Reviews - Summer 2011
South West Four Weekender 2011
Does a review of South West 4 belong in a rock magazine? This was the question asked of me by a couple of girls in the queue at the festival. Well, there were some heavy sounds emanating from the tents and seeing that the headline band also performed at this year’s Download rock festival, I would say this is not out of place...
Van Der Graaf Generator Live
Van Der Graaf Generator are managing to achieve such new heights since they reformed in 2005 and reinvented themselves as a trio in 2007 that it's hard to believe that they'd never been a trio in earlier incarnations. With no time to mess about, or play on a site like Poker.de Robin and I duly went off to the splendid Chiswick home of Metropolis for what promised to be a bumper Van Der Graaf Generator evening...
Field Day Festival 2011
So once again, that huge section of the year that seems to include every month except December, known as festival season, is upon us. A lot has been written about the oversaturation of the market and the lacklustre results but I'm actually quite pleased at the vast array of choices out there. The more live music the better I say! As a committed fan of indie-rock there is no shortage of festivals targeted at my demographic so I thought this year I'd take advantage of one of them and promptly got a ticket to Field Day, a one day only festival in Victoria Park. Perfect! Not too far to travel and I don't have to sleep in a bloody tent!...
Bloodstock Open Air 2011
Arriving late afternoon on the Friday I managed to make it to the arena and Ronnie James Dio stage in time to watch Kreator start their set, before wandering across to the New Blood stage to catch part of Training Icarus’ performance. Over the course of the evening I caught parts of Kreator, Training Icarus, Brezno, October File, Devin Townsend, Lawnmower Deth and WASP’s performances...
Adam Ant at the Phoenix Cinema
The run through of the evening was pretty simple and self-explanatory, introduced by none other than Georgie Girl and Twinkle Twinkle, first we would be treated to a screening of Adam Ant Live in Tokyo from 1981 with the original Ants, following directly onto the first screening of Adam Ant and The Good, The Mad and The Lovely Posse Live at Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park from earlier this year. These two films would then be followed (with a small 'comfort' break) by the man himself answering questions from the fans and playing some of his songs in a solo, acoustic act...
Iron Maiden's Final Frontier Tour
This was the last night of Maiden’s Final Frontier world tour covering some 40 countries with 98 shows in barely more than a year thanks to Ed Force 1, their Boeing 757 piloted by the singer himself ... and the final gig was as awesome as anticipated. So what does one expect from an Iron Maiden concert?...
Sonisphere Festival 2011 - Sunday's Performances
Sunday morning loomed large over the festival goers and as the sun was shining I popped into see Turbowolf on the Bohemia stage, however they were showing the film documentary of the Oxford scholar who is imprisoned in America for drug smuggling and I can’t say that’s what I came to see so I quickly headed over to the Saturn stage for my real destination: Black Tide...
Sonisphere Festival 2011 - Saturday's Performances
Saturday morning as the people of Sonisphere were waking themselves up and making their way into the arena I stopped off at the Jagermeister stage to catch a couple of songs from the Sons of Icarus before heading across to see Richard Cheese and Lounge Against The Machine. Andy Masson, the lead singer of Sons of Icarus has an amazing metal voice, truly standing out when he ‘screams’, their overall sound was quite a traditional eighties heavy metal rock style but very good – I think they’re one to keep an eye on...
Sonisphere Festival 2011 - The Big 4
Having never been to a festival before I was a little apprehensive about the whole thing, but really I couldn’t have chosen a better one to kick start my festivalling. With an amazing line-up over 3 days, Sonisphere was packed with great acts, so many in fact that it was hard at times to choose which stage to be at, who to see and who to miss out on and I didn’t always get the choice right...
The Kinks Re-Issue Deluxe Pack
Ah, The Kinks, you would think that any band who virtually invented hard rock with You Really Got Me would find it impossible to create yet another genre but they certainly did that. English whimsy I call it and not a moments embarrassment by the change in direction and indeed why should they have any?? It's a bit difficult now looking back through the vortex of time to realies that these gems caught the zeitgeist perfectly...
Caravan - In The Land of Grey and Pink: Re-Issues
As stalwarts of the influential “Canterbury Scene”, Caravan never hit the commercial heights of some of their contemporaries; nevertheless they remain highly respected and affectionately thought of. “In The Land Of Grey And Pink” is a must have in any Prog rock enthusiast collection and this release offers much for the dedicated fan and also for anyone wishing to sample a mighty fine chunk of original Prog...
Download Festival 2011
Friday and Saturday at Download this year were less of a washout than last year, with weather holding up until the downpours plagued visitors during Sunday. This year there was a fabulous turnout with a sea of people sporting tour t-shirts anxious to get close to their idols...
Tribal Suns at Glastonbudget 2011
Tribal Suns: The name conjures up either a heavy African drumming sound or at the other end of the scale atmospheric ‘60s hippy chant. The band’s sound is neither of those and indeed the name seems to be somewhat random, however their music is a fusion of two very different elements...
Glastonbudget 2011
Set on a farm in the heart of the Midlands near Loughborough, Wymeswold is not particularly accessible by public transport and my arrival by cab followed a dire journey from London as, typically, the rail and underground services could not get their act together at the weekend. To cap it all the weather was dreary, but once on site, I was immediately cheered up by the fun atmosphere, the buzz and the anticipation of a full day of gigs to entertain the 10,000 raucous spectators...
Roy Orbison - The Monument Singles Collection
Ok lets start with the easy bit, if you’re a Big O fan then of course you’ll lap this up, especially the DVD, wow how the nostalgia cells were excited when watching the monument concert (1965). There’s something about these events that come from a more innocent age that can really touch you deep inside and of course with a note perfect performance from one of the greats, what more could one want, well maybe a few more minutes and what’s wrong with wanting that?...
Hugh Cornwell - New Songs for King Kong
Hooverdam, as recorded live during Hugh Cornwell’s previous UK Tour, is another great album from a man with such a substantial body of work behind him. The all-encompassing wall of sound that the guitars put across from note one is wonderfully rich and deep. Full of texture and harmony the final effect created by the guitar and base is one of reassuringly good rock music, bettered only by the addition of Hugh Cornwell’s vocals, which melodic contours they encompass only prove to compliment the instrumentation...
Katie Melua Live at the Hammersmith Apollo
Ok I admit it, I bought the tickets to impress my wife, you know to show her my ‘sensitive’ side, ( probably my left side but I’m not sure ) so didn’t particularly have great expectations, afterall how will someone who’s back catalogue is mainly love songs keep me interested for a couple of hours and I must be honest a song about bicycles in China just doesn’t cut it for me...
