Event Reviews

Unless you’re a resident of Bristol, the novelty of a gig in the underbelly of a boat is something to behold – particularly when the Thekla is a wonderful little venue that has a fantastic sound system: the three bands on tonight benefit from it fantastically. On arrival, with twenty …

Dublin has been a hotbed of gigs for the last couple of weeks and this one came at the end of a 3 night run, Saxon and Sabaton having played blistering shows over the previous 2 evenings. It is Sunday night in Dublin and the hordes came out from North, …

Krokodil were first up.  They’re a very heavy band and tonight seem to have the volume set to “bleeding ears” as it is at times uncomfortably loud, and the bass is so high that anything you touched was vibrating.  There are some great heavy riffs in the music, but to …

Saxon are back at the Ritz, the first time since the release of ‘Saxon- St. George’s Day Sacrifice – Live in Manchester’ back in March of this year. The set list that time was pure fan driven magic, however this time around the tour is dubbed ‘Warriors of the Road’ …

Magnum are never a band to rest on their laurels, so it came as no surprise when they opened up with ‘Live ’til You Die’ from their latest exceptional opus, ‘Escape From The Shadow Garden’. This was certainly a crowd pleaser as was ‘Black Skies’ and ‘Freedom Day’ taken from …

Tuesday was a special day for many reasons. Firstly, the sun was out. In Glasgow in December that’s a bigger achievement than you might think. Secondly I got to make lots of lovely new friends, and catch up with some old ones. And thirdly, Phil Campbell got to play the …

First up tonight were British band Voodoo Six.  It’s not long since their singer quit the band due to health reasons, and as the band haven’t had time to find a permanent replacement, tonight’s gig is performed with a stand in singer, Nik Taylor Stoakes from Fire Red Empress. Voodoo …

Friday the 28th of November 2014 was ‘Black Friday’ for many. Fortunately for me the main black in my Friday was being worn by the line of Delain fans waiting outside The Cathouse in Glasgow for the last date of Dutch symphonic metal band Delain’s short UK tour. The doors opened promptly …

Ivory Blacks in Glasgow could be a great wee venue. It’s a decent size, it’s smack bang in the city centre, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be buzzing on a Saturday night. Unfortunately because of some strange planning Tigertailz played last night to a crowd of only about fifty. …

Friday was a big night for Eden’s Curse, as they recorded their new album live at the Classic Grand in Glasgow. Not many bands have the honour of being introduced onto stage by Scottish rock radio legend Tom Russell, but there he was, with some words of wisdom for the …

Kicking off the final day of Hard Rock Hell VIII is More (6), who make a solid stand on the second stage and close with ‘Atomic Rock’ to a positive reception.  Black State Highway (8) take the bull by the horns and give it a good kicking, breathing life into the …

It’s sunny in Wales this morning.  Yeah, you read that right, sunny.  Not that it particularly matches the disposition of your PM team, as they battle against non-existent mobile signals in vain attempts to track down the extremely long list of artists we’re supposed to interview… But, whilst there are …

Tonight’s support act was former Whitesnake guitarist, Bernie Marsden.  He plays a mainly acoustic set alongside one other musician, Jim Kirkpatrick (also on guitar).  He kicks off with “Linin’ track” and”Wedding day”, both from his new album, Shine, but it’s not long before he’s onto some Whitesnake material, which understandably …

Tonight’s gig saw two great bands on one bill, even if it was an odd pairing.  Supporting Volbeat on this tour are Hatebreed – a great band, but far heavier than Volbeat. Hatebreed got things off to a very heavy start, and it quickly became apparent that while they charged …

It was later than the advertised door time as I pulled up alongside Rock City on this November Monday night. I know The Pretty Reckless have a good size following but I was still surprised just how long the line waiting for doors stretched back, snaking round the corner and …

It was a very unique era of debaucherous legend, the embodiment of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, so who wouldn’t want to emulate that. Sleaze/glam rock is one of those love it or hate it genres in the rock world and one that is making a resurgence thanks to countries like …

The first act tonight was She Makes War, aka Laura Kidd.  She’s a solo artist that performs playing guitar and ukulele and singing.  She uses a technique where she sings a short section which is recorded using a foot pedal, and the recording is then played back on a loop, …

Tucked behind Camden’s Electric Ballroom is a funky little venue called The Stillery, where the lovely folk at Spinefarm Records had invited Planet Mosh for the worldwide album premiere of Finnish band Santa Cruz’s second album, for which the band themselves only received the master copy four days earlier. The …

Until very recently, the only time Iceland, Russia and Switzerland joined forces was to ensure the United Kingdom continued their miserable run of form in the Eurovision Song Contest; tonight is a different matter entirely. No politics, no international relations on the line, just a good old fashioned three band-bill on the …

For the fourth time this year I headed out to see The Quireboys, although the first time at this particular venue, this year. So far an acoustic show at  Sheffield Corporation, a full band show at The Picturedrome, Holmfirth and I was lucky enough to get tickets for one of their 30th …