended by somebody whose opinion I trust implicitly. But now and then I do take the odd risk, and occasionally some of these have backfired in my face, although to be honest the majority of them have ended up doing very well. So you can imagine my reservations when I have somebody come up to me and say “you must book this band, they are great”. Everyone’s taste is different, and what they might think is great may end up not being in line with the taste of the majority of the punters that come to the Office. Yet recently I had one of the regulars being very firm about their opinion, and they told me that I simply had to book a band called the Rattlers! I had heard of them, knew them to have a strong ‘indie’ styled edge to them, and probably not in keeping with the traditional heavy rock format that has become so popular at this particular venue. But this person is one of a groupof regulars that do not suffer fools gladly. They’ll be amongst the first ones to sup up and head off if a band aren’t up to their expected standards. So with that in mind then it wasn’t really that much of a gamble for me booking the band, and when the opportunity arose with the lead singer from the Rattlers being in the audience of the Office one night, then destiny seemed to guide my hand.

   The band had played at the Lord Clyde pub just further down the road from the Office, and that’s where some of the regulars had caught them in action. What works in the Clyde doesn’t always work the same way in a much bigger venue like the Office. The Clyde has a fairly intimate setting, with a small stage being situated at the far end of an L-shaped room, and for acoustic acts & blues bands then they can really shine in an environment like this. The Office is a big room with a large stage, and sometimes these same bands can’t recreate the same kind of atmosphere in a venue like this. I’ve seen local giants like Baz Warne struggle to keep everyone’s attention when playing his acoustic sets here, yet witnessed him having amazing gigs at the Clyde. So with that in mind then of course I had a certain amount of reservation as to whether a band like the Rattlers would keep the punters satisfied at a venue that is renowned for it’s heavy rock music. For this time of the year when there is normally a significan drop in attendances because of the approaching Christmas season (happens over the first 3 weekends in December without fail), then the band brought in a decent sized crowd. Those that had seem them perform previously at the Lord Clyde made a point of supporting the group for this gig, plus others turned up who had heard of the band’s good reputation. So for their first ever visit to the Office then the band did quite well for pulling in the punters.

   The singer from the group works in the PA department of a local music shop, so at least they had good equipment to use with a quality Mackie PA rig. I spoke to the singer just before their soundcheck and he was a bit perturbed about the fact that one of the top cabs was refusing to work properly, and couldn’t for the life of him figure out what the problem was. Yet the band had doubled-up on the amount of top cabs they were using (2 per side, plus a bass bin per side), so at least they had 3 fully operational top cabs to get them through this particular show. The end result was that they still had a good working sound system, and this helped them to get a much better impact with the type of material they were airing on this night. After all, a lot of bands playing these kind of songs tend to rely mainly on backline equipment, and can often use smaller rigs to just amplify the vocals (and perhaps a bit of bass drum too). Yet the Rattlers had everything miked up, and it for a venue of this size then it wastotally right in them taking that approach. Their sound is very indie-styled with both guitarists playing Telecaster guitars, and both having a very clean sound as well. Bright jangly guitars aren’t the typical style of instruments that you get to hear at this venue, as most bands play with a big overdriven guitar sound, and this alternative style was something that is rarely heard within these 4 walls. So from the outset I knew that their efforts would undoubtedly fall on some deaf ears.

   But to give this band their dues, they did manage to put on an excellent show that kept the majority of the audience in the room. I knew that some people wouldn’t appreciate it that much, and these folk disappeared within the first 30 minutes, which was quite understandable as nobody is going to sit though an evening of music that quite simply is just not their taste at all. Yet surprisingly some of those rock fans stayed, and later told me that even though the music wasn’t their cup of tea, that they thought the band were marvellous and had really enjoyed the performance. And as for those that had seen the Rattlers play before, then they loved it all the more with getting to see them play at the Office this time. The group are a 4-piece act with drums, bass & 2 guitarists (one of which covers the majority of the lead vocals, with the other one occasionally taking on that duty as well). They have a good all-round sound and a fine sense of professionalism too. The group are mainly aged in their mid 20’s, ith the oldest being the bass player who I recognised as formerly being with the Smalltown Heroes many years ago. More recently he was with a band called the Vulture Squadron, who were a canny band, but were missing a little of that magic that makes groups really stand out from the rest. I can now state that the Rattlers HAVE that magic, and the bassist has now got to play with a set of lads that bring out the best in him. The only other band member I had seen previously was the singer who jumped up and did a guest vocal spot with Feed The Bear at their last Office gig, and he did extremely well back then too.

   As a unit they work incredibly well together, and have a good blend of sounds & styles that compliment each other. The sound mix was better for the second set, but that’s just typical Office syndrome as the mix that the bands get in their soundchecks always alter dramatically when plenty of bodies start to fill the room. It’s quite amazing just how much a mix will change from an empty room to a busy one, and when bands haven’t got the luxury of a separate sound engineer mixing from the back of the room, then they have to make do with what they can achieve earlier on in the night. I thought that the Rattlers faired very well, yet the second set saw their sound gel much better and the vocals cut through nicer too. The singer has a personality, and believe me this is ESSENTIAL when trying to sell your band to an audience. He wasn’t afraid to chat on the mic, and seemed quite relaxed and at home on a stage that he had never played on before. I keep on saying that no matter how well the rest of a band perform generally it’s the lead singer/frontman that has to hold it all together and sell the music to the people out front. This guy did the job brilliantly by engaging the audience while playing, plus having a natter in-between songs too. Yet on top of this he also has a very good voice, and can deliver a vocal line with tons of confidence and projection. In my opinion he was the one that elevated this act from being just another indie band to being a very believable and entertaining group.

   But I’m not taking anything away from the rest of the band as they all did their fair share of the graft as well. The bassist had a nice chunky bass tone that worked superbly with the drums, and together they laid down a very solid backbeat for the guitars & vocals to play off. The other guitarist was the main lead guitarist, and even though the music didn’t demand him to rip out some Eddie Van Halen type guitar solos, he still pulled off some great work that suited the songs perfectly. Whether he was playing structured sustaining melody lines, or ad-libbing with a little free-rein for experimentation, he did a great job that never let the music become boring or predictable. As for the songs themselves, this was a marvellous variety of old-styled masters plus modern classics, which together gave a very wide selection. For instance, the music could go from the Small Faces ‘Lazy Sunday Afternoon’ then through to the Jam’s ‘A Town Called Malice’, then a left turn with the Smith’s ‘This Charming Man’, and thn right up to date with songs by the Killers and the Zutons. Even though there was indeed tons of variety, it did bind together brilliantly with a real sense of consistency throughout the evening. This was a very well thought-out set that avoided the obvious, yet never went too far left-field so as to become too obscure. Yet more importantly it was refreshing to hear music like this and for it to be appreciated by the audience at the same time.

   I couldn’t put bands like this on all of the time, but for the odd Saturday night it was a nice blast of smelling salts to wake your senses back up again. I’ve had a few bands trying to perform similar material in this pub, and some of them just haven’t connected properly with the regular crowd. That didn’t mean they were bad in any way, but they just didn’t seem to have that vibe that made the audience want to stay and watch them all night long. The Rattlers actually have that quality that makes you want to watch them, and they have an uplifting attitude that sees them want to genuinely entertain the crowd, rather than take the normal path of self-indulgence (which is a route that so many indie bands can often take). They may not be standard pub-rock fodder, and you’re certainly not going to get any renditions of ‘Wishing Well’ or ‘Summer Of 69’ out of these lads, but they do have something very good to offer. They offer a viable ALTERNATIVE music to those people that may tire of constant heavy rock, ye it’s a style of music that still has enough commerciality about it to be entertaining in the majority of live music establishments. I’d be more than happy to have the Rattlers come back to the Office next year, and I’m sure that as more people cotton on to their individual brand of live covers, then this group will be very successful. They have some fantastic ingredients in there already, and even though it’s a different dish to the one that normally gets served up, … it’s still very tasty indeed.

   “Why ponder life’s complexities, when the leather runs smooth on the passenger seat” (The Smiths).   Colin Smoult   4 / 12 / 06.

For those who’ve never really heard much of Pat Travers (or his music) then here’s a brief history of the man. He was born in Toronto (Canada) back in 1954, and at the tender age of 12 he managed to see a concert of Jimi Hendrix and was inspired enough to learn to play the guitar. By the age of 20 he’d become a local hero, but he then made a very bold move and relocated to London to further his career. He was a resident of the UK for the next 3 years or so, and during that time he released 3 albums and toured the country constantly (either under his own steam, or as a support to major touring bands). Even though he had some good success in the UK, it wasn’t until he moved to the US and formed the ‘Pat Travers Band’ that he really started to achieve his potential. That line-up featured his faithful side-kick Mars Cowling on bass, the stunning talents of guitarist Pat Thrall, and the awesome powerhouse on drums of Tommy Aldridge. With this band they released 2 studio albums and a live album too, and most pople look upon this era of Pat Travers’ career as his finest period. But animosity flared up between the 2 Pats, and once Tommy Aldridge got lured away for big money touring with Ozzy Osbourne, then it was back to just Travers & Cowling once again. Since then his band line-up’s have never been that stable, with Cowling leaving in the early 90’s. Travers’ success definitely slid once the classic PTB had split in late 1980, and in 1984 (after 3 more studio albums) he finally lost his record deal with Polydor, and from then on he seemed to fall completely off the radar.

It wasn’t until 1990 that he returned to public attention with his first new album in almost 6 years, and a final return to gigging on these shores after an absence of a decade. The years in between hadn’t been good to Pat, and his addiction to alcohol & cocaine had seem him look decidedly the worse for wear. I saw him on that tour at the Newcastle Riverside, and this bloke was so wasted that he had that ‘thousand yard stare’ going on in his eyes. I almost gave up on him after this poor performance, yet just 3 years later he came back a born-again rocker and had totally cleaned up his act. I saw him play at the Cellar Club in South Shields that year, as he had just released what would become the second in a series of blues albums. He was back to being a trio, looked in great shape, and played back to his old high standards. Since then he kept pushing out albums of blues songs throughout the 90’s, and recently he seems to have gotten back in to rock music as well. His current live shows feature a lot of te old rock classics, as well as some newer material and some blues standards also. As for his backing band, … well these line-ups tend to change like the wind, and over the last 15 years he’s played with numerous guitarists, drummers and bassists. Sometimes he keeps the format down to a power-trio, and on other occasions he likes to have a second guitarist on board. Although recently he does seem to have secured the services of drummer Eric Frates as regular member of his band. And with the latest Pat Travers album released last year (‘PT = MC2’), then that brings you right up to date with his past history.

I can’t believe that I forgot all about  this gig in Sunderland, and it wasn’t until I received a timely reminding phone-call when I got home from work, that I suddenly realised it was this very night. So it was a hurried response for me to get my act together, and haul my backside along to Sunderland, and to somehow find this venue down by the newly rejuvenated riverside. The buses had changed their timetables, and it was becoming a right hassle to get there, but eventually I made it with about 30 minutes to spare before the big man was due on stage. So was it worth the effort, … too damn right it was! Even though the audience size was a disappointing 130 – 150 strong crowd, they were loud and enthusiastic, and I think that the band were happy with the response that they got. The concert room was upstairs in the Quayside Exchange building, and it was a very decent sized room with quite a high ceiling. This place is a great room for gigs of this kind, but unfortunately the highly inadequate PA & lighting used for this show did take the sheen off the whole event (more on that later). Yet regardless of the production qualities going out front to the crowd, it couldn’t take away the joy of seeing Pat Travers back on stage in the north east. The band made their way on to the stage, only to then go through a vocal soundcheck for all of the group (why this couldn’t have been done earlier, god knows). Then Pat announced himself with the usual “hello music lovers” catch-phrase, and the band blasted in to their standard opener of ‘Hooked On Music’.

Straight away there were problems with the whole volume being quite low, and the guitars fairly inaudible in the mix (didn’t look like much of a soundcheck had been done previously at all), but it was sorted out fairly promptly during the first number. Pat cranked up his amps on stage during the song, and finally through some signals from one of the band’s crew towards the man at the back on the mixing desk, the on-stage sound through the monitors was tweaked to where the entire band felt happier with the mix. So for the first song I couldn’t really relax and enjoy it properly as I was watching the on-going saga of hand signals & confusion, with the group attempting to get the right sound for themselves on stage. But by the end of that opening number the mix had drastically improved on stage and out front too. As the first song faded the group shot straight in to the marvellous ‘Life In London’ and it was then that they really started to shine on stage. Pat’s own guitar sound was sounding quite stunning,with a stereo set-up of one 4 x 12 cab powered by 2 JCM900 amps. He was playing a black stained PRS guitar for most of the night, and of course going through a plethora of rack mounted effects (obviously housed somewhere off stage). But it wasn’t just Pat’s guitar sound that was coming across so well, because on this night his voice sounded quite magnificent too. Pat is a very under-rated vocalist, and it’s his distinct vocal quality plus his subtly chorused guitar that give him his trademark sound. His voice was on superb form for this night, and better than any of the 90’s gigs that I had seen him play previously. His clean-living habits of the last few years have seen him improve remarkably, and he was honestly back to his blinding form from the 70’s & early 80’s.

Then the next track aired was ‘Crash & Burn’ and PT delivered a perfect 3-punch combination to start this night off just right. 3 classic songs from his most memorable years, and a better introduction to the band you simply could not achieve. The original version of this song had Pat playing keyboards on it, but this 2-guitar rendition was exceptional, and I felt it was equally as effective as the version that the majority of people have heard the most. Of course there had to be some inclusions of Pat’s newer material as well, and the first of these was a song called ‘I Don’t Care’. It was a good hard-rocking song with a catchy chorus and full of typical Travers hooks. Then the group played one of my all-time favourite songs with the breath-taking ‘Heat In The Street’, complete with the gorgeously structured guitar solo in the middle. Pat took a back-seat on this solo and let the other guy do it, and he performed it amazingly well considering that it was originally played by master guitarist Pat Thrall. hen it was another song from the last album named after his son ‘Elijah’. This number went down well, but nowhere near as positive as the massive reaction that the next song received. ‘Stevie’ is one of those classic tracks that has remained a stable part of Travers’ live set for over 30 years, and still to this day puts a shiver down my spine. The harmonised ‘echo’ of the twin-guitar intro is simplistic in nature and yet hauntingly effective. Pat’s vocals on this were brilliant, both guitarists played their backsides off, and Eric on drums really got to show off on the closing section of this song. This was probably the best song of the night (in my eyes), and showed the full band to be at their peak for this tremendous rendition of such an anthemic ballad.

From then on the show took a decidedly different turn, with the next 3 numbers all being blues tracks. I’m not a big fan of the blues at all, and even though Pat played incredibly well, I kind of got a bit lost on this material. Yet for others in the crowd they were loving every second of it, and at the end of the day Pat’s solos and guitar licks have all been based around the blues anyway. It’s just that I like the faster pace of his rock’n’roll feel, and I think the up-tempo stuff suits his abilities (and that of the rest of the band) so much better. The first track was the old Hendrix standard of ‘Red House’ which is a really slow blues song, and just so not me! Then for the next couple of numbers he changed guitar to a Strat-styled custom model, and played some very tasty slide guitar on it. I can’t remember the song titles (is it hard to tell that blues has never been my preference), yet I know that one of them was an old Robert Johnson song. I did enjoy the slide-work, very much so, but I was dyingfor him to burst in to ‘You Don’t Love Me’ which would have been a much better tune to show off his slide abilities, or even ‘States’bro Blues’. But eventually the blues section of the show was over, and then it was time for the last of the newer material, and this time it was an instrumental called ‘PT Nuts’. This was a reworking of the old Peanuts (Charlie Brown cartoon) theme tune, which was normally played by Schroeder while Snoopy danced on his piano. The song worked well, and I did recognise it, even though it was in a very different style to the original jazz-trio workout.

Then it was back to the favourites with a blistering version of ‘Snortin Whiskey’ that sent this crowd in to raptures. It’s probably PT’s best known song, still gets occasionally played by cover bands today, and it’s got a killer of a guitar riff! After that it was final song of the night, and what else could it have been but that the singa-longa-anthem of ‘Boom Boom, Out Go The Lights’. Pat told a really cool story of how the crowd participation aspect of the song first originated back in the mid 70’s at the Newcastle Mayfair, and has become an integral part of the song ever since. Of course the audience sang their hearts out with this track, and then all too quickly the gig was over. The band did come back for just one encore, and this was a very lengthy version of ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’. It started off with Pat on stage alone playing ditties by using his volume knob on his guitar and with tons of echo (very similar to Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Cathedral’). Then it eventually broke in to the main riff and wa padded out with many guitar solos from both players. The pace of the set kind of left on a limp note, and it might not have been the most ideal of encores. I personally would have loved to have heard ‘Rock & Roll Susie’, ‘Makin Magic’, or any other of his classic songs, but at least he did put in some of those fan favourites in to the set this night and pleased a lot of folk by doing so. It was a fine show that put the great man back in to a correct perspective. His booze-riddled years were not his best of times, and not only did it force his career to slow right down, but it also masked this person’s true capabilities. But for those that loved Pat Travers’ work during his 75 – 84 period, then this gig saw that guy back to peak form once again.

And now for the negative comments. The gig was slightly spoiled by the very pathetic lighting rig and painfully inadequate PA system. Firstly the lights consisted of just 2 trusses each containing 4 small cans situated as far away as possible from each side of the stage. Out of these 8 lights, only 4 of them had coloured gels in them, with the other four just blasting out pure white light. The stage had virtually no colour to it at all, and they may as well have just left the house lights on for all the good this tiny rig was doing to the performance. As for the PA, it was loud enough, but tone-wise it had big holes in it with the lower mid-range noticeably absent. This rig consisted of 2  x 18” speaker cabinets on each side of the stage, in tiny cabinets that were only just big enough to house the speaker, and below each one was a 6” diameter port. The bottom end was quite boomy and muffled, with no real distinction. As for the top cabs, these were 3 sets per side of 2 x 10” Celestion cabs, that produce upper-mid and top-end frequencies, but very little below that. The truth is that there were no medium sized cabs there at all to produce the warming qualities that some much-need lower mid-range would have provided. There needed to be some 12” or 15” speakers there too, and with this strange rig it sounded decidedly bright and boomy at the same time, but with NOTHING in-between. I don’t think that this was Pat Travers touring set-up, and had most likely been provided by the venue. I think that the Sunderland Quayside Exchange need to seriously review this matter if they are going to have more music events on of this style in this room. A more suitable production would have made the band shine even brighter, and it’s something that the venue should take very serious note of.

Never the less, I had a great time, and apart from the band being superb I also got to see a few familiar faces there too. It was good to see John Taylor there (Black Rose & Damage Control soundman), Gary from Avenger, Billy & Trevor (Duke of Cumberland regulars) plus a decent squad of people there from South Shields. Amongst the Shields posse were Pally, Marshall, Taylor, Mabs & Ellie (there you go lads, you get to see your names in print at last), plus some other familiar faces from the Steamboat pub. I’m pleased that I got to see Pat play once more, and especially when he was on such excellent form. I still would have liked to have heard a few more tunes from the old back catalogue being aired, but he wasn’t playing just to please me, and generally I think most folk there were very satisfied with the overall show. Once again this Canadian guitarist proved a very simple fact of life, … that PT ROCKS!!!

“I’ve had so much cocaine, I ain’t ever coming down” (Snortin’ Whiskey).  Colin Smoult.  24 / 11/ 06.

All pics from Pat Travers website.

It’s always a strange thing to see a new band, and to know so very little about them. Sure enough, I can log on to their own website (via the Riffs ‘bands websites’ section) and check out certain details on there, but that doesn’t really give any true info on what a band are like ‘live’ on stage. That can only realistically be assessed by actually witnessing a full gig by a group, and only then can you truly gasp the real vibe & essence of a band. Big Davy’s email was pleasantly reassuring, as the last thing I wanted to do was just throw on any old band to fill in a slot that had appeared in the diary. And as for finally seeing any act that I have personally booked ‘blind’ to play at the Office, there is always a degree of having your heart in your mouth, praying that they do well, and more importantly being able to please the punters that are there. I did catch them finishing off their soundcheck as I entered the venue, and even though they really weren’t playing a song right through (nor was there any ocalist in sight at all), it seemed to go well and sound very decent. They had quite a large sized PA rig for a band that have only been in action for about 18 months, and it was surprising to see them have such a large set-up at this early stage of their careers. So I knew that we weren’t going to get a wimpy light-weight sound filtering through the building on this night, and that even if the songs didn’t quite hit the spot, then at least the overall mix should be of a good quality. A few minutes later a guy introduced himself as Jimmy, and it was only during the course of our conversation that I clicked that he was in fact the singer with the band. He had been working late and had only just managed to arrive at the pub, but still got there a good 45 minutes before the band were due on stage. Yet the soundcheck had all been done without him being there, so I still had no idea as to how he was going to sound. I suppose this just further added to the anticipation of me waiting for them to start their show.

Time marched on, the house lights dimmed, the band made their way on to the stage, and at last the waiting was over. This was going to be the proof of the pudding that I hadn’t made a big mistake (as god knows I’ve made some real clunkers in the past) and that Big Davy’s positive view on the band was a well-made judgement. And guess what, … Hocus Pocus came through for me with flying colours! The band kicked in with full power and united purpose, and gave an absolutely cracking performance. Jimmy certainly didn’t look like a typical lead vocalist in a rock band, and there he was with immaculately cropped hair, black leather pants, with his white open-chested shirt tucked in to them. He did have the look of a club artiste about him, and certainly didn’t resemble the average rough & ready singers we all normally get to see in our local pubs. Yet once you got past the Tom Jones look (he’s going to kill me for saying that), he was actually a very decent vocalist. He had a good range, lots of power, and with  genuine positivity in his vocal attack. He was very up-beat with his banter when talking to the audience, and again it may have had a little bit of a club-styled vibe about it, but I Ioved the fact that he wasn’t frightened to talk to the crowd and it showed his confidence to be very strong in nature. So not only did Hocus Pocus have a talented singer to lead their band, but in him they also had a proper frontman too. And I swear to you that in this day & age of live music, that having a decent frontman can make the difference between being just a canny band, or being a really good live music act. But Jimmy wasn’t on his own here as there were 4 musicians on stage supporting him, and they all played their own part in making this a very good all-round performance.

The guitarist on the far left of the stage (as you look at it) appeared to be a quiet unassuming lad in a woollen hat, and he didn’t make a lot of movement all night long, although he certainly let his fingers do the talking for him. As the main lead guitarist he was a really fine player. He pulled out some very tasty and quite melodic soloing, and instead of just getting a flurry of mindless notes pouring out like a typist on amphetamines, he actually formed some good solo structures and only put the speed in when it was necessary. He had a very high-gain driven sound which in rhythm mode might not have had a nice natural crisp crunch to it, but it worked brilliantly for his lead breaks. The other guitarist played most of the rhythm parts for the duration of the gig, and rarely got a chance to play any lead stuff, but he certainly filled up the sound gaps excellently. He played some great 12-string acoustic backing as well (which sounded mega in the mix) and he had a really nice crunch rhythm sound for is electric guitar too. It was nice to see him get in to the music more as the night progressed, and to visually see him punching the air and singing along to the tunes showed that he was really getting in to it. The bassist is probably the oldest member of the band (with the rest of them aged from late 20’s to late 30’s), yet he was probably ‘the’ most animated out of the whole bunch as he never stopped still in once place for more than 2 seconds. He was also the chap in charge of the mixing desk too, and from what I heard out front then he did a really fine job with the band’s sound. The drummer did a good job too, pulled out some nice drumming for Rush’s ‘Xanadu’, and showed that he was pretty nifty around the kit. However I did get the overall feeling that a lot of the songs were a tad rushed, and some of the tempos of the tracks perhaps picked up a little too much pace (even for live).

The songs varied in range from typical standard pub-rock classics like Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ & Free’s ‘Wishing Well’, right up to the far less usual stuff like Metallica’s take on the old Diamond Head epic ‘Am I Evil’. I certainly was not expecting them to play anything like that in the slightest, and was in fact quite shocked that they played that track, yet they did it superbly and it went down surprisingly well with the crowd too. The mixture of the familiar and the slightly less-obvious, worked really well. C’mon, how many bands (other than Rush tribute acts) would you expect to play ‘Xanadu’? Technically speaking that song may not have been perfectly executed, but the guts & determination shown to even attempt a track of that magnitude & complexity totally impressed me. In fact through out the whole night this band just grew on me constantly, because of their positive attitude and ‘hunger’ to go out there and entertain the crowd. Generally speaking they had a certain roughness around the edges f their music, but it wasn’t all that noticeable as the band shone over that with their liveliness & on-stage personalities. And that’s why I titled this review as ‘rough diamonds’ because even though they might not be as musically flawless as some of our top acts in the region, they still shone through on their own merit. Hocus Pocus were a great example of bands having a massive appeal because of the ‘spirit’ of their live performances, and to the majority of live music fans out there I think this matters far more than seeing some old blues trio nailing every note perfectly, yet having the personality of pond life. But to be honest it doesn’t matter what style of music the group are playing or what covers they choose to play, as long as it’s done with passion & flair then that’s what matters the most. And as Hocus Pocus have a bit fire in their bellies then that makes their live show very enjoyable.

Their singer Jimmy mentioned the Riffs ‘Top 20 Cheese List’, and if I had a pound for everytime that gets mentioned on stage at the Office then I’d have £87.53p (ha-ha). But seriously, I’m pleased that people have taken note that some of those songs have been played to death, and it’s even more gratifying when bands actually go out of their way to adjust their set to be less run-of-the-mill. This was the case with Hocus Pocus on this night too, as their full squad of songs that they can choose from does include a few old groaners (we’ll I’d groan a bit at them anyway). Yet they purposefully avoided them on this occasion, and mixed it up a bit to include some fresher material. So out went oldies like ‘Don’t Believe A Word’, ‘Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love’, plus ‘The Hunter’ & ‘Alright Now’ as well (hurrah!). In it’s place came beauties like ‘The Zoo’ by Scorpions, ‘Bar Room Boogie’ by Y&T, and an absolute corker that I had never heard before, ‘Open Invitation’ by Santana (which I thought was the dog’s bollocks). Yet the finest song of the night (in my eyes) had to be their tremendous version of Jethro Tull’s ‘Aqualung’, which was splendid to the maximum. Great vocals, classy guitar lines, solid acoustic guitar accompaniment, and played to its very best. Lynyrd Skynryd’s ‘Freebird’ was aired too, and sounded incredibly fine with a ‘real’ acoustic guitar backing as did the original studio recording. Deep Purple’s ‘Highway Star’ was very well received, as were tracks like Alice Cooper’s ‘Schools Out’ and the Cult’s ‘Lil Devil’. The AC/DC covers were done in excellent style too, and most remarkable were ‘the’ most faithful Jewish backing vocals I have every heard on ‘Dirty Deeds’. It sounded spookily just like the record! Whatever these lads put their hands to then they pushed out decent quality versions, and I personally was very pleased with the reduction of cheese they had deliberately enforced for this gig.

The band appeared to have a brilliant time, and as the evening progressed then they seemed to settle in and relax much more in the environment of the Office. By the time they were wrapping things up then you’d have found it hard to believe that it was actually their first ever gig there. The confidence levels were right up to max, the atmosphere coming from the stage was heightened, and the audience were really enjoying this group’s performance. As one of the regulars said to me on this night,”the best way I judge a band is whether I’d want to bother to go and see them again, … and I’d definitely come and watch these play again”. I think he basically summed it up that the group had put on a good enough show to win the punters over, and I guarantee that I’ll have this lot back on at the Office in the new year. As I mentioned earlier, this wasn’t musical perfection, but that’s not what really mattered. What did matter is that they ENTERTAINED the crowd, and still played their songs to a reasonably decent sandard. They had a good sound mix, a set list with some nice selections, and a good attitude on stage. From me having initial doubts if I’d done the right thing by booking them virtually blind, then I’ll be one of the first ones looking forward to their next return visit to this venue. I’m so pleased that they finally got their opportunity to play at the Office, and that they truly proved their worth with a very good show. Maybe a year ago (when they were originally booked for this venue) they might not have been at this kind of standard back then. I think the time taken for them to develop has seen them polish their set up nicely, and they are now progressing in a really positive manner. I could imagine a band like this going down well at bike rallies, and especially with mixed audiences of different age groups. They had a certain charm about them that was very likeable, and I want them to be part of the regular bands that play at this venue from now on.

   For my first experience of Hocus Pocus then I was pleasantly surprised at how well they came across. This wasn’t a group still trying to find their feet, … this was an act that had found their purpose & direction and having tons of fun as well.

“Snots running down his nose, greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes” (Aqualung).  Colin Smoult.  14 / 11 / 06.

Thanks to Hocus Pocus for the use of pics from their website - any band that would like Riffs very own lensman need only ask!

A few months back I got a phone call from a chap called Chris who was representing a band called Floyd2 (I later found out he was the guitarist). As you can guess, they are a Pink Floyd tribute band, and were looking at getting a booking for the Office venue in South Shields. These lot are definitely not a pub band in that kind of sense, and were looking to get a booking for the ‘upstairs’ larger function room. But with the band’s name being mostly unheard of, and with no real reputation behind them at this stage, then it seemed a bold move to put a gig on in a room of that large size. So I twisted Chris’s arm in to staging a much smaller show in the downstairs room and letting it be free admission. My idea was to give the punters a ‘taster’ of the group first, before suggesting ticket fees for a band they had never heard of before. I know that Chris and the group really had their hearts set on the upper level room where they knew that they could put on their full sound & light spectacle, but they decide to go with the option of scaling it down to get a foothold in to the venue. When I say “scaling it down” I was reckoning on a 2 – 3k PA rig and perhaps a dozen normal can lights with perhaps a couple of effects lights. That was the maximum I was expecting for a gig in this room where so many bands have performed before with so much less equipment. But that certainly was not the case when Floyd2 played at the Office on Saturday the 4th of November.

When I got in to the room I could see that most of the dance-floor area in front of the stage was taken up with a huge white curtain, with the black outline of bricks painted on it. Obviously this was a homage to Pink Floyd’s famous ‘The Wall’ live shows, and it remained in position for a large amount of time (even when the band started to play). The soundcheck had all been completed by the time I arrived at the venue for about 8pm, and the lights had all been set up and checked out too. Seemingly the band and their vast amount of equipment had turned up the second the restaurant closed at 5pm, and from then on it had been all hands to the deck for the band and their crew to get this set up properly before the punters started to show their faces at the pub. And I have to take my hats off to them for doing such a magnificent job in that short a time-frame. I’ve often seen bands arrive at 8pm and just start to bring their gear in then, whereas this lot had everything set up by then which allowed time for th crowd to build and have a natter, without any annoying soundchecks taking place. The plan worked perfectly, and the room filled up creating a nice atmosphere, yet with everybody staring blankly at the large curtain wondering when it was going to come down. As it got closer to show-time then I was expecting their roadies to unhook this obstructing curtain so that we could all see the band perform. This simply never happened! The house lights dimmed, the intro tape kicked off, and you could see the slight silhouettes shapes of the band members ready to go. What on earth was going on?

Then Floyd2 kicked off with their opening number of ‘In The Flesh’ from ‘The Wall’ album, and it sounded STUNNING! The power & glory from this 6k mega-efficient PA rig was monstrous, and the sound mix was to die for. You could feel the bottom end frequencies moving the air in the room, and as Kev Charlton remarked to me “I can feel my jeans flapping with the bass”. Yet it wasn’t booming or particularly muddy in any respect, and it was one of the finest and most powerful sound mixes I had heard since the Force played here at the beginning of the year. The curtain remained up through out this first song, and I began to question it’s usefulness as the crowd were looking about bemused as to if it was going to stay that way all-night long. But as the track reached it’s climax with the noise of an aeroplane crashing (as per the original studio version) and then the massive sheet dropped and flash bombs went off simultaneously. The effect was tremendous, and within 3 minutes of the band opening up they had the udience in this room transfixed. From that moment onwards you instinctively knew that this was no typical downstairs ‘pub-band’ gig, … this was an event! Not only was this a band that had a brilliant sound system, but the lighting show was out of this world too. We may not be talking City Hall standards, but certainly the biggest and most flamboyant visual display of colour that this downstairs room has ever seen. The amount of equipment they had was only truly recognised once the main curtain had fallen, and on top of this they had a huge custom built lighting truss heavily adorned with a multitude of high-powered cans, plus a large array of scanner lights too.

The music continued with the unusual inclusion of ‘The Fletcher Memorial Home’ which is a track from the grossly under-rated album ‘The Final Cut’ (which the present Pink Floyd seemed to have disowned in view of it almost being a Roger Waters solo album). Yet this melancholy number worked well being played this early on in the evening, and it was a very pleasant surprise for me to hear it being aired. Next up was the very familiar quietly building keyboard intro of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ which of course developed with an bluesy guitar accompaniment, and then pushing in to full flight with the drums eventually kicking in too. As a band they are all excellent musicians. I cannot really fault any particular member as everybody took to their own musical role so well, and as a team they performed magnificently. The band are essentially a 5-piece outfit, with guitar, bass, drums & keyboards (just as with the real Pink Floyd in their early days) but also with the addition of a sole lead vocalist and occasonal ‘guest’ appearances from a female saxophonist when the music required it. Combined together they have a very rich & full sound that compliments the original recordings very accurately, as well managing to create a lush sonic splendour in such an unusual environment as a pub. To be honest, this was a ‘theatre show’ and simply not what you’d expect to see in a pub at all. The entire production was so much bigger than what is the norm for this room, and for any unsuspecting punter that just walked in off the street expecting to see an average pub band playing ‘The Hunter’ (ha-ha), then they must have shit their pants!

Their singer has a fantastic voice. The clarity of his vocal delivery was superb, and he provided top-notch professional vocals all night long. To look at he bore an uncanny similarity to The Simpsons (cartoon series) character of Comic-book Man. That’s not me trying to be insulting in any way, as I was blown away by this guy’s voice. But with his long dark hair in a pony-tail, his portly frame, and sporting John Lennon styled spectacles, then he seriously did look like this cartoon character come to life. But what a voice! From the harder rocking stuff of ‘Run Like Hell’ through to the tender strains of ‘Wish You Were Here’, he covered every vocal melody with complete accuracy and total clarity. I could tell that he was a shy person as he made very little eye-contact with the audience, and chose to scrunch his eyes up while singing, or to look to the sides of the stage when he was not. Either way, I could sense his discomfort of being centre-stage with so many eyes focused on him, and even though he is  splendid singer, he wasn’t a natural frontman. With this in mind then it really was up to the rest of the band to sell themselves on stage, and unfortunately there wasn’t much of that going on either for this occasion. Don’t get me wrong here, as musicians they played their roles amazingly well and musically did all that was necessary to weave their sonic tapestries. But because there was so little interaction between the band and their audience then it did very much become a gig that was pretty much all about the sound & lights. But as this is early days for the group then I have to give them the benefit of the doubt that they’ll be working on this for future shows.

The set content wasn’t too far removed from what the likes of Eclipse and Shine On have been performing recently. We were given a rendition of the entire ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ epic album, with the exception of the female vocal sections of ‘Great Gig In The Sky’. This was played to an excellent standard, and with having a ‘real’ saxophonist on stage (no keyboard simulated parts) then it did give the band a very organic and natural sound. Having the opening acoustic guitar parts for ‘Wish You Were Here’ on a backing tape was a little weird, but there has to be some amount of give and take when you’re limited to just one guitarist on stage. The material went right back to 1972 with ‘One Of These Days’ from the Meddle album, and went through to the mid 90’s with some songs from Pink Floyd’s very final studio release ‘The Division Bell’ including ‘What Do You Want From Me’ and ‘Coming Back To Life’. So there were the odd departures from the set list that our other 2 local bands have chosen to perform, but geerally it was pretty much in a very similar vein. The full Dark Side rendition does seem to win over the punters every time I’ve seen it performed (no matter by which tribute to Pink Floyd) as with it being one of the biggest selling albums of all-time, then it seems that everybody recognises it. But I do often see this album over-shadowing it’s follow-up, which was the incredible ‘Wish You Were Here’, and perhaps one day I’d like to see a Floyd tribute perform this album live in it’s entirety too.

And of course there were a good selection of tracks from ‘The Wall’ album too, with ‘Another Brick In The Wall’, ‘Run Like Hell’, ‘Young Lust’, and of course ‘Comfortably Numb’. So I don’t think anybody could complain that the band had missed out the main Floyd songs, unless of course you were a die-hard fan of the Syd Barrett era. Towards the end of the show there were some technical problems where the band lost complete power on 2 occasions. I must stress that this was NOT the fault of the band themselves, but instead due to a touchy trip-switch which was struggling to deal with the immense amount of electrical juice that Floyd2’s equipment was pulling from the pub’s supply. It was annoying and aggravating that their music got cut off in its prime twice, yet after the second time we got their lighting engineer to reduce the amount of on-stage lights being used to ensure that the music wasn’t interrupted any more. The hiccups were frustrating to deal with, but I don’t think that it took any shine away fom this band’s highly polished overall performance. The show was meant to last a solid 2 hours, and I think they just about managed to play everything that they had set out to do in the first place (even though the gig went about 25 minutes overtime due to interruptions). But the audience absolutely loved the band, cheered their backsides off, and gave them a very warm reception. And as for Floyd2, they basically achieved what they set out to do. They gave the local punters as taste of what their full potential show could be like, and proved themselves to be very worthy of playing in the upstairs room at sometime in the future.

Needless to say, Floyd2 WILL be returning to the Office next year, and finally get their big gig upstairs. The band are returning to the venue on Sunday the 8th of April (Easter Sunday) and will be performing their full show with NO interruptions this time, and also bringing their entire sound & light production along with them too. As I said before, this isn’t a pub band, and their gig in that lower level room was strictly a one-off. They really are a theatre act, and unless you catch them in your local auditorium in the near future, then a trip to the Office for next Easter might be a date well worth pencilling in to your diary. Best wishes to all the band members of Floyd2 and to their excellent crew who supported them throughout. I’m so pleased that you played at the Office, and even more so that you put on such a stunning show in that lower room. How many bands can say their equipment was ‘too much’ for the Office to handle? (ha-ha). Bigger, louder & brighter yes, … and probably better for it too!

Colin Smoult.  14 / 11 / 06.

Thanks to Floyd2 for the use of pics from their website.

P.S. For Pink Floyd fans who can’t wait until next Easter for another fix, Eclipse are laying downstairs at the Office on Saturday the 30th of December, … and it’s free too!

Have you ever heard of a band called The Brew? Probably not as the group are based in Grimsby, and rarely manage to get in to this region to perform gigs. Yet they did play a batch of dates a good few months back, and one of these was at the Bluebell pub in Sunderland. A good friend of mine was at the pub that night and was absolutely blown away by the group, in particular by their young guitarist. I got an excited email from Neil the telling me that I simply had to book this band for the Office, and also that this young guitarist was one of the finest natural talents he had seen in ages. He was able to pass my phone number on to Tim their bassist (who also manages The Brew) and between us we were able to work out a booking for them in the autumn. With the band being based in Grimsby then the booking was almost 6 months in advance, but I was confident that my mate’s judgement would be sound, and that the group (regardless of who turned out to see them) would still give me a quality performance. So once aain I booked a band blind (not the best way, I assure you), yet only because the recommendation came from a very reliable source. So I didn’t know quite what to expect from the band, other than they were classic late 60’s power-trio, and had this visually exciting guitarist of an incredibly young age. This booking could have all gone pair-shaped, but instead this gig turned out to be one of the most exciting debut performances of the entire year for the Office. Here’s a review of the gig played by The Brew on Saturday the 14th of October.

I wasn’t able to find a website for this act prior to their appearance at the venue, so basically I had no idea what they really consisted of, or even what music they played. The band did send some posters through to advertise the gig, and on them they did mention that the band played a lot of Hendrix and Led Zeppelin covers, as well as their own written material which was in a very similar vein. I could see that the guitarist looked young, but couldn’t make out that much of the other 2 band members from the photo. It wasn’t until I got to the venue on the night of the gig that I started to fully understand the structure of the group and the real vibe of them all. The Brew consist of Tim Smith (aged about 40-ish) on bass and lead vocals, his son Kurtis Smith (aged 18) on drums, and the baby of the band Jason Barwick (aged 17) on guitar. The material that they play is very late 60’s / early 70’s British blues-rock with a strong funk edge. If you think of some of the up-tempo songs that Hendrix recorded inhis last couple of years before his death, then you wouldn’t be that far off the mark. The band also have a strong affinity with Led Zeppelin (their drummer is obviously a huge Bonham fan) and there’s even a bit of Cream in there too (probably more from Tim’s older tastes). But together their old-school influences are all mixed up, and the very best elements from all these great acts are used for their own song writing. In fact their own self-penned material is so close to the vibe & structure of music from 35 – 40 years ago that you could honestly believe that these were original tunes from that era.

I wasn’t expecting a large turnout for this gig at all, basically because the band are fairly unknown in this region. Yet they had made such an impact when they played up here 6 months back that they had started to create a real interest in them. Plus they had just done 2 gigs at the Bluebell & Trillians for the 2 nights previously, and word of mouth had gotten around that this was an exceptional act that must be checked out while the opportunity was there. So surprisingly the turnout was very decent, and probably one of the best for what was a group from well out of the area that had never played at the Office before. A chunk of this crowd had popped in on the off-chance to see what this band were like, with the full intentions of nipping across the road after half time to then catch the second set of Black Rose playing at the Lord Clyde pub. The Clyde is close competition to the Office, and if they have good acts on there for a Friday or Saturday night then it can force the local punters to have to chose which venue they go to that evening. Some of the regulars box-clever and tend to pop in to the Office first to catch a selection of both bands throughout the night. For this gig that’s exactly what was intended, and with the popularity of Black Rose then I thought that a debut show for The Brew at the Office could be badly attended, yet the crowd that amassed were very inspiring. And to the group’s credit the majority of these punters STAYED for the entire duration of this gig! The impact that this trio had on the Office audience was quite unbelievable. The roar from the crowd after just the first song was massive, and I knew that if the band could keep up this level on entertainment then I had just happened across one of the most exciting groups that I’d seen in quite some time.

The Brew deliberately split their set in to 2 halves, each with it’s own very distinctive style and trademark. For the first set their music was totally Hendrix inspired. The band opened up with one of their own numbers, and it was typical Hendrix in it’s format & execution. From then on they kept up the formula of playing a Hendrix cover and then following it with another one of their own tracks, yet all keeping entirely in the same vein. This approach worked seamlessly, and it made their own music feel that it could have been written from the exact same era as these Hendrix classics. The first thing that hits you when you see this band perform is the stunning tightness of the musicians, and when you take in to account that 2 thirds of the band are aged 18 or under, then the confidence & talents of this group are truly astounding! The drummer Kurtis is a perfect blend of Mitch Mitchell, John Bonham & Keith Moon, and knows how to work the toms to create and exciting rhythm, rather than relying on ride cybal & hi-hats to keep that groove going. His abilities with his hands are excellent, yet his foot-work on the bass drum is even more amazing. Within the context of this power-trio then there is plenty of space for him to display his talents, and god knows this lad has some serious amount of talent. If he can reach this quality of musicianship while still in his teens, then the future for Kurtis is incredibly bright, and The Brew are the ideal vehicle in which to show himself off to his very best standards. He’s an explosive drummer with a marvellous feel for rhythm, and currently making one hell of a reputation for himself.

His Dad Tim is probably the mastermind behind this whole project, and the fact that these other 2 lads play a style of music so far away from their youthful age, then Tim’s taste in music must have had some influence over the direction taken by this group. As a bassist he’s very competent, and locks in perfectly with his son forming an water-tight rhythm section that grooves along perfectly allowing the guitarist to go off at all kinds of different tangents. As a team the 3 of them work so well together, yet Tim is probably the glue that keeps it all intact, and it’s his excellent playing abilities that bond the music so solidly. As the only singer on stage (no backing vocals at all) then all the vocal duties are purely down to him. He does well in this department, but it’s obviously not his main strength. He manages to sing the band’s own material far better than their chosen covers, but you can tell that his heart in more in to the instrumental side of the group. And when the 3 of them of working so had with no vocals at all, then this is where the band really shine at their brightest. I hate to say this next statement as the 3 of them are all such fantastic musicians, but the star of the show (in my eyes, and in most of this audience’s opinion as well) was young Jason on guitar. This lad is f**king AWESOME! To see such a stunningly mature ability in somebody so young is breath-taking. He has one of the most natural feels for his instrument that I have ever witnessed, and he makes it all look so effortless. It’s not just the lighting fast dexterity of his left hand on the guitar neck, but also his fluently strumming right hand which keeps better timing than a top-quality Rolex. His rhythmic feel for his guitar is something very much in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughn, and his soloing expertise is out of this world.

I could write for ages trying to describe this young lad to you all, but mere words wouldn’t do a true description much justice. What you need to do is SEE this lad in action to truly understand what I’m trying to get across. He’s like a natural wonder that popped out of his mamma’s womb with a Strat in his hand. From what I can gleam he’s been playing guitar since the age of 5, and in that time he’s turned his hobby in to a career that should see him through to the end of his days. He’s exceptionally talented, and would be raved about as being a tremendous player even if he was double his actual age. Yet at just 17 years old he is an absolute marvel to behold, and he left many jaws hanging wide open at this venue. Together this band are a real ‘power-trio’ in the very best sense of that phrase, and for the first set they powered their way through a 45 minute selection of Hendrix covers and their own songs, all done with a flair & confidence well beyond the ages of the 2 youngest band members. The positie reaction from the crowd was more than I could have ever hoped for, and as I said earlier, it’s to The Brew’s credit that the majority of these people stayed in the building to watch the second set as well. This second slot was very different in approach, as Jason discarded his beloved Strat and went for a Les Paul guitar instead. Now the covers were all based around Led Zeppelin, and with that their own material definitely had a stronger leaning towards that style as well. The guitar work might not have been as flowery for this second half of the night, but this in turn gave Kurtis on drums more opportunity to show his Bonham influences, and with it came more heaviness and a little less funk.

Yet again the band chose to make their own material intermittent with the Zep covers, and again this worked brilliantly as it showed how well they have taken note of these classics and forged their own songs in to a very similar fashion. I noticed the double-neck electric guitar sitting in the corner of the stage, and sure enough towards the back end of this gig they played ‘Stairway To Heaven’. Quite a superbly executed rendition that was more in the line of the ‘Song Remains The Same’ live version, as opposed to the original studio recording. The vocals let it down a little when they shot in to the higher range for the climax of the song (yet singing an octave lower), but then again not many people can sing Robert Plant’s vocal melodies in that key. Generally Tim did very well, but of course trying to sing Zeppelin songs is a hard task for anybody, and a job that not many singers feel confident in achieving perfectly. The encore was the Who’s ‘My Generation’, and this was a great way to end things off fter playing 45 minutes of Hendrix, and 45 minutes of Zeppelin(covers & own song-stylings). I can’t believe how quickly the whole show passed, as I was so engrossed in watching it all. Visually Jason is fantastic to watch, and he puts his entire soul in to the music that he performs, which in turn makes him an absolute dream to see for both punters and fellow musicians. He was dripping in sweat by the end of it all with his shirt soaked right through, but seemed to be enjoying every second of it, and he is undoubtedly a born performer. But that takes nothing away from the superb roles of both Kurtis on drums and his dad on bass. These 2 are also magnificent players, and they also put their hearts & souls in to this show as well.

And I’m very happy to say that their hard work paid off for them, as they delighted this assembled crowd at the Office to the point where they are hungry to get The Brew back here as soon as possible. With this band coming from Grimsby then they aren’t the sort of act you can catch playing around this region every single weekend. But through determination and good fortune, I’ve managed to secure the band to come back to the Office in late February. They’ll also be playing a gig at the Grange in Sunderland on Thursday, February the 22nd of February, and another venue (not yet specified) during that same weekend. So I strongly urge any lovers of quality live music to try and check out at least one of these gigs when they are next back in this area. I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed with this band, and if you need any further recommendations then just speak to anybody that saw them play during this past weekend in October. I’m sure you’ll get the same kind of response that I have given, and hat is that The Brew are tremendous band of exceptional quality. Musically they produce electric performances of such a high standard, and visually they are incredibly exciting to watch as well. Forget about the age of these 2 young lads, they are brilliant musicians in their own right, and I would still be raving on about them if they were in their late 30’s or 40’s. The rest of the country is already starting to discover the potential of this group, as The Brew are very busy playing regular shows up and down these shores (and in to Europe too). But watch out for 2007 as this is the year when the North East will take The Brew to their hearts, and this act will become one of the hottest properties in the region.

   Blown away by The Brew, … Colin Smoult.  20 / 10 / 06.

Firstly the band’s name has always had that club-like vibe to it, almost in a Peter Kay ‘Park Avenue’ kind of way, which has probably been a small stumbling block for them in the past. But once you look beyond that then they are a typical 5-piece ‘rock’ line-up, with twin guitars and a separate lead vocalist/frontman. I think that after my email correspondence with Sandy, and with them being regular readers of Riffs, then they realised that I’ve never had a great love for bands that put too many ‘cheesier’ songs within their set. As I keep on stating, a little cheese is totally okay for me as it brings with it familiarity, but when too many of those old rock standards get wheeled out once again then I start to find my mind drifting (a bit like Homer Simpson when he has those old black’n’white Disney cartoons running through his head, ha-ha). I try not to be too damning as I fully understand why certain acts put in so many of those tried & tested classics in their sets, as that way the audience will easiyl recognise the material being played. Yet for me personally I’ve heard so many of those songs being performed a zillion times previously, and it’s hard to get excited by hearing yet another version of ‘Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love’ etc. And when faced with a 90-minute plus set that has the bulk of it’s material based around those standards, then it doesn’t make for a very exciting show (unless of course those numbers are played to such a level that they outshine every other band already playing them on the local circuit). And I’m pleased to say that these days many groups are trying to be more adventurous and creative with their songs choices. Some acts like Damage Control go the whole hog and put together a selection that is filled with so many songs that are rarely played live in pubs, and others acts are now removing a percentage of their old set and putting in some more refreshing tunes instead. Rockerfella are definitely one of those groups that are now moving in to the 21st century as well!

Out of their two previous gigs at the Office, I had only caught the second of those 2 shows, so as such I had only ever seen the band once before. Yet I did recognise the various musicians in the band (always great with faces, and absolutely f**king shit with names), and to see them back up there on that stage did have a comfortable familiar feel to it. The band brought with them an impressive substantially sized PA system, and quite an array of lights too. So this was definitely a much bigger production now, with a more professional edge to it all. I know that the lads were a tad wary as Sandy had asked if I could review the band to give them a bit more exposure on the internet, and of course that meant that this particular performance was going to be judged. But honestly, my days of harsh evaluations are so far behind me, and if I can’t find something genuinely constructive to say these days then I’d rather say nothing at all. Call it maturity, or maybe just plain mellowing in my old age, but I’ve foundthat negativity breeds more negativity, and as such then it’s not big or clever to take pot shots at bands that after all, are up there doing their very best to entertain us! It may have taken several years of writing & being involved in our musical community to understand the true fabric of our live music scene, but I think I’m getting the hang of it now (ha-ha). So regardless of the fact that Rockerfella may have had some reservations about me reviewing them for Riffs, they shouldn’t have worried in the slightest. The truth is that myself & Riffs are here to ‘promote’ good live music in this region, and if any group are doing a semi-decent job then they will always have our full support. So for this night then the group may have started out a little tentatively, but eventually they soon got a feel for the room & audience and upped their game as the evening progressed. If there was a graph chart of their performance, then you would have seen a rising curve from beginning to end.

Musically this was far superior and better thought-out set list altogether. The content was generally far rockier in nature, and as such then it kicked the band up a couple of gears too. I don’t know whether this was the same drummer from 4 years back that I had seen play before with this band, but he played well and gave the group some real drive in their performance. From the out-set this was a much better gig, and it showed that the band had genuinely grown & developed over the time from my last sight of them. The opening track of Whitesnake’s ‘Don’t Break My Heart Again’ was a strange choice for their first song as it’s quite a plodding tune, yet the group managed well even if the vocals were a bit subdued at this particular time. The next number was Queen’s ‘One Vision’ which is a very brave choice for any vocalist to want to cover a Freddie Mercury song when that singer has been acclaimed for having one of the finest rock voices ever! Yet again the vocals were getting lost a bit in the mix along wih the guitars, and even though things had sounded decent in the soundcheck, the bodies in the room had changed the acoustics considerably. The rhythm section of bass & drums were definitely dominating the mix, and by the time the group had finished their third song of Loverboy’s ‘Hot Girls In Love’ (great choice by the way), then it was time for some tweaking with the sound-mix. A boost in volume to the vocals and both guitars soon brought things in to a better balance, and the next track of UFO’s ‘Only You Can Rock Me’ started kick some ass at last. This was probably the turning point where the group started to come in to their own, with confidence levels rising and with them generally getting a better feel for the stage. The next number of Tom Petty’s ‘Refugee’ was a very smart choice, and it was great to hear that song again. Rockerfella were now starting to create a vibe for their style of music, and it was mainly upbeat rock music, yet it still had a commercial edge that nobody could find too abrasive.

Up next was one of the group’s older songs with the Eagles’ ‘Get Over It’, which still had enough bite to make it fit in well with the rest of the set. Slipping in some AC/DC might have been a tad more predictable, but ‘Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be’ was a sensible choice and not so over-done as some of that band’s other back-catalogue. The next cover was decidedly braver with a rocked-up version of the Christopher Cross pop song ‘Ride Like The Wind’. I don’t know whether it worked or not, but I do admire the band for taking chances and doing something very different. The set closer for their first slot was the Cult’s ‘Firewoman’, and this was a brilliant tune to end things off with. Traditional in formula, yet with enough grit to kick the energy levels up in the room, and the band played it marvellously as well. A half-time interval gave the band a chance to make some further adjustments to the mixing desk, as the bass guitar had still remained fairly dominant through-out their first slot, and the vocalsneeded brightening up a bit with some mid-range poke. Also both guitarists’ individual solos were just lacking enough volume to kick them through at the appropriate times, so both the lads now increased their boost settings to accommodate. Sure enough, the beginning of the second set found the sound-mix far more listener-friendly, with the muddy-ness from the bass guitar now gone, and all the vocals and guitars cutting through perfectly. The set took a heavier turn of direction too with 3 back-to-back hard-rock anthems of Deep Purple’s ‘Burn’, Rainbow’s ‘Long Live Rock & Roll’ and Queen’s ‘Now I’m Here’. The material was definitely rocking more fiercely than before, and with the guitars now getting some headroom then this second set had a far rockier vibe altogether. Both guitarists were now moving centre-stage for their guitar solos, and the atmosphere was far more confident.

As musicians the whole band played well. The drummer was playing a green sparkly Ludwig kit, with an enormous 26” bass drum. He stood out like a sore thumb with a paint job like that on his drum kit, but it looked and sounded great. The bass player had been a bit booming with his sound in the first half, and now that he PA had been tweaked then I could hear his playing style so much better now. He actually was a very competent bassist, and filled in all the gaps perfectly with some tightly-knitted runs. Both guitarists were very good musicians, and the second slot showed them off far better with their solos now cutting through with just the right amount of volume. You could now hear all the nuances & expression in their playing, and as they sounded better on stage (to themselves) then they equally played better too. Sandy on vocals does a fine job, but perhaps some of the songs that the band go for are maybe a bit too big for his voice. He sings in tune and has a reasonable vocal range, but when he singsin his upper register then his natural volume drops, and those high melody lines that sell the song so well sometimes start to get lost in the mix. Sandy has a lovely tone to his voice, but just lacks the killer-attack to really punch through those high-range vocal lines that so many of these classic rock songs demand. Yet he’s a very likeable guy that became more animated on stage as the night went on. He started off a bit hesitantly, but when the other band members moved over to interact with him then he soon loosened up and enjoyed himself all the more. As a group they are more visually exciting than my last recollections of them. The excellent light show made the stage come alive, and all the band moved around a bit more than they did in the past. I still would have liked to have seen even ‘more’ energy on stage generally, but this was definitely a step in the right direction.

The rest of the set flowed well with familiar songs like Whitesnake’s ‘Fool For Your Loving’ and Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Cowboy Song’, yet it was the later tracks of ‘Shapes Of Things To Come’ (Gary Moore arrangement), ‘Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues’ by Whitesnake, and ‘Dirty Love’ by Thunder that gave Rockerfella a more defined identity. In between they played ‘Dakota’ by the Stereophonics to mix things up a bit, and the set closers of ‘Streets Have No Name’ by U2 and ‘Livewire’ by AC/DC were superb choices as well. This was a much more consistent selection of tracks that had a definite theme to it all, and certainly a hell of a lot more rocky than the band used to be. The change around of material was a very wise move, and it showed the group off to be a lot more dynamic than previously. The bigger PA system and impressive lights also gave them a far improved edge, and when it came down to presentation then they scored massively with me. The only real criticisms I could find tended to be centred around Sandy (sorry mate). I would like to see him in future command the stage with much more presence, and become a proper frontman by visually leading the band. Also as mentioned before, I’d like to hear his voice kick through with more power on those high-end vocal lines (if at all possible). I’m not deliberately picking on the singer here as I really do like him. But unfortunately so much responsibilities lie on the shoulders of whatever person is out there fronting their band (man or woman), and it’s their role (like it or not) to be the most charismatic person on stage and to deliver all those vocals lines as authentically as the originals are. Not an easy task by any means, and I do have absolute sympathy and compassion for anybody that is placed in that most unenviable of positions. But for Rockerfella to shine any brighter then Sandy needs to strengthen his weaker aspects, which are visual performance & the power of his top-end vocal range. But apart from that, then this band tick all the other boxes brillantly.

This booking was well-justified, and my apologies to all of the band for taking so long to get them back here at the Office. Rockerfella delivered a good show that had a professional outlook, and saw them raise their game with a far superior selection of songs. I’ll have no reservations whatsoever in giving them a return booking within the next few months. I don’t think that this group have reached their peak yet, and there is still some room for development with regards to giving a stronger visually entertaining show (not the lights, but with the band themselves being more animated). Yet they have all the essential ingredients in there already, and I’m sure that if they get themselves some more gigs south of the River Tyne, then they could build themselves an excellent reputation within the next 12 months or so. It was good to have them back on at this venue, and exceptionally pleasing to see how far they had come in the last 4 years. Sorry it took so long lads, but at least you now know that you’ll always have a home here at the Office.

   “Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, fried chicken”!   Colin Smoult  2 / 10 / 06.

Pics of Rockerfella at the Office supplied by Ainsley

'Judas Beast were at last ready to come out of the closet'

Who or what are Judas Beast? They are a dedicated Judas Priest tribute band that were put together primarily when Glenn answered an advert on the Riffs ‘musicians wanted’ section of the website, in reply to a post placed by Gaz (ex-Maiden England drummer) and his guitarist brother Mark. They were looking to start a new project, but once they realised that they all had a combined love of the music by metal gods Judas Priest, then the idea of creating a tribute band to their heroes became a very realistic goal. Bassist Bill and guitarist Barry were soon tracked down and they too committed themselves to this project with the intention of seeing just how well they could recapture the feel of the real Judas Priest. As time went on then the band became more of a reality, and with it came the idea of even dressing up a bit to capture the vibe of those days back in the early 80’s. The original name of Unleashed In The North East got ditched (bit of a mouthful anyway), and they decided to go for the more suitable udas Beast as the group’s moniker. I did actually have the band booked for their debut gig at the Office for mid-August, but back in early June the group realised that they probably wouldn’t be ready in time, so they put a hold on things with holidays coming up and further rehearsals being limited. So I was quite surprised when Nige emailed me at the beginning of September and told me that the band were eager for Riffs to check them out at a private rehearsal, as they felt that they were now at a decent stage of development where they were getting close to be able to gig. Obviously previous rehearsals had gone very well, and with a booking in Gateshead looming just ahead of them for the beginning of October, then Judas Beast were at last ready to come out of the closet (Halford gay-pun intended, ha-ha), and show the region just what they were made of.
 

'The enthusiasm from this band is excellent, and their desire to get out there
and start playing live shows is what made me want to book them in the first place'

I got drafted in to help out with the sound mixing duties for that night, and was very pleased to be doing so as I knew instinctively that this band needed to be handled with care to really let them blossom. After all, this was their first ever gig and they would need a good sound mix to show them off well and to let their natural confidence grow. So I was happy to have some kind of guiding hand with the hope of bringing out the very best with this band, especially as it was a gig at the Office where obviously I wanted the lads to do well. The enthusiasm from this band is excellent, and their desire to get out there and start playing live shows is what made me want to book them in the first place. But of course there was still an underlying element of journeying in to unknown territories for all of them, and with the group wanting to be appreciated for the hard work they had put in to it all, then undoubtedly there were some nerves floating around. The soundcheck had it’s hiccups with Mark struggling to get his guitar rig to work, and with the soundman getting a couple of leads mixed up on the drum kit (sack the fat bastard, ha-ha). But eventually all was solved, and within a very short time (once all had been put right) then the sound of the group gelled together quite fluently, and I personally was very happy with the final results. No backdrop from the band yet as it was still being made, because it was only meant to be ready in time for the Three Tuns gig. But they did bring with them a couple of home-made Priest-styled ‘trident’ monoliths, and set these up on either side of the drum kit to give the stage a personal touch similar to the stage set-ups by the real band. Now it was time to test out their baby in public, and many months of hard work would finally get given a real baptism of fire.
 

'The band sounded great . . .and very authentic too'

The intro-tape (or should that be intro-disc these days) blasted out the majestic short instrumental of ‘The Hellion’, and with clockwork accuracy Judas Beast burst in to the first notes of the accompanying ‘Electric Eye’. The band sounded great (phew, very pleased that they did), and according to a lot of people I spoke to who are far bigger Judas Priest fans than I’ve ever been, the group sounded very authentic too. I know from speaking to the band members that their intention was to get the tones and playing-style of their instruments as close to the real group as possible, especially the guitarists who wanted to recreate the vibe of the Tipton/Downing signature sound. I think they both did a marvellous job in doing just that, but not only with the sound but also with their whole appearance. The rest of the band were basically wearing black jeans & t-shirts etc, in a typical live-band fashion, whereas Mark & Barry had gone the whole hog and had modelled their look directly on guitarists KK Downing & Genn Tipton (respectively). The look they have gone for is classic Priest from around about their ‘Screaming For Vengeance’ 1982 era. The costumes have all been hand-made with meticulous attention to detail, and the effect is visually brilliant. The lads have even gone as far as to get decent wigs especially for the job as well, and the overall look emphasised even further how committed they all are with putting on a good representation as a Judas Priest tribute. Even Bill the bassist seemed to fit in perfectly as well with just his jeans & t-shirt look, and these 3 musicians across the front of the stage set a perfect visual feast for the eyes that made you feel you were watching something more than just a pub band playing covers by their favourite group.
 

'combined together the might of this twin-guitar onslaught sounded absolutely f*cking marvellous!'

Musically this lot have done their homework superbly. Fair enough this was their first gig, so of course there was the odd tiny blooper here & there, but I think they were so far & few between that only fellow musicians in the crowd would have picked up on them. Generally they ‘nailed’ the songs brilliantly, and recreated a very believable version of a group that basically cemented the entire culture of heavy metal in the 80’s. Gaz on drums did incredibly well also, yet I had no doubt at all of his abilities as this was the man that drove Maiden England along on stage for so many years. Gaz is a great drummer, dedicated as hell, and he played a very good gig this night. Bill on bass had a big monster ‘wardrobe’ of a bass rig that was so powerful that it didn’t need to be hooked up through the PA system, yet it still had enough volume to kick through in the mix with great style. The guitarists both did amazingly well with their own chosen heroes to imitate. Mark as KK Downing played a ‘Flying V’ guitar an had the sound down to a tee, as well as some of the stage moves as well. Barry as Glenn Tipton also managed to mimic that unique signature sound also, and combined together the might of this twin-guitar onslaught sounded absolutely f*cking marvellous! But of course no matter how each musician in the real Judas Priest may have his own style or sound, nothing is more instantly recognisable than the incredibly distinct tone of the vocals by Rob Halford. Halford is the original ‘metal god’, and has been worshipped & adored by the legions of Judas Priest fans for over 3 decades, and his unique high-range vocal style is something that most singers stand in awe of! So for anybody to step up to the challenge of trying to sing those Priest classics, then are literally taking on the world!
 

'if any one person was going to be scrutinised on this evening then of course it was going to be the singer'

Glenn Howse is no stranger to the world of heavy rock as he’s been is so many original bands dating right back to the mid-80’s, and has also played guitar in such well-known local rock giants as Blitzkrieg, Tygers Of Pan Tang, and Avenger. He’s a very good guitarist in his own right, but I’ve seen Glenn sing before in the past and knew him to be an excellent vocalist as well (don’t you hate it when people are so multi-talented). Glenn knew that the pressure was on, and if any one person was going to be scrutinised on this evening then of course it was going to be the singer, as in a lot of people’s eyes the vocals are the most distinctive element of the entire Judas Priest sound. Glenn started off stunningly well, and without doubt did the job of singing those Halford vocal-lines with superb skill. He can get all those high-notes when required, and also has a great tone to his voice for all the other song requirements as well. But unfortunately within about 3 songs I could start to hear a slight croak develop in his voice, and I knew then that Glenn was going to have some problems with keeping up this very demanding level of singing for the entire gig. To give him his dues he battled on excellently, but towards the end of the first set you could see the look of disappointment on his face as you could tell that he was devastated that his voice wasn’t achieving what he personally knew it could do. So the band wrapped things up a bit quicker by pulling out a song, and after a brief 35-minute first set they took a much needed interval in which to give Glenn a chance to recover and regain his voice. It was also a chance for him to get some liquids in to his system and hopefully loosen up his vocal chords for an equally demanding second set.
 

'Visually & musically they were a much tighter unit for their second slot'

As I’ve seen in the past (and predicted this to Nige before the gig had even started), this was definitely a game of 2 halves, where the second slot far outstripped the first set. I guessed it would take the first half of the show for them to shake off any nerves, and I knew that a half-time break would see them come back with a renewed vigour. Judas Beast did exactly that, and just like the first gig by White Noise at the Office (where their singer Dave also suffered some vocal problems), the second set flowed so much better. And more importantly, Glenn got a real grip on his voice, worked it better within it’s limitations, and pulled off a masterful comeback. The 25-minute break and the intake of tons of liquids had done it’s trick perfectly for Glenn. Sure enough, he wasn’t back to full form totally, but he was very much improved and had a much better take on just how far he could push his voice under it’s present condition. Not only did his self-confidence levels shoot up, but so did that of the restof the band as well. Visually & musically they were a much tighter unit for their second slot, and at last we were getting to see a more genuine take on what the finished product will be like. You’ve got to remember that this was their first ever gig together, and you have to allow for teething problems that undoubtedly will arise at any band’s first show. So with that in mind then Judas Beast certainly pulled things around, and this second half performance bristled with so much more potential than their opening slot (which was still very good by any standards). By the time the track ‘Sinnner’ had ended then the loud cheer from the audience was an audible thumbs up that this band were totally on the right track now.
 

'Great vocals, ripping guitar riffs, the rhythm section on fire,
and enough mood changes within the song to give it a massive epic feel'

The set list was littered with classic Judas Priest songs, and in particular the band played 7 out of the 9 tracks from Priest’s landmark live album’ Unleashed In The East’. When you’ve got a set that includes ‘Exciter’, ‘Running Wild’, ‘Sinner’, ‘The Ripper’, ‘Green Manalishi’, ‘Diamonds & Rust’ &’Victim Of Changes’, then you can do little wrong in my eyes. ‘Victim Of Changes’ was yet another tremendously well-executed number that showed the real strengths of this group. Great vocals (Glenn back to much better form), ripping guitar riffs, the rhythm section on fire, and enough mood changes within the song to give it a massive epic feel. This particular number was probably their strongest moment of the evening, and a one that this crowd totally relished in also. But that doesn’t take anything away from the rest of this set list that had the likes of ‘Heading Out To The Highway’, ‘Living After Midnight’, ‘Metal Gods’ & ‘Breaking The Law’ included in it. The selection of songs was aimed around Judas Priests late 70’s & early 80’s shows, and had all the main trademark tracks within it, although I would have loved to have heard ‘Genocide’ & ‘Tyrant’ as well to make up a complete rendition of the entire Unleashed In The East album. The second set flew by, and by this time I could have listened to them play all night long. The group were really hitting their stride now, and a lot of the nerves shown in the first half had nearly all drifted away. There was a constant vibe of apprehension in the air as this was their very first pubic unveiling of this project, but once the band started to hear the applause of the crowd grow louder then they loosened up as the show progressed. Things were wrapped up with the sing-along anthem of ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Coming’, and then the encore of ‘Hell Bent For Leather’ brought the gig to a close.
 

' . . . give them time and they’ll be a frighteningly good live band!'

Luckily Glenn was feeling more confident now, so the band played a final encore of ‘Starbreaker’ (pulled out of the first set) which included an excellent drum solo from Gaz as well. It was a fitting way in which to end this gig, as it showed the band to have grown quite considerably throughout the course of the night, and to play a song that earlier on they thought that they couldn’t do justice to. The general consensus of opinion (from those people in the room that I spoke to) was that Judas Beast had done a brilliant job. Fair enough there were the odd little glitches that result simply from teething problems, and Glenn had bad luck with his voice playing him up for their debut gig, but overall they pulled it back superbly to give a really enjoyable show. I knew some real die-hard Priest fans in the room, and they gave the band a big thumbs up for even attempting to do those songs, and many said they would happily go and see them again. It was a strange debut for this band as they only agreed  to play it 5 days before hand, but in the end it worked out fine for them. On this occasion I got to see some real potential from a group that could end up going on to be as recognisable & popular as perhaps Black Rose, Maiden England or Sabbatica, but for the moment this is still early days for them. They need more gigging experience together as a unit before they’ll start to show their real worth. That is normally the case with any band that have just sprung up, and I’ve seldom seen an act hit their full stride during their first gig. It takes a good handful of dates before any band really start to gel together, both musically and to be visually entertaining as well. Judas Beast will no doubt follow a similar pattern, but give them time and they’ll be a frighteningly good live band!

“Whiskey woman don’t you know that you are driving me in-SANE”!  Colin Smoult.  23 / 9/ 06.

P.S. Catch the band live at their next 2 gigs which are the Three Tuns in Gateshead on Friday October the 6th, and at the Duke Of Cumberland in Felling on Friday October the 20th.

[Credit to drummer Gary because, even before the band were formed, he told me what he was hoping to do and then kept me informed every step of the way - until they were at last confident they could show Riffs the full band at their last rehearsal before their first gig. Without him the band would not have got Riffs behind them the way they did. Just goes to show how important good PR is...... - Nige]

   The Pistoleros have been regular visitors to the Office for so many years now. Right back to the days of their old bassist that used to occasionally play keyboards, and when their old drummer used to play the odd bit of violin too. They were a very different band back then, and definitely had a strong ‘folk-rock’ vibe to them. But things change, and the Pistoleros are definitely a band that have matured well with age. Their approach to their music is more consistent, the musicianship has risen too, and their confidence levels have certainly never been as high as they are today. The main growth in their development came with the arrival of bassist Anth, and then followed by drummer Mark. This changed the dynamics of the band, and since then they really have become a very different entity. Now the group have built up a loyal fan-base, and can pull in large audiences in the majority of pubs where they play. Over the last 5 years they have become one of the most ‘evolved’ acts that I have seen, and it’s alwas been a pleasure for me to catch the band live. Here’s a review of their gig at the Office on Saturday the 9th of September.

   I remember the old days when the Pistoleros would turn up at the Office about 8pm, and still be struggling to soundcheck in time for their going on stage at 9:15pm. Luckily the band have a lot more sense these days, and with the recent improvement in their sound production side of things then they realise that to get the best out of their equipment then it’s in their best interests to get to the venue earlier. So god bless ‘em, that when I arrived at the pub then they had most of it sorted out already and were just going through the final checks. I watched them soundcheck the drums (fine), bass (fine), guitars (fine), vocals (fine), keyboards, … er, keyboards? Oh dear, no power at all with Phil’s keyboards. After checking cables, sockets and electrical extensions, the band came to the conclusion that the fault lay internally within the keyboard itself, and therefore there was no way this was going to be fixed for this evening’s gig. I laughingly joked and told the band out loud “more guitars, more metal” but I was aware that this group had such a large back catalogue of songs that they probably could land on their feet. Phil plays keyboards on about half a dozen tracks, so all the band needed to do was pull out a sufficient amount of oldies to pad out the set. Of course this meant that the classic songs that this band perform with keyboards in them would have to be ditched. You should have seen the looks on the punters faces when they realised that gone would be ‘Life On Mars’, ‘Trampled Underfoot’, ‘Whole Of The Moon’ & ‘Kashmir’, plus other cherished favourites as well. So this meant that the band would be thinking on their feet for this gig, as they were now incorporating several songs which they hadn’t performed for many months. No rehearsals, no chance to catch up on how old songs went, just getting up on stage and blagging their way through it as best as they possibly could.

   For lesser bands this could have been a disaster that would have seen an act being forced to trim down the length of their show. Yet luckily the Pistoleros are one of those groups that often have ‘too many’ songs to play, and in the past I’ve often missed the last song or 2 by having to leave the venue for my pre-booked taxi. They have on many occasions pushed the envelope by playing well past our normal time restrictions, yet the punters were going ape-shit for the band to play more, so we’ve always allowed them a couple of extra songs to keep people happy. So for this gig perhaps the band wouldn’t have that luxury of having too many songs to choose from, and instead it would see them having to concentrate on the guitar-driven material far more than they’ve ever done in the past. Sure enough, from the opening power chords of ‘No-one Knows’ by the Queens Of The Stone Age they had a fantastic gritty edge that would remain for the majority of this show. The sound from the front of the room was in-your-faceand at a nicely powerful audible volume. I was down near the front for this gig as I really did want to see how the band would manage now that they had been thrown this curve-ball of having no keyboards to rely on. Spirits were still high within the Pistoleros camp, and if anything I think that the band saw it as more of a challenge than a hindrance. The first song went off extremely well, and then without pausing they launched straight in to the Foo Fighters track ‘Learn To Fly. The band were playing incredibly well, rearranging their set to suit their newly-found circumstances, and landing squarely on their feet every time. I started to realise that I ‘preferred’ this style from the band, because not only were the songs (in my eyes) a better choice of covers, but it also seemed to ignite a new energy in to the band that I hadn’t seen that many times before.

   The turnout to see this band play was excellent, and even though the main bulk of the punters were late arrivals (always the case these days), within the first couple of songs you could see how much the crowd had swelled in size. I know that the Pistoleros have always had a fondness for playing in the Office, as not only does it offer them a large-sized stage on which to set up their substantial amount of band equipment, but the audience here have always been very supportive of the group. Yet again it was one of those perfect situations where the crowd were giving their energy in to their applause, and the group were feeding off that and giving it back to the crowd. And what you end up with is the energy levels heightening throughout the night, and by the end of the show you have both the band & crowd firing at their peak. Even by Pistoleros’ standards, this was a damn good show! Things chilled out for a couple of sections during the evening when Phil put on his acoustic guitar, and his partner in crime ave swapped his electric guitar for a mandolin. Songs like the Waterboys ‘Fishermans Blues’ and ‘Still be Lovers’ were greeted with as much enthusiasm by this audience as were the heavier rock numbers. The sound of both the acoustic guitar and mandolin were exceptional on this occasion, and Phil (who looks after the mixing desk) had given both instruments a marvellous tone with just the right amount of volume to make them stand out without dominating the mix. Generally the sound was very good, although at the back of the room it was considerably more muffled. Lots of bodies in the building had soaked up all the sparkle that was originally in the mix at the time of soundchecking, plus the band were testing out a newly-acquired heavy-duty PA amplifier, and perhaps in hindsight the whole mix was that little bit too bass-end driven.

   Yet from my own position at the front of the room then I was mainly picking up the sound of the band’s own backline amplification, so for me the sound-mix was decent. It may not have been perfect, but it was certainly good enough to keep most of the punters in this room extremely happy, and the audience got more lively & jubilant as the evening progressed. The surprise first set-closer was a twin-guitar version of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’, which up until then I genuinely believed that it would be ditched. But even without the keyboards Phil managed to play those parts on his guitar, although I could see the concentration on his face as he moved the chords about hoping to hit all the right places (made my night mate). He actually did so f**king marvellously and pulled out what I thought would be unachievable. This 2-guitar version sounded heavy as f**k, and it pounded along with brilliant style. I thought the lack of keyboards would have made this number sound limp, but honestly it sounded better than eve. Other great moments of the night were the 3 Blue Oyster Cult songs that they played, which were ‘The Red & The Black’, ‘E.T.I.’, and the monumental ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’ (more cowbell needed on this song though, ha-ha). Yet one of the best moments of the night was the full-length version of Aerosmith’s ‘Sweet Emotion’, which had more balls than a 12-bore shotgun. The main section grooved along with such amazing style, yet the closing part powered along like charging buffalo, and the whole epic song was a complete masterpiece. Led Zeppelin’s ‘Over The Hills & Far Away’ was another superb inclusion, and this band do the Zep material so well. The Pistoleros can deliver a very soulful melancholy side to their music when they want, but it’s the balls-out rock stuff that always hits the mark for me everytime.

   The group wrapped things up with David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ which is such a simplistic yet hauntingly beautiful song. It’s also a good track to see some bodies on the dancefloor to, and the Pistoleros did very well in that respect by having people up dancing for the majority of their set. The encores were a pairing of 2 old favourites that the band have been playing since their very early days, and Neil Young’s ‘Cinnamon Girl’ and Steely Dan’s ‘Reeling In The Years’ were without doubt the best 2 possible songs to end on. I now think that I probably caught the band at their very best on this night, and stunningly I didn’t miss the keyboards one bit! Sure enough the band did have to omit a few of the fan’s favourites for this occasion, but the result was a far ‘edgier’ set that displayed the band with tons of extra passion. So for the keyboards to break down ended up being a very fortuitous accident, and it gave the band a chance to show a much grittier side to their music. The sound of the guitars they had onstage was the best I had ever heard them, and the only fault I could possibly pick was that perhaps the bass guitar was too throbbing in nature (but that was only a minor flaw that didn’t really take the shine off their performance at all). For those that have seen the band play before then this was yet another really good show from the Pistoleros, and for those who caught them in action for the very first time then I guarantee you that they will have been converted in to seeing them perform again in the future. I hope this wasn’t a one-off, and that perhaps the band might consider doing this kind of ‘no-keyboards’ style of set again in the future. Not that I mind the keyboards at all, as they definitely bring another texture to the group’s music. But for this night the raw energy on stage was very welcome indeed.

   Honestly lads, MORE COWBELL! (ha-ha).  Colin Smoult.  14 / 9 / 06

   Back to the very beginning of this year, a new band hit the live scene called Kixx. They featured Gary on bass (ex-Meanstreak) and his partner Anna on lead vocals. The rest of the line-up had (?) on drums plus Jeremy on guitar, and I eventually caught up with the group at the Lord Clyde pub in South Shields about 6 months back. I only managed to see them performing about 5 numbers out of their second set, but it was enough to assess that at that stage of development that the band weren’t quite ready to play at the Office yet. The whole performance still had a very loose vibe to it all, and it honestly didn’t look like they had been out of the rehearsal room for very long. Yet I knew Gary from his gigs at the Office with Meanstreak, and I kept in touch with him over developments with his new group, with an eye on giving them an opportunity to play at the Office some time in the future. Shortly after their Lord Clyde gig, the band ran in to problems with the group’s name of Kixx, as seemingly there was anoher band already established going out under that moniker. So our local Kixx rechristened themselves ‘Crash’ and continued to play regular bookings across the region. And now several months later they’ve had a lot more combined experience from playing together, so I thought that perhaps it was time to finally let the band have a shot at playing at the Office. After having 6 months in which to tighten things up, then I knew that if they hadn’t shown any signs of improvement by this stage then they probably never would. So here’s a review of Crash’s gig at the Office on Friday the 14th of September.

   Firstly, even though it took until the interval of their gig for it to dawn on me, I was informed that this was NOT the same guitarist as previously. I’ve got to be honest and say that I didn’t take that much notice of the look of the guitarist from the first gig that I saw them play, so I just assumed it was still the same guy. I thought he had improved dramatically from my first sight of him, as his sound was so much better, plus all those annoying over-embellishments (runs & licks thrown in at every single opportunity) had all disappeared. But of course the penny dropped when Gary explained that he had parted company with Jeremy during the week previously, and Phil had stepped up to the mark with only 2 prior rehearsals. So this essentially was a fresh start for Crash, with a new guitarist in the ranks, far more live experience than my last sight of them, and some of the set list changed as well. I didn’t have high hopes of being blown away by this act’s performance on this night, yet to be truthful tey far exceeded any kind of realistic expectations that I actually did have prior to this gig. Crash proved themselves to be a very decent band that had taken on board that they had teething problems, and unfortunately the root of a lot of it seemed to stem from their previous guitarist Jeremy. So with him now permanently out of the picture then hopefully this was the beginning of a brand new chapter for the group, and a chance to learn from their past experiences in a beneficial manner that could see their band grow in a far healthier direction. Gary the bassist is the main driving force behind Crash, and he’s the man with a vision of how he wants this band to progress. It took many months of him trying to get the best out of the line-up that he had originally, but it came to a point where he felt that their old guitarist was holding them back, and his response to severe musical ties with Jeremy has been a one of self-survival for the band.

   So with the weakest link in the chain now removed, then this was definitely a ‘stronger’ version of the group that was now on display. Crash kicked off the proceedings with a rocked-up rendition of Elton John’s ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’, and this was basically the format for the rest of the night. This group specialise in putting their own edgier stamp on ‘pop’ songs, as well as including a lot of traditional pub-rock classics too. With Anna on lead vocals then of course they have to make allowances for the range of her voice, so the songs have to be carefully picked so that they’ll be suitable for a female vocal. Some work far better than others, and undoubtedly their finest tracks were the ones where Anna was totally in her comfort zone while singing, knowing that this song suited her own voice so well. ‘S.N.A.F.F’ was a decent up-tempo introduction to the evening, but perhaps didn’t make the band shine all that brightly for a first song. Next up was a fairly predictable choice of AC/DC’s‘Highway To Hell’, which of course with Bon Scott’s original vocal being quite high, then Anna had no problem with getting any of those high notes. It wasn’t until their third song of the night which was the Cranberries’ ‘Zombie’ that Crash really started to show any identity, and once Anna came to life on this track then the entire mood of the performance seemed to lift. The Rolling Stones’ Start Me Up’ was a brilliant choice for the next cover, mainly because it’s such a damn good song and so few bands choose to have a bash at it. It worked well and suited the band excellently, yet it was the next number that really demanded my attention.

   When the group broke in to Skunk Anansie’s ‘Weak’ then I thought it was a pretty obvious choice for a female-fronted rock band, but Anna really shone on this number by delivering a superb vocal performance that blasted her earlier renditions right out of the water. Song choice isn’t just about picking those tracks that the audience may respond to the most favourably, but should mainly be about choosing songs that bring out the best elements within the group. Anna does have a very fine voice, but it’s only when she’s got the right material to sing that she comes across really well, and of course then the entire band also sound better for it too. More female ‘angst’ for the next track with Alannis Morrisette’s ‘You Oughta Know’, which the band played well, but yet again it was a little predictable for a rock group with a female singer. Next were a pairing of 2 former Meanstreak standards of ‘Gimme All Your Lovin’ and ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’, which Gary used to perform a couple of years back with his old compadres (Russ now sings with Shanghai, and Colin plays guitar with Black Rose). After singing about ‘gimme’ and ‘love’ for the last couple of songs then the next selection was even more guessable with the inclusion of the old Spencer Davis Group classic of ‘Gimme Some Lovin’. The first set was wrapped up with a couple of ancient chestnuts in the form of Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ and Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock’n’Roll’. Both numbers are played far too often on the pub circuit (and especially have been so for the last decade) so parts of this first set were pretty much ‘pub-rock by numbers’ (in a similar style to painting by numbers). Yet in saying that, the Zep song suited Anna well with the Robert Plant original vocal line having quite a high range.

   The next set kicked off a bit limply with Joan Jett’s ‘I Love Rock’n’Roll’, which for me just didn’t work at all, and the reason for this was that this song was far too ‘low’ for Anna’s range. She struggled to give this track any life while she was digging down so deep in her lower-register, and as such then the whole thing trundled along with very little vitality. The next number was a definite improvement with ‘Sweet Dreams’, although this was not the Eurythmics in style at all, but instead done with the recent Marilyn Manson slant to this well-loved pop tune. It was performed well, but it’s dark-edged dreary feel didn’t exactly set the stage alight. Yet the next song was a top class choice of Pat Benatar’s ‘Heartbreaker’. Not only was the tempo rocking once again, but Anna’s voice came alive once more and she sung this number brilliantly. As this track faded out then Crash broke in to another AC/DC song with ‘Sin City’. This was a much better choice than Highway To Hell, and it suited the band too. Ye the next tune of Gwen Stefani’s ‘Wot U Waitin 4’ was far better again, as it was good to hear this recent quirky pop-anthem getting rocked-up and played in a pub. Next up it was back to the ‘oldies but goldies’ with the Cult’s ‘Sanctuary’. Crash played it well enough, but when you’ve heard this tune as many times as I have done in the past then you’ll not be surprised to find out that my ears kind of switch off for songs like this one. Things picked up again with ‘Ballroom Blitz’ by Sweet, and it was amazing to hear this song after so long, and especially played in this manner. Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ maybe didn’t sit in as well as some of the other set inclusions, as it’s punky ‘spikey’ attitude just didn’t gel well with female vocals and a slick rock production.

   But all was made well again with the group’s finest song of the night, which had to be their superb take on REM’s ‘Losing My Religion’. Fair enough the band didn’t come up with this arrangement themselves as it had in fact been lifted from a version performed on the ‘Rock Star Supernova’ reality TV series, yet they did it so incredibly well that it stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest of their set. Yet again this was one of Anna’s finest performances of the night, and her excellent vocals plus the unusual arrangement of this song were what made this particular number stand out so well. Next up was a rock re-working of the old Janis Joplin classic ‘Take Another Piece Of My Heart’, which again was a really good choice that suited Crash down to the ground. The second set was wrapped up with another AC/DC song ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’, and the encore of the Kinks ‘You Really Got Me’ made for yet another 2 songs that were fairly predictable by their inclusion. Don’t get me wrong, this band played all of thes tracks to a reasonably high standard, but there was perhaps far too many of them for me to really appreciate these songs properly. As I’ve said before in the past, a little cheese is fine, and scattered amongst an evening’s worth of material it can bring some familiarity that perhaps the audience occasionally need. But too much cheese (for me personally) is far too rich for the digestion! I’ve mainly concentrated my review of Crash around their song choices, and the reason I’ve done this is that I still think it needs working on. Some songs simply did not suit Anna’s vocals, and paled accordingly. And some songs were just another okay rendition of a cover that I’ve heard a million time before. But where this group excel is when they pick a marvellous song that you don’t hear that often, and Anna sings the arse off it! Then the group really come in to their own.

   As a band they are musically so much tighter now. Phil the new guitarist has brought with him a sense of ‘discipline’ that was missing before, and his guitar sound suits this band perfectly, whereas Jeremy’s (the former guitarist) own choice of tone was a one that resembled a wasp stuck in a jam jar. Gary on bass and drummer (?) have also tightened up the rhythm section extremely well, as for my last sight of them it was a tad sloppy, but I do have to take in to account that they had only played half a dozen gigs together at that time. But the biggest improvement of the night was Anna’s voice and personality on stage. She really showed some fine qualities to her voice, and her confidence had definitely risen as well. The only other criticism that I can give the band (besides picking some ‘iffy’ covers) is that they weren’t very visually entertaining. This is something that many people in the room commented to me at this gig, that they felt that the band played well enough, but seemed to be missing a spar on stage. As one punter instinctively told me, “they sound better when I close my eyes”, which he didn’t say in a vindictive manner at all, but was just stating that he felt their musical impact was far stronger that their visual one. Anna is finding her feet slowly but surely on stage, yet she’s just a wee lass that can’t make a huge physical presence up there just on her own. She really needs some strong back-up from the rest of the band too, and at the moment then Gary & Phil do pretty much keep to their own sections of the stage. I’d love to see far more interaction between ALL of them, and tons more posing and hamming things up. It’s not all about the music, and to me live performances never have been solely about being good musicians. There has to be that extra-factor, and that is having players that are also great visual entertainers as well. This is something that Crash do need to work on.

   But as far as things go musically, Crash are 5 times the band that they were 6 months back! They really did have a tough time at that Lord Clyde gig back then, and this newer sight of them proved to me that they had made genuine improvements. But if you take in to context that this band have only been on the road for about 8 months in total, then this is still very much early days for them. I think that Phil’s inclusion in to the band has started a chain reaction that will bring out the very best in them all. The next few months should see whether I am indeed correct. Keep an eye out for Crash. They are definitely moving onwards & upwards.

   Colin Smoult.  19 / 9 / 06

   Tony is a well-established chanter, has been singing with various bands for over a quarter of a century, and is very well-known in the Teesside area where he is from. About 3 years back he put together a group called ‘In To The Light’ and I got to see them play at the Office in early 2004. But within 6 months things had ground to a halt with that band, and Tony started looking around for musicians to start a new project with. By the beginning of 2005 he was back out on the road with his new band Jump The Gun, and over the last 18 months they’ve been working hard and getting themselves a good reputation for playing heavy rock covers. Tony hit another snag several months back when the guitarist & drummer had to depart, leaving only him and bassist remaining. Luckily at that time the band Merchants Of Cool were also coming to the end of the line, thus leaving guitarist Nick & drummer Brick available for work. So they joined up with Mick the bassist (yes that’s right, the musicians in the band are called Mick Nick & Brick, ha-ha) to become part of the newly revamped Jump The Gun. They’ve only been together in this format for about 6 months, and I’d personally never seen this version of the band perform yet. I’d seen the 2 guys from Merchants Of Cool play at the Office a few times with that particular group, and knew them to be both good musicians. M.O.C. were primarily a tribute to Paul Rodgers, and of course their set was strewn with songs from the famous singer’s career as a solo artist, as well as his highly noted years with Free & Bad Company. So I’d never seen Nick or Brick totally rock out!

   So with half the line-up gone, and half the old set now being ditched, then essentially this was a very different band to what had gone on before as Jump The Gun. They opened up their show with Deep Purple’s ‘Burn’, and this was a taster for what was to come, which ended up with about half their set having very strong connections to the Deep Purple ‘family tree’. Straight after that track they launched in to D.P.’s ‘Stormbringer’, and then later on in the second set they also played ‘Lady Double Dealer’ plus an extended version of ‘Mistreated’. So that totalled 4 songs all originally done by the Mark III version of Deep Purple, and the connections did not stop there. There were also a couple of Whitesnake songs in the form of ‘Fool For Your Loving’ and ‘Ready & Willing’, plus a D.P. Mark II track of ‘Black Knight’. Then there were the Rainbow/Ronnie James Dio links as well that wrapped up their first slot with a ‘Dio-esque’ medley of tunes. These included ‘Man On The Silver Mountain’, ‘Heaven & Hell’ par one, ‘Holy Diver’, ‘Heaven & Hell’ part two, and finally rounded off with the closing strains of ‘Kill The King’ It was an epic medley that had all the right elements in there, some refreshing song choices, and it even incorporated all the extra parts that Dio used to put in to ‘Heaven & Hell’ for the live version he used to perform with Black Sabbath. Other great selections included ‘Radar Love’ (and oldie yet I never tire of this tune), and ‘In A Broken Dream’ which has suddenly become a very popular choice lately for so many bands (Uncle Gilbert, Riot, Damage Control, etc).

   Of course there had to be some Free numbers in there too (well it wouldn’t be pub-rock if there weren’t any, ha-ha), and these were ‘Wishing Well’ and ‘Mr Big’. Obviously Nick & Brick knew these tracks well from their Merchants Of Cool days, so it made total sense to plop at least a couple in to the set. The rest of the songs performed on this night were made up of standard covers including AC/DC’s ‘Highway To Hell’, Joe Walsh’s ‘Rocky Mountain Way’, plus several other choices that didn’t look out of place with this set list. Overall I felt that the song selections were definitely a huge step in the right direction, and far less predictable than my last sight of this band. Sound-wise, they had their odd problems when first setting up during the soundcheck, but for the majority of the show it was a good all-round mix. Tony has a fabulous rasping tone to his voice, with a remarkable amount of top end, but surprisingly doesn’t have a lot of natural mid-range punch to his vocals. But once the mid-range was bosted on the mixing desk (after the first couple of songs) then his voice cut through marvellously, and showed him off to be a very capable singer. The only other fault I could find with the sound was the boost setting for the guitar solos. Tony also plays occasional guitar, yet when he played the solo parts then they drifted out of the mix without any real defining extra punch. Yet it was the opposite for Nick the main guitarist, as perhaps his lead setting was that little bit too dominant. But generally it was a damn good mix.

   Musically it was very good. The drummer made a weird mistake during the opening song of ‘Burn’ and swapped the drum patterns of the verse & chorus over so that he was accidentally playing them back to front, but it was soon sorted out. And actually I thought that Brick played great for the rest of the night, and he had a really good sound for his drum kit (nice & crisp toms). Nick played some really tasty guitar. I always liked his playing when he was with M.O.C., yet I’d never seen him fully rock out like he did on this occasion. He’s always been very slick, incredibly melodic, and has a very professional feel for his instrument. At this gig he managed to show a lot more fire in his playing, and I really liked what he played, whether it was rhythm or lead. Tony played some great guitar too, and I personally thought that the 2-guitar sound was superior. It has a lot more depth to it all, and made the band sound very full. I would recommend that if there were more songs that Tony felt comfortable playing n then he should do so, because it did make the group sound bigger. Mick on bass did a good job, and I’ve always loved the sound & tone of his Jay-Dee bass guitar (you simply don’t see that many of them these days). Tony’s voice faired well for most of the night. On the rare occasion those really high notes just escaped him, yet he managed to get most of them with a falsetto approach to his singing. His vocals do tend to reduce in volume when he goes for the high notes, but where Tony sounds at his best is singing in his lower or mid-range register, and it’s there where he gets his best tone and maximum projection from his voice.

   I’ve mentioned the song choices, the live sound, and the musicianship too. The only thing left to comment on is the band’s actual performance, and to be honest I felt they could have done with a little bit more spark on stage. I’m not knocking any individual member for their personal contribution, yet collectively I would have liked to see further physical performance from the group to make them more visually exciting to behold. They do the music well, but that’s not the be & end all of everything, as there has to be more of a fun entertainment vibe emanating from the stage as well. I currently see Jump The Gun as work in progress, and god knows they’ve had their hiccups recently with line-up changes. So perhaps what I saw on stage is not the finished product, and hopefully a few more months of gigging should bring out the very best in them all. Even at this stage of things they are a ‘good’ band and well worth catching in action, but to put them up to that level of a ‘great’ band will definitely require them to become better visual entertainers, despite being damn good musicians already. This is not me trying to put the group down in any way as I admire the massive positive changes that they have made recently, but it’s the final polishing on the product they already have that will make this band truly shine at it’s best. But I advise people not to go off my perception of them, but to go and check them out live and to make up their own opinions. Jump The Gun are definitely one of the more promising new heavy rock acts that have appeared on the live music scene within the last couple of years, and I’m sure we’re all going to hear a lot more from them in the near future.

  As far as I’m concerned, the more ‘heavy rock’ bands then the better, and our music scene needs more bands like Jump The Gun.   Colin Smoult  9 / 8 / 06.

I’ve used the term ‘supergroup’ when referring to this band, which doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m trying to push them as being “sooper-dooper” or anything like that. What I in fact mean is that they are a collection of well-known musicians that have a solid reputation. And that terminology perfectly describes this act as they are comprised of members from several bands that have had their own individual amount of acclaim. Guitarist Col Dixon & drummer Geordie are part of one of the best known rock bands on the local pub circuit, and their reputation with Thin Lizzy tribute Black Rose is impeccable. Bassist Colin Hird spent 3 years playing with the Russ Tippins Band (just split up in May of this year), and again that band were probably one of the most popular on the scene during their active period. The rest of the group are made up with guitarist Ainsley, who probably is most recognisable from his 6-months of gigging with White Noise, and lastly Bill on vocals who used to play mainly in the clubs wih the rock band Departure. All of the band have lots of experience and perform to a very high standard, which in turn gives this set of musicians an unlimited potential for what music they can play. Not only is the calibre high, but this outfit can also tap in to the fan-bases built up Black Rose & the RTB, which gives them a very good starting block for what is essentially a brand new act. The standards that Riffs got to see was extremely good, and all that now needed to be seen is how it would all transfer on to a live stage. After all, just because you throw a squad together of great footballers doesn’t automatically guarantee you a superb team. The chemistry has to be right, and that will only truly shine through in a live show. So these pair of debut gigs set over the August bank holiday weekend marked the starting point of Damage Control’s live career, and a chance for them to display their goods to an eager audience that have been waiting for this long-anticipated project to finally appear.
 

'there was more than enough power there
to put out a big sound to suit a heavy rock act'

Even though the Office gig was originally planned to be their first ever performance, their first real debut managed to be squeezed in the night before hand with a show at the Three Tuns in Gateshead. I didn’t manage to make it along to this gig, but from all reports the band had a cracking night and the response from the crowd was very encouraging. It may have been a humid evening in the Tuns (when it’s busy in that place then it gets ‘hot’), but the audience really appreciated the quality of musicianship and the variety of rock covers that aren’t normally aired that often on the pub circuit. So for the following night the band had already tested out their wares, and this Saturday evening gig was an opportunity for them to see if they could tighten things up a little further to keep the group progressing ahead. For a new band they brought along a very healthy sized audience, with around a good 130-plus in the building by the time they hit the stage. They’d also enabled the services of their mate Gambit to d the PA and lighting, so he brought with him quite a substantial sized Mackie speaker system comprising of 2 large bass bins, and 2 full-range towers. So there was more than enough power there to put out a big sound to suit a heavy rock act, and the extra lights came in handy as the Office’s own in-house rig had recently fused and was at that time inoperable. The crowd were made up of people who were there for all sorts of different reasons. Some were friends & family of the band, some were the venue’s regulars, some had seen the band promoted on the local websites (and turned up out of curiosity), and some had seen the show the night before hand and were so impressed that they wanted to see it all again. Either way, no matter what their motivation there was a really good squad of folk packed in to the room to catch this band in action. But at least the group had the comfort of knowing that they had tested it all out once already, so the pressure wasn’t quite as intense.
 

'eye-opener on this occasion was to watch Bill in action at last,
and to see how well he looked as a ‘frontman’ as well as being a damn good vocalist'

Showtime finally came around and the band took their places on stage and kicked off with a glorious version of the Rainbow classic ‘Kill The King’. When you hear tracks like this it is not only refreshing, but then makes you wonder why on earth nobody else has attempted to play great material like this number. It was an absolute corker of an opening track that featured some nifty twin-harmony guitar parts, powerhouse drumming, and finished off immaculately with some seriouslyimpressive vocals. Rainbow during this era 77’/78’ were fronted by the one & only Ronnie James Dio, and this track was the first of 4 songs to be featured this evening that were originally sung by the heavy metal munchkin. Not only has this adored singer fronted some incredible bands, but is greatly admired by so many people for having such a fine voice. It’s a hard style to imitate and do justice to, yet Bill managed brilliantly, and from the very first song it was apparent to everybody that we were getting to see a fabulous vocalist of ‘professional’ quality. For me personally I have seen the other musicians in the band perform so many times in the past that I knew instinctively what they’d be like. But what was so eye-opening on this occasion was to watch Bill in action at last, and to see how well he looked as a ‘frontman’ as well as being a damn good vocalist (which I’d seen already from a rehearsal). Now he had an audience to entertain & interact with, and this brought out new elements in him that I’d never seen before. He handled himself on stage very well indeed, as obviously many years singing in the clubs had engrained him with a professional attitude and the ability to front a band. His confident demeanour was never overly-cocky, and he came across as highly likeable bloke. He held the mike stand at his side in a typical Coverdale fashion, and pulled off some great poses with it too that even saw him at one point nearly poking Ainsley’s eye out (ha-ha).
 

'Bill had done his homework very diligently to try and imitate
the unique style of the vocalist from each band that he was covering'

Damage Control started off with a 2-punch combination, and as the closing strains of the first song were about to fade the band blasted straight off yet again with Sammy Hagar’s ‘There’s Only One Way To Rock’. This song was also the opening number by Van Halen in their live shows during the mid-80’s (when Hagar sang with the band), and Van Halen would be another act that would crop up with this lot a couple of more times during the course of this night. I know the song well as it used to be Sticky Fingers opening number for many years, and the crowd recognised this track too and also responded well to it. For the group on stage, the first few numbers were probably a little shakey for them as I later found out that they had some on-stage sound problems with bass feedback coming through the monitors, which of course probably put the band off their stride a little bit. The majority of the punters wouldn’t have noticed anything different really, but even I could hear a droning hum in the background throughout their next number which was ‘Armed & Ready’ by the Michael Schenker Group. But then again I was sitting directly in front of one of the speaker towers right next to the stage, so I was aware of any minor sound problems that the band were experiencing. Yet this is early days for the band, and they are still trying to wean out any minor glitches that may arise. So with that in mind then you have to be sensible and take in to respect that this was only their ’2nd’ ever gig, and that problems are bound to crop up with this being a brand new project. The drone might have been slightly off-putting, yet Bill’s vocals were quite astounding and to be honest he sounded ‘exactly’ like Gary Barden the original recording vocalist on that track. His similarity to that singer from way back in 1980 was quite extraordinary, and it showed that Bill had done his homework very diligently to try and imitate the unique style of the vocalist from each band that he was covering.
 

' . . . probably a bit more flash in nature and nifty when it comes down to speed-driven licks'

Next up was the song ‘Holy Water’ by Bad Company, which for me was the only number of the evening that I was unfamiliar with. The set in general had definitely tried to move away from the typical selection of tracks that tend to be played in pubs on a weekly basis. The idea was to bring some new ideas to the table and try to push some lesser-known songs that are still fantastic tunes in their own right. And for me this song was the only one out of the 21 tracks played this evening that I didn’t know from my past, yet I still really enjoyed it as it was a tremendous number and quite different to the usual Bad Co back-catalogue. The next song was a big chart success back in the early 90’s, so this was back to familiar territory for everybody with Thunder’s ‘Love Walked In’. Yet again it was another excellent rendition that displayed some fine vocals accompanied by the marvellous talents of the rest of the band. Geordie was the solid backbone of the band that everybody else played off, along with Colin Hird on bass whose talents are so off the map that a gig like this is very much a lot of fun to perform. And then you have the combined abilities of Col Dixon and Ainsley who are both superb guitarists. Col is probably a bit more flash in nature and nifty when it comes down to speed-driven licks, whereas Ainsley is a more solid player who has a very good feel for blues-based rock, yet can still pull it out of the bag when he wants to. Together they make a highly formidable team, and actually compliment each other very well. They both bring with them different qualities, as well as having separate guitar sounds that compliment each other also. So as 4 musicians then they pretty much cover all the bases and keep the music solid & tight, and also sounding very proficient. But it’s Bill’s superb vocals that really make the band come to life and give them that extra zing. He must be one of the most professional singers we’ve ever had play in the downstairs room of the Office, and I got shitloads of people telling me ust how impressed they were with him.
 

'superb opportunity to trade some blistering guitar solos with each other'

The next half of this first set was a back-to-back selection of great rock songs that any self-respecting rock fan should have heard before (unless of course you only own a copy of ‘The Greatest Rock Album In The World Ever’ cd in your collection). Next up was the anthemic ‘Holy Diver’ by Ronnie Dio’s own solo band Dio, and this strode along in full regal splendour with it’s magnificently paced chugging guitar riff. Next was Montrose’s ‘Bad Motor Scooter’ which was another track that originally featured the talents of Sammy Hagar on vocals, and this band played it very well although I did miss the slide guitar (you can’t whack a bit of bottle-neck). This number also dated back to Ainsley’s time spent with White Noise (unfortunately split up back in February), and the set from Damage Control this night had 4 songs altogether that came from the old White Noise set list, but they fitted in superbly with this kind of band so I fully understood why they chose to include them. Then it was ‘Pushed To The Limit’ by UFO, which this group were playing around with over a year ago when the idea for this project was still in it’s infancy. Next up was the first of what eventually would be a trio of Whitesnake songs, and for the first half it was ‘Love Ain’t No Stranger’. Soulfully sung with it’s atmospheric intro, and then rocking along beautifully for the main verses and choruses. The closing song of this first slot was the old Python Lee Jackson classic ‘In A Broken Dream’. What a fantastic choice as it got to show off Bill so well as a singer, yet even better it gave Ainsley & Col a superb opportunity to trade some blistering guitar solos with each other, and the extended closing section gave them plenty of room to really display their talents. It turned out to be a very promising first half that may have suffered slightly from some sound problems, yet still gave the band a damn good introduction for their first ever gig together at this particular venue. But from the applause in the room then Damage Control were defiitely winning the audience over.
 

'the whole song is an absolute masterpiece
and was brilliantly executed by all of Damage Control'

The interval gave the band a chance to sort out any minor glitches, and the sound mix was noticeably improved from the opening song of the second half. The guitars cut through with more clarity and edge, and the bass guitar had far less sub-bass rumble to it. The band were coming alive too with more confidence, and this second slot was a lot more up-lifting in nature from their own perspective. I think the monitor problems had all been sorted out by this point, and there was a much happier vibe emanating from the stage now. The second set opener was the Rainbow track ‘Gates Of Babylon’, which may be an album track but is so well-loved by any rock fans of the late 70’s. From the middle-eastern groove of the verses through to the epic feel of the guitar solo which is almost classically-inspired in arrangement, the whole song is an absolute masterpiece and was brilliantly executed by all of Damage Control. Colin Hird got to show-off a bit for the intro too (talented bugger) and this was a fantastic way to set the mood for the rest of the evening. With this band featuring 2 members of Black Rose then it was inevitable that there’d have to be a Thin Lizzy cover in there some where, but it was more a surprise when Ben Young joined the band on stage and played guitar instead of Col Dixon (see pics left and right). Bill still did the vocal lines which gave Ben the chance to rock out with some fine guitar playing, and the pace was upped too from the normal Black Rose rendition giving it a far more furious feel. The next song was probably the most obscure track of the entire evening, but to me it has always been one of my favourite rock songs of the entire 80’s. Nightranger’s ‘Don’t Tell Me You Love Me’ bounced along in brilliant form complete with blistering guitar solos during the mid section, and delicious harmony guitar parts on the final part. I realised that this song was probably going over the heads of the majority of the audience present, but to me it was tracks like this that gave Damage Control their identity and set them apart from the many other bands all playing heavy rock covers.
 

'it was the throbbing rhythm of Deep Purple’s ‘Stormbringer’
that brought the traditional rock vibe back in to play'

Following on from this was the final Dio-associated number, and this one came from the time the singer spent fronting Black Sabbath after Ozzy Osbourne left the band. ‘Children Of The Sea’ still sounded as fresh as when I first heard it over 25 years ago, and it just goes to show that there is a cornucopia of brilliant material out there that could be covered by our many local rock bands (if they just looked a little harder for it). Bill managed all the Dio parts tremendously well. Even though he never sounded as similar as say somebody like Mark from Sticky Fingers (very Dio-esque in style), he still got all the notes amazingly well and carried the songs off in terrific style. The next track was a re-working of the old Beatles classic ‘Come Together’ which was given a very heavy groove and a much meatier attack. It was probably my least favourite song of the night (when compared to the other gems in the set), but the audience recognised it and enjoyed it likewise. Next up was a pairing of 2 Van Halen sogs, with the first one ‘Somebody Get Me A Doctor’ from the Dave Lee Roth years, and the second one ‘Top Of The World’ from Sammy Hagar’s successful run with the band. Both of them were over 12 years apart when they were first released, and the difference was so much that it could have come from 2 totally separate bands. But it was good to hear them played side by side so that you could see the 2 very alternative sides of the mighty Van Halen, and fully appreciate them both too. Then it was the throbbing rhythm of Deep Purple’s ‘Stormbringer’ that brought the traditional rock vibe back in to play, plus some acrobatic vocals from Bill as well as some great interplay from the rest of the band. The Coverdale theme continued with Whitesnake’s ‘Don’t Break My Heart Again’, and the commercial AOR feel started to come through more on these type of tracks.
 

'a very impressive start that had great quality musicianship'

This was followed up by the second set closer which was a re-working of Seal’s ‘Crazy’. The original is a superbly atmospheric ‘pop’ song, and even though this rendition was a good arrangement of an unusual cover to play in the pubs, it just seemed that bit too repetitive for my personal taste. The final section seemed to drag on too long and this might have been better suited as an extra ‘bonus encore’ song as opposed to being a set closer. But the band did get a fantastic amount of applause, so they managed to pick the mood back up again with an encore, and pulled out another Whitesnake number with ‘Ready & Willing’. This time there were a few bodies on the dance floor too, and Damage Control definitely scored a winner with this song’s inclusion. And suddenly it was all over! The time had flown by (always a good indication of a well-enjoyed night) and the evening was officially ended. For this being the band’s second only performance then I thought they managed very well. There were still a few gremlin in the works (seemingly there were a few minor technical problems too at the Three Tuns gig as well), and hopefully the band will have all of these sorted out in the very near future. So this wasn’t a totally smooth running affair, but it did show so much potential and still oozed with boatloads of quality. Just in the same way that White Noise played one of their first gigs at the Office, you’re never going to see what a band can really accomplish at this very early stage of their career. It will take a good few months of playing together in ‘live’ environments (as opposed to more rehearsals) to really see this lot gel together in an almost seamless fashion. What I saw on this night was a very impressive start that had great quality musicianship, plus a very inspiring selection of songs. Yet it will be their gigs at the beginning of next year where you really get to see this band shine with their full potential. It can honestly be the skies the limit for this band as they have the talent already in abundance.

First impressions of Damage Control live were stunning. But I need to get this in to perspective that this was a good indicator of the band’s potential, yet that the best from them as a combined unit is still yet to come. I’ve now seen what this collection of musicians are capable of, and with more gigs under their belts and a further tweaked live sound, then this lot could seriously be kicking everyone’s arses on the local circuit. I hope that they prove me right in my predictions.

   “Kiss my ass I’m still alive”, … Colin Smoult.  29 / 8 / 06.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise what the B.A.E. are all about, and of course they are a dedicated tribute to the music of Canadian chart-rocker Bryan Adams. As with all tribute acts, you don’t get a heck of a lot of variety (ha-ha), and you get what it says on the label. So if you’re not a fan of Mr Adams in any way, then you’d really be lost watching a group that pay homage to the man & his music, … all night long! But once you put any musical preferences aside then you have to admit that the Bryan Adams Experience are a bloody good band. They’ve been going for quite some time now, play gigs right across this country, and even do shows in Europe as well. So the calibre of musicianship & performance is incredibly high, and rightly so they’ve gotten a lot of acclaim from the hard-core fans of the real rock-star as well. The band may not have the hard & gritty edge that a lot of the Office’s more typical Friday night ‘heavy rock’ bands do, but with the limited amount of groups playing that kid of music then the choices aren’t really there to make Fridays exclusively pounding heavy metal nights. Yet what the B.A.E. bring to the table is professionalism on a high level, and there’s still enough rock there to make you tap your feet. The funny thing about this act is that it’s not really a tribute to a band musicians, but in fact a tribute to just one guy, and therefore the show does centre around the likeness of the main singer/guitarist. In that respect he does an exceptional job. He’s got a similar voice, got the mannerisms down to a tee, and actually does resemble him to some degree. He may be a little shorter in stature than the real ‘I am’, but once he’s up on stage then you’d never really notice the difference. So as the main selling point of the group is all built around the singer, then he carries it off very well indeed. He alone is the man that puts the ‘Bryan Adams’ in to the B.A.E!

The turnout was quite reasonable for a Friday night with a good 80 or more bodies in the room, which I was very pleased with. I watched the band soundcheck, and saw them do a very good job. The singer was bouncing up and down off the stage where the mixing desk was situated, and then back out front to listen to the mix. He reminded me a lot of myself in those respects, and I was very happy that he was paying so much attention to how it was all sounding, and to getting the mix as perfect as possible. At first the amount of reverb on the snare drum seemed huge, but once the band started playing then it fitted in ideally with the full mix. The pace of these songs are generally slower to the majority of music played in this venue, so that’s why the reverb setting on that drum had seemed so big, but the vocalist knew exactly what he was doing and he got a very good mix (especially considering it was done from the side of the stage). Just as I had expected, the band were professional as hell. The music was tigt, the songs were very well played, and essentially it sounded like Bryan Adams. Of course there were no keyboards with this 4-piece band, which sort of took away the AOR sound from what original group had in the 80’s & 90’s, but it kept it all very down to earth with a 2-guitar standard pub-rock sound. The other main difference of this band compared to the real thing is that there were ZERO ballads performed. Bryan Adams had a monster-sized hit single with his ‘Everything I Do’ song, and followed it up with so many other ballads over the next decade. And because of this then he has been viewed as becoming a ‘pop’ star and snubbing his rock roots. But like all people, it’s hard to turn your back on the massive financial rewards of achieving chart success. And once you’ve tasted that kind of success then the pressures from record companies for further imitations are humongous. Yet (appreciatively) the B.A.E. kept it real and just rocked it up for the entire gig.

The music they played was basically a ‘greatest hits’ selection, but c’mon, what else would you realistically expect from a tribute band? With the avoidance of the ‘ballads’ then the band did have to include some of his lesser-successful chart singles, but the majority of this music should have been recognisable to most people that listen to the radio. Some of the songs came from his more recent releases of the last 10 years, some from his earlier days, and of course a huge chunk came from the multi-platinum selling album ‘Reckless’. This record wasn’t just a distinctive album of it’s era, but in fact one of the biggest selling rock albums of the 80’s, and it spawned something like 6 or more massive world-wide hit singles. This was Bryan Adams’ break-though record, and a one that so many people have in their own collections too. The B.A.E. played all of these tracks brilliantly, and it brought it back to me just how amazing some of these songs really are. Fair enough we’ve all heard ‘Summer of 69’ and ‘Run To You’ a million times before, but others like ‘Somebody’, ‘Heaven’, ‘One Night Love Affair’, ‘It’s Only Love’ & ‘Kids Wanna Rock’ remain incredible anthems for that era. My own personal favourite album is ‘Waking Up The Neighbours’, mainly because producer Mutt Lange put such a mammoth stamp on the sound of every song featured. So there were a few songs from this album too being performed this night, and rockers like ‘House Arrest’ still stood the test of time perfectly. The older stuff like ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ worked well, and still stands out as one of Mr Adams best early work, but I’ve got to say I was a little disappointed with the absence of ‘Cuts Like A Knife’, which is still a superb song to hear live. But I think the majority of the main material that could work live without keyboards being present, was aired this night. Some of the more recent songs may have went unrecognised by me (been a long time since I listened to the radio or watched chart music TV shows), but they still rocked and fitted in well with the rest of the set.

As musicians they do a fantastic job. The drums sounded big & meaty, and the man behind the kit kept it all solid for the rest of the band to bounce off. The bassist did a fine job too, but this was definitely more of a guitar-driven band, and as such then both the guitars did have that extra edge in the mix. In fact the lead guitar solos were overpowering for their first set, but a well estimated alteration by Kenny soon brought his boost setting back in to line, and for the second set his solos were at an absolutely perfect volume. Yet the main focal point of this band is always going to be the singer, and he played splendidly. His voice may have not had the ability to go to the same heights as the real geezer, but he still managed extremely well, and to the average punter they probably wouldn’t have noticed in the slightest. Yet his tone was superb, and he really did have the same kind of rasp and punch to his voice as does the real Bryan Adams. His mannerisms are similar too, as instead of backing ‘aay’ from the microphone on louder notes, he pulls his head to the ‘side’, which is an exact trait of the main man. He was buoyant in nature, plenty of energy on stage, and made for a very good frontman. The only thing that might have come across as strange was his ‘Canadian’ accent, which may work well in other parts of the country, but when the crowd know that the singer comes from Cleveland then they can start to view it as a little fake. I know that the vocalist was just trying to get in to the vibe of the real singer, but our Tyneside audiences can be tough to please (which is not his fault). Kenny on lead guitar did a great job too. He’s always been a fine musician, plus he’s got some visible personality and on-stage presence to go with it too. So he makes a good counter-point to the band leader, and stops it from becoming a one-man show. As a band they work very well together, have a fabulous sound, and can do all of those well-loved classics a great deal of justice.

The only negative aspect I could find from their overall show is that they put far too much emphasis on ‘crowd participation’. A couple of other people have mentioned this on the pages of Riffs already, but unfortunately I found myself mirroring their thoughts as well. In the right environment then this kind of pro-party attitude from the singer would have worked marvellously, but in front of a crowd that have are so used to the rough & readiness of pub-rock, then perhaps it was pushed at them a little too often. After all, some folk were only drinking their first beer of the night, and by the second song in there was a request of “put your hands in the air”, and then for the following number “let’s hear you all sing this one on your own”. I think the toughened attitude of a lot of the people present was a one of that they were there to be entertained, and not to feel pressured in to having to be active with the whole show (or to suffer the fear of being pointed out for not joining in). Yet I fully undersand where the B.A.E. are coming from, and if they’re used to playing more ‘club’ orientated environments then that’s the kind of involvement they’d expect from the audience. What they did this night wasn’t so much wrong, but just ill-judged for a South Shield pub crowd (and that’s the last I’ll say on the matter). The only other thing that might have not played in their favour if the fact they are a dedicated band to just one artiste, and that doesn’t allow for any variety. The band were fully advertised as a ‘Bryan Adams Tribute’, but of course you still had some punters popping in on the off-chance to see what band were playing, and they might have been disappointed that they only got one brand of music all night long. This is the same thing that affects ALL tribute bands, and it’s a 2-edged sword that these acts have to deal with. Whether it’s Black Rose, Maiden England, Sabbatica, On The Level, or any other tribute band that play in local pubs, you will always have a section of the audience that ‘adore’every song that they play, and also have some people present that feel it all gets a bit too samey.

But that takes nothing away from the show that the Bryan Adams Experience put on. They are a very good band, and deliver superb quality. For those folk who enjoy the music of Bryan Adams (and gods knows there must be a quite a few considering the thousands that turned up to see him play St James Park recently), then this group will be right up their street. The singer does convey the vibe of the real performer, and the music is authentically represented too. But with an act like this then you get exactly what it says on the label, and no different music other than that of the band they are supposed to be representing. So then it’s only reasonable to take that in to consideration if you are trying to compare them to other pub-rock bands that have ‘varied’ sets. From my own perspective then I thought they were a cracking group that displayed a lot more class & professionalism than your average pub bands. My highlights of the night had to be when one of the female Office regulars got up on stage to sing alog to ‘It’s Only Love’ (nice one Norma), and another regular from the bar got up and played rhythm guitar to all of ‘Summer Of 69’. Steve did a marvellous job, and for a guy that normally plays in the house for his own entertainment then it was a big move to see him up there on stage (but it made my f*cking night mate!). Maybe a pub setting isn’t the ideal way to see an act of this style, and in hindsight I think that they need to have an audience where a huge majority of the punters are real Bryan Adams fans, and not just opportunists that have turned up to see ‘any’ rock band. That’s the only way this group can guarantee that the main bulk of the crowd are tuned in to the same wavelength, and therefore ensuring that the hard work they do on stage is fully appreciated by everybody. But for my first sight on them in nearly 5 years, then they still have that magic and remain a very entertaining live band.

   Yours, “She’s only happy when she’s dancing”, … Colin Smoult.  14 / 8 / 06.

(All pics courtesy of The Bryan Adams Experience)

About bloody time Mr Smoult. Finally The Bandits got to play The Office, its just about still standing.

Col was away and emailed me to do a review for him, which I am glad to do……

For those readers who are unfamiliar to The Bandits (formerly The Rhythm Bandits), they have been around since about 1943 I think. They have certainly been around as long as I have been going to see local bands. They play hard Rock and Roll tunes and inject a massive dose of humour into their shows. They are a no frills, no airs or graces raw attack on the senses and entertain without compassion.

They also have a great website…www.rhythm-bandits.co.uk

I have had the pleasure to have seen them countless times in just about every venue around. However, I had never witnessed either of their “Stormin” or “Farmyard” shows which always annoyed me as I can imagine the big stage being a fantastic plateau for this bands talents. This is why I made the trip to the Office last night to finally see them up on a proper stage rather than on the floor/tables/stools/bars of other venues.

I arrived just after the band had set up and missed the sound check but I can imagine it being pretty much:

“Is this on?”
 “Yip”
“Righto, get the beers in”

Sometimes you can overcomplicate things. Rock and Roll isn’t an exact science.

The opening number of Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” proved that the lads were right to drop the “rythem” (sic) as they were being tagged as a blues band and they most definitely aren’t, also pubs kept spelling it like that. Into the Pirates “Shakin All Over” and then we are treated to Whalebone singing “Substitute”. The bass line on this is virtually a lead line and Whalebone plays it like he means it. When he sings “I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth”, you believe him. Next up is a cover of the Kings Of Leon’s “California Waiting”, I love the Kings anyway so I really enjoyed this rocked up version which still maintained the “southern” edge of the original. Bob reminded the crowd that they had to cheer as the drummer wants to drop the song. It was met with a huge cheer which means Brad will have to keep playing it! One request gentlemen, more Kings please! After “Werewolves Of London”, the slide guitar came out for an airing. Bob is a very highly skilled slide player and his version of “Bad to The Bone” is simply THE best version of the song I have ever heard. Thorogood himself would struggle look that mean. Next out is the Bandit anthem of “Roxette” complete with Rory Typhoon showcase of dropping to his knees and playing “Ziggy Stardust” mid-song. “Rory played geeeeetaaaaaaaaarrrrr”. Brilliant.

The second last song in the first set was a cover of “No Other Baby” by Bobby Helms. Whalebone was supposed to sing the song but apparently lost the key somewhere in the intro and Bob had to help him out. He tried again on the second verse and was met by Bad Bob shouting “I wouldn’t bother” at him. This didn’t actually detract from the song as Bob is more than capable of singing it. It was very funny for everyone but poor Whalebone Pete. Bless him. The end of the first set was signalled by everyone being invited to sing along with the instrumental “Wipeout”, a song that Mr Dolphin drums with all his might. Time for a breather, or as Bob said “We are off to shag the drummer, back in a bit”.

Set two opens with a raucous version of “My Generation” and a subtle “Jesus Just Left Chicago”. Into a Stereophonics number being introduced as “a song I don’t know” by Mr Bates. That didn’t show apart from missing the words on a few occasions, but that could be down to the beer spilled all over the lyric sheet. The highlight of the second set for me was a “Roadhouse Blues/500 Miles” segue which is seamless and works brilliantly. “Jim Morrison isn’t as cool as The Proclaimers” declares Bob. Dunno if I agree with that one….

During the proceedings we were treated to a guest appearance by Ian from Mojo Hand Blues Band on harmonica for a couple of numbers including “Down At The Doctors”. Ian is a phenomenal talent and plays just about anything you can blow down (insert your own punchline here). Nice to see him up there with the Bandits. He fitted in really well and could easily do the job full-time. Once he had been warmly applauded and made his exit we were treated to a great rendition of “Pride and Joy” by Stevie Ray Vaughan with Bob and Rory showing us that they can really play some bloooooze (I checked and that IS how you spell it). During the second set, Bob played a bit more slide and used a full pint as opposed to a bottleneck, thus giving the Gibson a rather sticky lager bath in the process. The band finished this set with a rockin’ “Stay With Me” which had feet stomping around the whole pub. They did a couple more as an encore, including a great “I Fought The Law” which was greeted with a sea of hands in the air clapping away in the break. Towards the end, Bob really rocked out and threw his Esquire around like a maniac. He really gives his guitars abuse and treats them exactly as they should be treated. They are tools not trophies! This included standing it on its head and drop kicking it. But as he said to me after "once you've stood it on its head there's no other option....you've just got to let it go" The daft thing is I can’t argue with his logic.

As a group, The Bandits provide a great nights entertainment. They look and act the part brilliantly right down to Rory’s trestle table walking (a feat Ainsley Wills and I agreed, we couldn’t get away with!). Bobs guitar bashing, Brads hectic, energetic thumping and Whalebones relentless thundering bass. They are also reminiscent of The Hipthrusters in the way they play and enjoy themselves on stage. And that’s no bad thing.

I don’t recommend them. I DEMAND you see them.

(note set list covered in beer!!)

Yours…."Grit your teeth, clench your jaw, push yourself just a little bit more..."

Steve Gilroy 06/08/2006.

Smoulty will be resuming normal services next week.
(Thanks to Ainsley from Damage Control for supplying Riffs with these pics - except the last one on the right)

'They had a quirky animated frontman plus a female bassist'

Fizzyfish are a band that are made up of members from Darlington, Hartlepool & Redcar. They aren’t that well know up in these parts of the north east region, but in the Cleveland & North Yorkshire areas they have been gigging extensively for the last few years. In fact the band have been performing live for 6 years now, yet still remain fairly unknown in the Tyneside & Wearside localities. My only knowledge of them was basically from their own website, of which they had put up a link on the Riffs ‘bands websites’ section. The name attracted my interest straight away, and once I’d seen the kind of set list that they played then I knew that they’d be ideal for a booking at the Office. I’d also looked at the photos of the band live in action, and saw that they had a quirky animated frontman, plus a female bassist too. Definitely something that set them apart from many other acts, yet it was the variety of the genres of music that they covered in their live shows that really caught my interest. Anything from Gary Numan & Ultravox, through to Green Day & Metallica, with some punk classics thrown in as well. This is a band that are hard to pigeon hole with an overall label, and their varied selection of songs could only be tagged together as ‘rock’. I’d been itching to book them for a while, but I was informed by the band that because of their shift work-patterns that the limited amount of spaces available for gigs had pretty much been handed out for the rest of this year. So I was very fortunate to land on my feet in such a way that not only did I get that stubborn Saturday slot filled, but also by a band that I had been dying to see for ages. Fizzyfish were at last coming to South Shields, and even though I was booking them blind, the demand to see them playing in their home region obviously meant that they had to be an act of some decent quality. So it was time to bring them up further north to see if they could have the same kind of impact at the Office too.
 

'I found the whole lot of them so fantastically easy to work with.'

Even though the group have their own PA rig, with the Office being a fairly large sized room then I offered to help them out with the sound mixing, as after all they had helped me out of a tight spot so it was only fair to make sure that the band would sound as good as possible. I got to the venue nice & early to set up the entire rig in time for the band arriving. Alan the singer turned up as I was standing outside having a smoke after sweating my bollocks off. I recognised him instantly from the photos on their website as he’s a tall chap with a shaven head, and with a little Mohawk chin beard then he’s not the kind of bloke that disappears unnoticeable in a crowd. The rest of the band turned up shortly after that, and can I just say what an absolutely lovely bunch of folk they are. Most musicians I get to work with are nice people, but this lot stood out by being really pleasant and so ridiculously easy to accommodate. And the really strange thing about these 4 individuals is that they were all so friendly with each other, to the point where you could have mistaken them to all be related. There was a really strong sense of camaraderie amongst them all, and they all worked together as team when setting up their equipment. I’ve gotten a sixth sense when it comes down to bands these days, and can often guess at how well they’ll cope just by watching them set up before the gig. But with Fizzyfish I felt very calm & relaxed, which was pretty weird considering I didn’t have a bloody clue if they were going to be any good or not. We spent a lot of time getting the soundcheck as polished as possible, and I found the whole lot of them so fantastically easy to work with. I was quite happy with the results before the gig, knowing that I’d probably have to adjust things further when the audience started filling up the room (more bodies changes a sound mix quite a lot). The band even put out little bowls full of sweets for the punters, and of course they were ‘Fizzyfish’ which is where the band get their name from.
 

'I adore good frontmen, always have done, and Alan is one of the best!'

The strange thing is that some people turned up to see the band play purely out of interest because of the group’s name. Hey if it works, don’t knock it! But there wasn’t a bad crowd in for this night, and considering that the group are unknown around here (and only confirmed the gig 2 days before hand), then they managed quite well. Fizzyfish opened up with the theme tune to an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western (Metallica’s intro tape too) and then kicked off in to ‘Enter Sandman’ with full might (no taking it easy at first with this band). Next up was the familiar strains of Deep Purple’s ‘Black Knight’ which made a back-to-back pairing of 2 metal anthems that are quite well-played by a lot of heavy rock acts that play at this venue. But from then on this band started throwing more curve-balls than you’d get to see at the Yankees Stadium. The material started to vary so drastically with tunes by the Strokes and Jimmy Eat World, which threw a very different slant on their first set. Then up was the Buzcocks favourite ‘Ever Fallen In Love’ which surprisingly fitted in very well when considering how diverse this set list was turning out to be. The band look great on stage. You have Alan the singer who totally dominates the centre stage and instantly commands attention. He’s one of the few frontmen I have ever seen on a ‘pub-rock’ level that oozes such confidence & charisma. I’d have to be looking at people like Len from Tubesnake for any kind of comparison, yet Alan has his own on-stage personality and is undeniably quirky and eccentric. I adore good frontmen, always have done, and Alan is one of the best! He didn’t disappoint me in the slightest (as I guessed he’d be fairly unique) and did what all the very best frontmen do. And that’s to engage the audience, keep their attention focused on the band, and to be highly entertaining as well. He managed to execute all of these excellent traits superbly, and on of top of all that he was a decent chanter too.
 
 

' . . . and the group still performed as tightly & professionally as any other 100% male act.'

The next unusual visual aspect of the band is undoubtedly their female bassist. Just the fact of having a woman on stage who isn’t a lead singer is quite an oddity in itself, but once you add that to her ability as being a very capable musician then it made her inclusion all the more special. I’m not being sexist here in any way, it’s just simply that we don’t tend to get female musicians in this local pub scene playing cover versions. Maybe there should be more of them, because Traci from this band showed that it made no difference whatsoever to the quality of the music being played, and the group still performed as tightly & professionally as any other 100% male act. Yet it did have it’s advantages as it made the testosterone levels of the band as a whole diminish, and it actually made Fizzyfishappear to be more ‘real’ if anything. Next in the line-up is Chris on guitar. He’s a very competent musician, and when he cut loose then I was quite impressed at how fluent his soloing style was. His sound was quite meaty when he needed it to be, and it cleaned up nice to be jangly in nature if that’s what the song required the guitar to sound like. He asked me to mic his guitar cabinet up with 2 mics, as he was running the whole thing in ‘stereo’. It was actually the first time I’d ever done a true stereo guitar mix, and even though you couldn’t hear it that much during the majority of songs, the odd stereo embellishments and solos sounded incredible. And even when he was playing standard guitar, the extreme panning on the mixing desk made his whole guitar sound separate within the overall mix to make it more prominent (must experiment more with this in future). And lastly we have ‘Soss’ on drums who played marvellously. I hope I don’t hurt his feelings by mentioning this, but he has to be one of the smallest musicians I have ever worked with in my life. But that’s not me being derogatory in anyway, as it made absolutely no difference to his excellent drumming ability. This bloke is a cracking player and worked so well with the rest of the band. He’s just another tremendous addition that gives this whole unit such a unique character.
 

' . . . Alan of course stood totally still on stage while looking around quite demented'

The first set continued with some pop music that had a slight ‘rock’ edge to it all, and was certainly a lot more heavy in nature by the time the band had finished with them. Next up was Ultravox’s ‘All Stood Still’, complete with Korg keyboards to give it that authentic very early 80’s ‘techno-pop’ feel. Alan of course stood totally still on stage while looking around quite demented (this guy has more facial expressions than Jim Carey). This was followed by Bowie’s old classic ‘Space Oddity’ complete again with keyboards and synth solo. After this it was back to the pub-rock standards with T Rex’s ‘20th Century Boy’, yet the band play this stuff so well that whatever they put their hands to they seem to pull off brilliantly. The final five songs of this first slot really saw the band hit their stride with a selection of great numbers that suited them down to the ground. The Kaiser Chiefs ‘Everyday I Love You Less & Less’ was a perfect pop anthem that kept the group’s energy levels flowing, but it was the back-to-back coupling of Terrorvision’s ‘Discothèque Wreck’ and Therapy’s ‘Screamager’ that really saw the group in more fiery fashion. And then while the pace had heated up they finished things off with ‘Breakout’ by the Foo Fighters and ‘100 Mile High City’ by Ocean Colour Scene. This was a really good way to end things off, and I felt the band had paced their set just right. The variety was truly refreshing, and as the group had told me before hand, “there’s something there for everybody”. I personally liked Fizzyfish a hell of a lot, but I was a little wary on how well they’d fair with the Office regulars. But surprisingly the only people that had left were ones that had complained about some of the lights getting in their eyes. That was soon fixed with Alan redirecting the lights lower on to the dance floor, and it appeared that the rest of the audience were really enjoying the band. For their first sight of them I think the crowd were a little apprehensive, but by the beginning of the second set Fizzyfish had totally won them over.
 

'I looked around as saw the crowd’s reactions and knew that this band now had them totally hooked.'

The group only had a short interval as they wanted to pack in as many songs as possible until the final curfew time. So after a brief 15 minutes they were straight back up on stage and then remained there for the next hour and a quarter. Nobody got short changed this night with a combined 2-hour stage-show, plus for their second slot you could noticeably see this group grow more confident. They knew by then that the crowd were on the same wave-length as the band, and were showing their appreciation too, so likewise Fizzyfish took things up a notch as well. It was back to the old rock classics for their second set opening number with UFO’s ‘Shoot Shoot’, and then followed by Queen’s rock monster ‘Now I’m Here’. I looked around as saw the crowd’s reactions and knew that this band now had them totally hooked. It had taken the first half of the evening for the audience to tune in to what Fizzyfish are all about, and from then on you could feel the atmosphere rise in the room, and with more applause then you’ll always get a group performing better too. Next up was Feeder’s big chart success ‘Buck Rogers’ which bounced along in joyous fashion, only for the crowd to be thrown another curve-ball in the form of Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’. I’ve always wanted to do a rock version of this myself, but realised that to pull it off then you have to have keyboards on stage too, and Fizzyfish did a brilliant rendition of this track. To be honest the theme that this group went for reminded me a lot of my own band, and I managed to count least 12 songs amongst these numbers that Shovelmouth have performed at one time or another. So maybe I’m biased, but for me this set list was right on the money and provided great variety, yet all under the universal umbrella of ‘rock’! The band continued to bounce from indie, to pop, to punk, and to heavy rock through the rest of their show. We were treated to songs by Green Day, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Beastie Boys & Blink 182. There were also some surprising inclusions with a heavy rock version of the Beatles ‘Hard Day’s Night’, Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘Don’t Fear The Reaper’, and a cracking version of ‘Down Down’ by the gods of boogie Status Quo.
 

'This is a team in the truest sense of the word, but Alan fronts it all so very well.'

The second set was monster sized, with about 20 songs being crammed into their last remaining 75 minutes. Alan later told me that the band have been know to play up to 3 hours in one night! But the venue does have a curfew time, and unfortunately Fizzyfish were working against the clock trying to soak up as much on-stage time as possible so as to make it worth their whole travelling all this way. The band wrapped things up with a nice piece of pub-rock cheese in the form of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock & Roll’ (the band did delve in to the ‘standards’ occasionally), but for their next pub-rock classic they put a different spin on it and freshened it right up. The old Kinks chestnut ‘You Really Got Me’ was given a new lease of life with some nice mid-section improvising and inter-play, which lengthened it out without ever making it become boring. It was great to watch this bunch become more confident as the night went on, and by the time they played the encores they could have just as well been playing a home-town show for their friends & family. I’ve harked on about the set list being unusual etc, but that observation can never overshadow the simple fact that this band are very ‘entertaining’. Alan is a real character, and his stage moves & visual expressions verge on being ‘theatrical’. I swear that this is not a bad thing in the slightest, because it made for a more visually enjoyable show altogether. He’s a big prog-rock fan and hugely influenced by it’s top exponents like Peter Gabriel etc, and likewise he likes to display characterisations to suit the song he is singing at that time. Yet his stage presence is captivating, and he does have a certain quality that makes you want to see him perform and guess at what he’ll get up to next. But this isn’t a one-man show by any means as the rest of the group fully back him up, and they too often get involved with the tomfoolery and stage poses as well. This is a team in the truest sense of the word, but Alan fronts it all so very well.
 

' . . . a fabulous band that brought with them a real sense of fun.'

For my first ever view of Fizzyfish I thought they were a fabulous band that brought with them a real sense of fun. That in itself is hugely refreshing in the pub-rock scene where occasionally bands are trying to out-do each other. It’s not a competition at all, and sometimes groups can lose sight that the real goal of any live act is to be ENTERTAINING! After all, this whole genre of live music is mainly habited by people aged in their 30’s and 40’s playing ‘other’ people’s songs. So the real crux of going on stage in an alien environment is to entertain those people in the audience to the max, and in that respect Fizzyfish do that job to the fullest degree. I’d be delighted to have this band return to the Office any time, and from the response I got from all of the punters afterwards, they too would like to see this lot come back as soon as possible as well. From me personally, I’d like to thank the band once again for stepping up to play this gig with such little advance notice, and for also being s easy to work with. Alan, Chris, Traci & Soss are amongst some of the nicest folk I’ve ever met in this game, and I hope they become regular visitors to the venue in the future. Nige loved them too and managed to grab some great photos as well. When Nige tells me that he took over 60 pics then I know instinctively that he had a great time. After seeing how good Fizzyfish really are, then I feel embarrassed that I hadn’t gotten them to play at the Office earlier in their 6-year career. This band are a glistening gem nestled in amongst the dance-orientated Teesside region, and I hope that they make many more visits to this area now that they’ve seen how well their brand of music is appreciated here. For more info on Fizzyfishand their up’n’coming gigs, please log on to www.fizzyfish.info

Thanks for the sweeties too, they were incredibly yummy. Yours, …Colin Smoult. 1 / 8 / 06.