The Best Gigs: 2011

If you have read this blog over the time that I have been writing it, you will know I do occasionally talk about live music. IT is has been a strange year for gigs in that by October (excluding festivals), I had only been to 5 gigs (and of those 5, 2 of them were Foo Fighters!) Between October and now, I’ve been to 11 gigs. What this blog will do is choose the best of them. This list excludes festival sets as they had a list of their own earlier in the year. Just a reminder of that list (excluding the only gig from the list) the top 5 were:

1) Avantasia – Wacken 2011
2) Muse – Reading 2011
3) Metallica – Sonisphere 2011
4) System Of A Down – Download 2011
5) Slipknot – Sonisphere 2011

How did Pulp not make that top 5? Damn I saw some good music in the summer. Anyway, you can read the whole summer list right by clicking the word that is underlined at the end of this sentence. The following is a list of gigs that are honourable mentions in date order of gigs that did not make the cut with a blurb from how I reviewed them, assuming that I did.

Foo Fighters (NME Big Gig) – Wembley Arena 25/02/2011 – “Wow! They are an immense live band. Everything about this gig was almost perfect. Dave Grohl is definitely one of the best front men I’ve ever seen live and Foo Fighters are now one of the best bands I’ve seen live.” – I should stress this is only here because the other time I saw Foo Fighters maybe in the top 5. Maybe.
Skindred – Wedgewood Rooms 27/04/2011 – “The room exploded as Skindred took to the stage. Seeing the way Benji Webbe can hold a crowd of any size in his hands is phenomenal. During a song towards the end of the set, the band paused with Benji just stood at the front. Without gesture, the crowd went nuts, chanting Skindred until the song kicked back in. I was left in no doubt though that Skindred are an amazing live band, regardless of setting (be it main stage at Sonisphere or in the 400 capacity Wedgewood Rooms). They are a band that, if you like their music, you need to see them live.”
Ginger Wildheart (Acoustic) – Talking Heads 07/05/2011 – “I really did not know what to expect from this Ginger gig. All I knew was it would be a mix of Wildhearts, solo material and some surprises. The opening song was Geordie in Wonderland which was superb. In a world without The Wildhearts on the touring circuit, it is good to see Ginger still touring and performing gigs as good as this one was.”
Evile – Talking Heads 13/10/2011 – “The gig was superb. Evile were on top form and the new album sounds really good live. They said on stage they were very proud of it and from what I heard, they have every right to be. I hope as they do more shows and more headline tours, they play longer sets. They played 11 songs in Southampton and I’m sure they could have played more. Other than that, and them not playing Armoured Assault (again!), I have no complaints.” – As a side note, they would have been in the top 5 if they played Armoured Assault!
Fozzy – Talking Heads 03/11/2011 – “From the off, Fozzy were superb and this remained the case until the last note of Enemy at the end of the gig. It truly was a superb setlist from Fozzy. A superb performance from the band which was met with a superb crowd. At the end of every song, there were loud and prolonged Fozzy chants. Chris Jericho early on in the gig asked if we could come in the trailer with them and come to every gig. Considering how good this gig was, I’d be in favour of that.”
Alter Bridge – M.E.N Arena 24/11/2011 – “Opening with Slip To The Void, they proceeded to play a very strong set list. The band seemed to be genuinely blown away by the response they were getting from the crowd...it was a cracking gig. Alter Bridge will headline and sell out arenas in their own right soon I think, and they certainly have the ability to perform on the big arena stage.” – When making decisions about the gigs which make the top 5, I try to focus on the headline band. Including Black Stone Cherry would have made this gig scrape in at no.5. As it wasn’t a package tour I can’t include them and thus this gig does not make the top 5.

I would have included Rise Against in that list but for some reason, I didn’t review them. This might have been because I left early in order to get the train home. Anyway, they didn’t make the top 5 but definitely deserve an honourable mention. Honourable mentions get previous words placed next to them. Top 5 bands get new words written as sort of an end of year reflection on why they were the best. Counting down then, Number 5...

5 - An Evening With Dimmu Borgir – Manchester Academy 3 – 25/11/2011



I really didn’t know what to expect from this gig. Not only was it the first black metal headline show I was going to, it was also the first visit I was making to Manchester Academy 3. I’d heard from people that had been there that the room was tiny. It was also interesting as it was just going to be Dimmu Borgir, no support band. I knew Dimmu were a powerhouse live, having seen them twice before at festivals but neither of those two sets came even close to being as good as this gig was. They were splitting the gig into two sets; the first honouring a classic album and the second being a best of. The album that was voted by the fans was “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant”. In my review, I wrote that I hoped “Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia” would win the vote. It has since been drawn to my attention that it wasn’t an option in the vote. Both sets were immense. I had forgotten how good of an album “Enthrone Darkness Triumphant” really is. I sometimes find myself getting bored when a band play an album in its entirety (the first time I saw Iron Maiden truth be told) but this did not happen this time. Shagrath declared the evening was a celebration to the 14 year old album, and it was a spectacular one. The second set was immense as it had all the best of the new material with the very best of their back catalogue chosen as well (I guess that’s why they call it a best of huh?) They didn’t play Sympozium but I am coming to the realisation that it’s one of those rare ones a fan would be lucky to hear live. Maybe one day I will be one of the lucky ones. Anyway, their set concluded on The Serpentine Offering and Progenies of the Great Apocalypse which was a stunning way to close a superb gig. The best way to sum up why this gig was so good is that on the way back to the hotel, regardless of the conversation; the gig would be discussed using words like “wow”, “so good”, “immense” and many other superlatives. The question which pops up occasionally in my mind is how can Dimmu Borgir top that on an open-air stage at Wacken? With a full orchestra, they stand a good chance but it will be very tough.

4 – Manic Street Preachers – O2 Arena – 17/12/2011



Manic Street Preachers were just amazing on this wet night in London. Looking back on it, I am still so impressed that not only did they manage to play all 38 of their singles, but not once did the gig become boring. With this being a gig where they played all their singles, it was the perfect one for me to be at as they played everything of theirs I wanted to hear. The stage show was fairly understated in that it had some Christmassy stuff on stage. The video screen behind the band though was very impressive. It played video throughout the entire gig, either showing the band as they played or showing retro clips of music videos or previous performances. The atmosphere out in the crowd was something special. Aside from one person in front of me who looked bored and fell in and out of sleep, everyone seemed to be having a great time. Almost every song was met with a large cheer and there was a lot of bouncing, dancing, singing etc. The good vibe from the crowd was matched by the band. The onstage chemistry between them all is superb, but at times James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire appear to be a comedy double act. Hey, they’d be successful if that’s what they chose to do with their 2 years away from being the Manics. Performance wise they were outstanding. I was told they were a good live act and that is the case. I’m always impressed when a band is able to get an entire venue singing along to a song, even more so when the venue is as big as the O2 Arena is. The final song of the night was “A Design For Life” and that is exactly what happened. It wasn’t unexpected as that song is their biggest song, but it was still immense to be part of that 18k sing along. Manics were fantastic; the crowd was superb and the fact they played all 38 singles in one night is why this gig is in the top 5. They said “see you in 2 years” and I imagine they will see me then.


3 – Ginger Wildheart – Relentless Garage – 18/12/2011



I saw Ginger the week before this gig in Southampton and I thought it was awesome. I only originally went to this gig because I was in London and it seemed foolish to miss another good Ginger gig. Not only was this a good Ginger gig, it was immense. Before the shows I was going to see, I had misgivings about the set list I was seeing posted online as there were songs I wasn’t overly familiar with in favour of songs that I love. After Southampton I listened more and more to these songs and they became favourites. Going into the London gig, I was a lot more familiar with the songs that would be played and loved most of them. I still have my favourite Wildhearts songs but there is no crime in having lots of favourites...right? Anyway, everything about the London gig was better than Southampton if I’m perfectly honest. Other than the sound quality, the most noticeable difference was the crowd. That could be because it was bigger to be fair, I’ll never be sure. In all fairness, it could just have been “this is the last night of the tour, let’s go out with a bang” which made it better. One thing which certainly helped to make it better was the encore. The main set had already been incredible. Ginger came out on his own to join in with “Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me” and invited CJ on stage with him. In a previous review (which I quoted above), I said without The Wildhearts on the touring circuit, seeing Ginger perform awesome gigs makes up for it. So to see a member two members of the last Wildhearts line-up on stage together was a special moment for me. In Southampton, we got Vernix in the encore. Due to this song being on Chutzpah Jnr, and me not being able to find that album anywhere, I wasn’t able to familiarise myself with that one. It didn’t matter as Ginger/CJ et al didn’t play it. In its place they did play TV Tan and My Baby Is A Headfuck. Headfuck is without doubt one of my favourite Wildhearts songs so on top of a set list containing lots of songs I now love, one of my all time favourites was played, with another Wildheart on stage! For fear of repeating my original review, I’ll call this bit quits but this was the last gig Ginger is doing until probably the birthday bash next year (unless plans change) and what a gig to go out on.

2 – Volbeat – HMV Forum – 29/10/2011



They were the second best band for me on the Sunday of Sonisphere 2011. The headline show got announced and even though it wouldn’t be at the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth, it was happening and that was the main thing. I know I said earlier that I wasn’t taking support into account for a gig making the top 5, but Black Spiders were such a good choice to support Volbeat. This gig was already in the top 5 regardless of the support, but Black Spiders certainly helped nudge it towards the head of the pile. If Black Spiders nudged it towards the top, Volbeat grabbed it and threw it towards the top by being such a fantastic live band. It was so much better than Sonisphere which before the gig I would have said would be damn near impossible. The set list was almost perfect with it being another one of those situations where I didn’t want anything to be cut, but rather they just add more stuff. One thing which was really cool was that we got Barney Greenway from Napalm Death guest on Evelyn. It was cool because it was the first time the song had been performed live with Barney, who did it in studio with Volbeat. Other vocalists had sung it with Volbeat, but we got the guy who did it originally. Honestly I think the set list for London was the best set list of the tour which really helped make this a superb gig. Much like Dimmu Borgir, they are playing Wacken next year in a major slot. It could well be that both bands appear again in best bands of the summer 2012 list, if such a list exists. Wacken is Volbeat’s only 2012 show in Europe, which means it could top this London gig. Whether it will or not is yet to be seen, but it will certainly be a tough task. This would have been the best gig of the year, if it hadn’t been for one band that before this year started, I hadn’t seen once. Now I’ve seen them twice.

1 – Foo Fighters – MK National Bowl – 03/07/2011



How was this the best gig of the year? It had everything and more. You can’t truly believe anyone when they say how good a band is live until you see them yourself. In Feb, I saw Foo Fighters and was blown away by how good they are live. They rocketed close to the top of my list of best live bands that day (FYI, I never intend to list my favourite live bands in order as it changes all the time). This gig was always going to be different to the Wembley gig though. Wembley Arena holds 13000 people whereas MK National Bowl holds 65000. I didn’t think this would be possible but Foos just upped their game and were incredible all over again. It isn’t just the fact that they are a tight live act which makes them so good; it’s the fact they can change songs live and it become even better, or even more impressive (the extended outro to Stacked Actors comes to mind). So, the band was stunning. That coupled with an awesome stage show made for one excellent gig. Moving screens on the stage showing different things to suit different songs, sometimes just flashing lights. A run way that ran through the middle of the crowd so Dave Grohl could move about The run way led up to the sound/light desk where there was another little stage so that Dave could play to the people further back. They also played for nearly 2.5 hours, which is commitment to putting on a great gig. The set list was just unbelievably good. A personal highlight for me was the Seasick Steve cover, performed with Seasick Steve and John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin. To see an original member of Led Zeppelin on stage really was the cherry on the cake for me. All of this added together completely outweighs all the negative stuff which occurred that day (the early start, the nightmare getting out etc) to the point where it’s a footnote which often gets ignored when people ask “how were the Foo Fighters in Milton Keynes?” In most years, they would be the best live band I’d have seen live. Unfortunately, it is not the case for 2011 but they certainly were the best headline gig of 2011. The fireworks at the end of the gig proved to be symbolic, as my best gig of 2011 came to an end.

Review: Ginger Wildheart @ The Garage, London 18/12/11

I went to London for the weekend just gone and was at two gigs, Manic Street Preachers and Ginger Wildheart. This is a review of the Ginger Wildheart gig which took place Sunday 18th December at the Relentless Garage in London.

Well, the bar was set high for this gig. Not only had I been to a gig of the year contender at the O2 Arena the previous evening but I had also seen Ginger in Southampton the previous week (hey, you could read about that here!) I saw the set list before heading to this gig of the birthday show (which took place the night before) which looked immense. I knew full well that we would be getting the standard tour set list for this gig but I couldn’t help but hope for a bit of the magic of the Birthday gig to show up for the last night of the tour. One aspect of the birthday show which made me insanely jealous of anyone who was there was that CJ from The Wildhearts was on stage for a selection of songs. During the gig, I was asked by a friend if someone standing near me was CJ. I then turned and looked and said “nah I don’t think so”. I was looking at the wrong person! Turns out that was CJ standing less than 5ft from me for most of the gig!

The gig was at the Relentless Garage which I had never been to before. I have to say that as a venue I really like it. Not overly enamoured with the drink prices but then I didn’t drink so I can’t be that annoyed. Within seconds of Exit_International taking to the stage, I could tell that this venue had much better sound than the Talking Heads. As a result of this (and me not sitting round the corner by the bar) I could hear them properly and they seem like a really good band. I said last time they were full of riffs and this is still the case. I really enjoyed them. For their last song (I think), they were joined on stage by Ginger. It has to be said that the presence of Ginger on stage made them better. I noticed they came on stage late so I worried what affect this would have on the night’s proceedings. It turned out that actually it had no effect. Hawk Eyes were on not long after them and they were also pretty good. I preferred them in Southampton if I were to be honest. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing considering they had better sound in London but oh well! Ginger joined them for a song as well which was cool to see. Both support bands played with Ginger at the birthday show which sounds like it was pretty cool.

It was at this point of the gig, in-between Hawk Eyes and Ginger that my friend pointed out CJ was no longer in the crowd. I wondered at the time if he had left. My answer would come soon enough! Anyway, this image is the tour set list which had been played at pretty much every gig on this tour. We didn’t get Something Weird (Going On In My Head) in Southampton, but aside from that this is the set list we did get (I Wanna Go and 29x were swapped around as well). As the London date I was at was a date on this tour (rather than the Birthday show), I expected something similar to this.



The tour set list is what we got for the most part and it was excellent. The superior sound quality of the Garage really added to how good Ginger and his band were anyway. Credit needs to be given to Victoria Liedtke for how much energy she bought to the stage throughout the entire gig. I didn’t see her stop jumping or dancing once! Much like in Southampton, Ginger and the guys paid tribute to a very funny internet video during ‘This Revolution Will Be Televised’ by changing the lyrics slightly to incorporate “Fenton” and “Jesus Christ” – very funny! Personal highlights of the main set for me would have to be ‘Suckerpunch’, ‘Mazel Tov Cocktail’ and ‘Cheers’ (since hearing the studio version of The Wildhearts cover of that, I’ve listened to it a lot!) ‘Cheers’ was the last song before the encore and I thought that a noticeable absence from the set list was Vanilla Radio. I assumed at the time this was due to the late running of the gig but this didn’t take anything away from the gig for me as it had been really good.





As the band went off for the encore, the crowd sang ‘Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me’ and Ginger came back out on his own to join in. After thanking everyone that needed to be thanked, Ginger introduced CJ to come out on stage! This was really cool that I was getting to see this, having missed the birthday show. Random Jon Poole and Denzel came back out to join them as well giving us 3/4s of a Wildhearts reunion! The first song they played together was ‘TV Tan’. Quickly following that was ‘My Baby Is A Headfuck’ which was immense. Ginger played this at Sonisphere but it was so much better hearing it in London. Then there was a cool moment as joining Ginger and CJ on stage was Ginger’s son, Jake. They played Vanilla Radio together which made a cool moment even cooler. The final song of the night for me (damn you Sunday trains) was ‘I Wanna Go Where The People Go’ with the touring band and CJ. It was a fantastic rendition of the song with a brief medley of “massive cock and balls” in the middle. I’m not going to claim I know what that was about but it was certainly funny.



This was another excellent gig and capped off a great weekend. Ginger is taking a break from touring next year. As a fan this will be sad, but there could not have been a better way to conclude touring than this evening in London. I will definitely be in the crowd when Ginger tours again and I recommend that if you like Ginger and/or The Wildhearts, you get yourself there as well. This gig makes the decision for gigs of the year harder again. Not that I mind this decision being a hard one as it means reliving some great memories!

Review: Manic Street Preachers @ The O2 Arena

I went to London for the weekend just gone and was at two gigs, Manic Street Preachers and Ginger Wildheart. This is the review of Manic Street Preachers Unique ‘National Treasures’ Christmas Party at the O2 Arena.

Before this gig was announced, I had not seen Manic Street Preachers live. I guess I have had plenty of chances to and just missed them. I guess it only occurred to me earlier this year how much of their material I liked. I remember when their ‘Postcards From A Young Man’ album came out; I was blown away by how good the lead singles off it were. Anyway, over the summer they made appearances at a number of UK festivals (the V Festivals, Isle of Wight and iTunes Festival if memory serves me correctly) and I really wanted to go and see them but financially it was not sensible (I could have made the Saturday at one of the V festival’s when they played but they didn’t realise any additional day tickets for that day). As the summer drew to a close, they were promoted to the list of bands I had to see before I stop going to gigs. I’m pretty sure just after I had promoted them in my mind, they announced this gig.

It was going to be a mammoth task without doubt. Quite a lot of headline bands will play 90 minute sets with some playing 2 hours. Rarely does a band play longer than 2 hours (I’ve seen Paul McCartney, Dream Theater and Bon Jovi play longer but it is still not a frequent occurrence). Now, as I’ve never seen Manics before, I don’t know how long they usually play but I feel fairly safe in saying this gig – playing all 38 of their singles - was a gargantuan and ambitious task. With that in mind, it was impossible to not get more and more excited about this gig coming up as the 17th of December got closer. This not only being the first time I would be seeing Manic Street Preachers, but to see them play all their singles was something I couldn’t wait for. If anything, this has the potential to be the perfect Manic Street Preachers gig to go to as they wouldn’t leave out singles they (or others) don’t like and I wouldn’t be able to say “I loved it but it would have been better if they played...” etc.

The show was due to start at 7.30pm so I went to take my seat around 7. I figured if I waited until later, there could be a rush and I might miss something. I didn’t take into account the band would be late on stage but they were (only by 20 minutes mind so nothing crazy). They took to the stage and kicked off by apologising for being late and played ‘You Stole The Sun From My Heart’ which set the tone for this gig as it was excellent. The strong start to the set continued with ‘Love’s Sweet Exile’, ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ and ‘(It’s Not War) Just The End Of Love’. The stage show was very impressive as well. It was made up of Christmassy articles on stage with a big screen behind them, showing either the band performing on stage, classic Manic Street Preachers footage or clips from music videos. From early on in the set and throughout the whole gig, James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire just showed how much chemistry they have – not just by being in a band together but with the in-between song banter. During the first set, the band introduced special guest Gruff Rhys who sang with the band on ‘Let Robeson Sing’. Concluding the first set with ‘Indian Summer’, ‘Stay Beautiful’ and ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’, the band left the stage. The first set was great but what made it all the more better was knowing that there was another 19 songs left to be played. It was at this stage that I noticed the young-ish girl in front of me had fallen to sleep. Quite how is beyond me but there we are!

After a short break, it was time for the second set. Starting with ‘Australia’, the first half of the second set contained ‘Found That Soul’, ‘Some Kind Of Nothingness’, ‘You Love Us’ and the Theme from MASH – ‘Suicide Is Painless’. Before introducing the next song, Revol, the band reminisced about Richey Edwards and talked about how he came up with the lyrics for the song:

"We were in Portugal at this festival until about 2am in the morning and Richey peaked too early. He was f**king smashed eating a kiwi fruit and he goes: 'I've got an amazing lyric; it's about group sex in the Kremlin'. I said: 'Sounds like a winner to me', so here we go."

A funny moment followed ‘Roses In The Hospital’. Bradfield was introducing the next song and talked about the next song by saying “I don’t think that anyone here really liked this song!” Bradfield’s view was proved correct on this matter when the reaction to the song was lukewarm. From there though, it was a 6 song salvo of immense songs with ‘Postcards From A Young Man’, ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’ (with special guest Nina Persson), ‘Slash ‘n’ Burn’, ‘Tsunami’, the very first single ‘Motown Junk’ and finally ‘A Design For Life’. As the set came to a conclusion there was confetti and fake snow firing all over the place. A strong end to an amazing set which to the bands credit did not flag or get boring at all. A mammoth task completed by one of the best bands to come from Wales, if not the very best. This was the last show Manic Street Preachers are doing in this country for at least two years they said, so what a way for them to go out. They were on superb form throughout the entire 3 hour + gig. The press release from the band before the gig promised us this:

"To celebrate the release of 'National Treasures', the band will play a unique, once in a lifetime Christmas party at the O2 in London on 17th December. The band promise “Glitter, glamour, special guests and a ticker-tape celebration. A never to be repeated one-off visual experience encompassing 21 years of MSP with 38 songs – from 1990’s ‘Motown Junk’ to (but not in order!) 2011’s ‘The Is The Day’. There will be an interval in order to top up on refreshments and like all the best parties, you’ll talk about it for years to come and your friends will wish they’d been there"

It goes without saying, they succeeded. This was truly an unforgettable gig.

Review: Ginger Wildheart @ The Talking Heads, Southampton

The last two times I’ve been to The Talking Heads, I have been very happy with certain drink deals they have been running. For a pub to sell bottles of Fosters Gold and Budweiser for cheap would be impressive. For a gig venue to do it, well that’s just outstanding. I saw no such offers this time but figured I took full advantage of the offers last time (as the hangovers the next day will attest to) so I wasn’t that bothered. Besides, it is not like The Talking Heads charges more than most gig venues charge anyway. Some I’ve been to do charge more but you are paying a premium for drinking in a gig venue. There are only certain times when I will be unhappy with a venues drink prices and that is when they are overly extortionate for no real reason. One example of this was at a club night where it was £4.40 for a bottle of Budweiser. Now, it was my own fault for not choosing to drink the rats piss that is Becks or Stella out of a clubs pump. But I never anticipated that anywhere (outside of London) would charge that. I had one pint at £3.30 which I thought was perfectly reasonable. I then saw a 500ml bottle of Pedigree behind the bar. Pilling pound coins into my hand, I asked how much the drink would cost and was delighted to be told it would be £2.50. Assuming that I go back to the Talking Heads (I’ll address this later); I have found a new drink. Furthermore, it is another reason to support the unofficial study that I am doing that Ale is better than Lager. Lots of field research involved in this study as I’m sure you can appreciate. This really is a major detour to have gone on when discussing a gig. I don’t often give much mention to the venue, especially not the first 300 words. I can’t say anything else about the venue as such (until the end) as nothing has really changed about it. Oddly for Ginger’s gigs, the ticket desk is right at the front door (it was also there in 2010) whereas for every other gig it is by the actual venue entrance. Can’t explain that one, but I don’t think it needs to be explained. Anyway, I think a gig happened so let’s talk about that, eh?

On twitter and formspring, long before the tour started, Ginger was hyping up the support for the tour. The support was made up of two bands; Exit_International and Hawk Eyes. Usually when a support band or bands are announced, I will go out my way to research them (to see whether or not it is worth going in early for). I remember researching both of these bands, and I remember enjoying them. Come gig day though, I couldn’t remember a single note, riff, song - nothing. I was quite annoyed at myself for this but decided I would take a chance and head down early enough to see them both. After all, they wouldn’t be receiving as much praise as they are from Ginger and from other sources if they were both shite. First on was Exit_international. Within the first couple of songs of their set I knew I liked them. I was sat at the bar during their set admittedly, but what I heard I enjoyed. A set packed full of riffs. Remaining at the bar, Hawk Eyes were next on and they were just as good as Exit_International, if not slightly better. Another band packed with riffs. This truly was going to be a good gig. Two support bands opening for Ginger Wildheart, both of whom have a new fan in me. I am going again on Sunday to see Ginger so I will make sure of two things. 1) I will reacquaint myself with both bands before leaving for London on Saturday; and 2) I will not be at the bar while they are playing. After walking through a path which leads to the front of the stage (helpfully), I got near-ish to the front for Ginger.



There are a number of songs from The Wildhearts and Ginger’s solo back catalogue which I absolutely love. I had seen on formspring that there would be songs in the set which had rarely been played live or never played live. As a fan of Ginger’s, I was both happy to see this while being slightly disappointed almost because that surely meant some of my favourite songs would not be played. I saw most of my favourite songs played when The Wildhearts came to Portsmouth in 2009 so it is not something which would have ruined the gig for me. What actually happened was a number of songs which I had rarely listened to became favourites. Inglorious opened the set and it was a superb way to kick off the gig. Other songs that were played included The Hard Way, Splattermania, Can’t Do Right For Doing Wrong, Slaughtered Authors and The Wildhearts cover of the Cheers theme. All of these songs have become favourites along with my favourite songs from the set; Vanilla Radio, Suckerpunch, 29x The Pain and I Wanna Go Where The People Go. All in all, it was a superb set performed by an outstandingly tight live machine that makes up Ginger Wildheart & Friends. During one song, and it is to my shame that I can’t remember, Random Jon Poole got the entire crowd to sit down. Having seen Slipknot a couple of times, I figured there would be some “jumpdafuckup” moment, but unless I missed it – there wasn’t one. Oh well. A fantastic set list is one story of this evening. Another story is how surreal certain things were. Ginger tweeted during the day that the crew had found Dragon Soop for sale and had bought some. This was test driven by Ginger on stage (who didn’t approve of the taste). It gets hot in the Talking Heads, especially down by the stage. One person passed out in front of the stage which put a halt on proceedings while the girl, Rebecca, who passed out was attended to. An impromptu song was written on the spot about Rebecca, wishing she was ok. Across the room, someone else then passed out. He was quickly revived and the show went on, until he passed out again! He was taken to sit outside (there is a fire door quite near the stage and helpfully near where this person was). Ginger asked for this door to stay open, and the security guard slammed it shut. I accept there are health and safety rules for venues to adhere to but that seemed a bit of an over-reaction. Another top quality night out courtesy of Ginger.



Another top quality night out in the Talking Heads, but I’m wondering if it will be my last. I had booked two tickets for gigs at the Talking Heads, Alestorm and InMe. I received emails from Ticketweb saying that both gigs had been cancelled and that I was getting a refund. Now, for one to be cancelled, fair enough; that happens and I’m not going to lose sleep over it. For both to be cancelled though; that was peculiar. I did some digging and found out that the tours were going on as normal. Ticketweb had the rest of the tours listed but the Soton dates were nowhere to be found. That made things even stranger so I visited a number of other ticket agencies and found both Soton gigs, not cancelled but moved. So, Ticketweb were refunding me for a cancelled gig which wasn’t cancelled at all. The dates were relisted on Ticketweb with the new venue being The Cellar. After a little more digging, I’ve seen that 5 or 6 other gigs have been moved from the Talking Heads to The Cellar (or in one case, the Joiners). Why have these gigs all been moved from the Talking Heads, I found myself wondering. Is it about to be announced that it is closing? I really hope this is not the case as I quite like it. I would be gutted to see it go, but at least I can say all 5 gigs I saw there were excellent, and were capped off by a fantastic Ginger Wildheart gig.

Here We Go...Again

You are my Portsmouth,
My only Portsmouth,
You make me happy when skies are grey,
I never noticed how much I loved you,
Until you take my Portsmouth away.

Please don’t take my Portsmouth away...



Must admit, I’m feeling a certain sense of Déjà Vu writing this post.

Last year, we were faced with the prospect of liquidation. On October 22nd 2010, a press statement was released saying that Portsmouth Football Club was due to be liquidated. The next day it transpired we weren’t going out of business. Between then and the takeover by CSI, the future of the club was a concern for all PFC fans. The club was taken over and collectively I imagine, the fans sighed with relief. Finally, our troubles were over. Finally we had owners who would spend more than the bare minimum on the club. Finally we can move on from the debacle of Al Fahim and Al Mirage (I’m not including Chanrai in the debacle list – it wasn’t great under him but he did so much to ensure there is a Portsmouth Football Club to talk about today). CSI owned Portsmouth Football Club and we could look forward to a bright future. CSI passed the fit and proper persons test (which I believe was changed following Al Fahim/Mirage but I’m not 100%) so they must be perfect, right?

After some confusion over what would happen at PFC following the arrest of chairman and director Vladimir Antonov, the club today released the following statement:

The club's parent company, Convers Sports Initiatives plc (CSI), has been placed into administration.

Vladimir Antonov has resigned as chairman and director of Portsmouth Football Club.

Portsmouth Football Club (2010) Limited – the company that operates PFC – is not in administration and continues to trade.

The club has funding in place for the short term, but will now be seeking alternative investment for its longer-term requirements.

Pompey chief executive David Lampitt said: "After the extraordinary amount of work put in by so many people over the last 18 months to get to this point, it is incredibly disappointing for the club to find itself in this position.

"I want to assure staff and fans that we will continue to do everything possible to safeguard the position of the club and its longer term future."

Well, that’s excellent. After daring to dream that the problems of the past few years were just that, a thing of the past, something else just had to go wrong. I believe a quote from the film Bad Boys 2 is appropriate here – “same shit, different day”. The big question is this - what happens now?

Well, I guess in the short term, nothing will happen. As the statement says, the club is not going into administration just yet as we have the cash flow for short term existence. However, as the clubs parent company has gone into administration, I believe that still leaves us facing a point’s deduction (much like Southampton suffered a little while back). The administrator we had last time, Andrew Andronikou, is once again looking for new owners for the club. I’m not entirely sure I am happy with this news as he was the one I believe who helped find CSI and look how that’s turned out.

I think some serious questions need to be asked about the FA and Football League’s fit and proper persons test though. This has let the club down again in a serious way. We fans now have the fun of wondering whether the club will cease to exist and if we do what level of football we will be playing at. If we are deducted 10 points, we will be bottom and will have a massive task on our hands to avoid relegation. It seems somewhat unfair that we will be deducted points for the 2nd time in 3 years considering this problem arose due to a failure somewhere with the FA & Football League’s fit and proper person test. To be blunt, it is absolute bullshit.

This is a tough time to be a Portsmouth fan. I hope that a new buyer comes in and soon. I don’t know the definition of “short term” in the statement issued by the club is. I am slightly in disbelief that we are going through this all again. I’ll end this post (which I accept hasn’t contained all that much new information but has helped me vent a little) with some analysis from Matt Slater, taken from the BBC’s website.

"Almost three years ago to the day, Portsmouth nearly beat AC Milan on a stirring night of European football. Pompey were the FA Cup holders and solid Premier League performers. How things have changed. News that the club's parent company has filed for insolvency protection would be shocking news at most other clubs but not Pompey. Crisis has become the norm. A second spell of administration looms, Pompey's seventh regime in 27 months, and a points deduction looks likely. Never has a club needed fit and proper persons at the helm more urgently."

Play Up Pompey

Review: An Evening with Dimmu Borgir - Academy 3, Manchester 25/11/2011

The first observation which I feel needs to be made relates to the venue itself. Before going into the gig, I found out that Manchester Academy 3 is in the Manchester University student union (as is Academy 2 and Club Academy). I also found out the student union is pretty massive! Club Academy (300 cap) is in the basement, Academy 2 is on the 2nd floor (800 cap) and Academy 3 is on the 3rd floor (450 cap). Genius idea if you ask me to have 3 gig venues in one building like that. That would be a great place to have a one day festival of sorts, especially if you utilised the big 2300 cap Academy 1 next door to the union. I assume it is the same for all 3 of the venues in this building, but Academy 3 had a fantastic sound system, something which would prove vital in a gig like this one. When walking into Academy 3, I couldn’t believe I was about to see Dimmu Borgir, arguably the biggest international black metal band, in this very small venue.

This tour was titled “An Evening with Dimmu Borgir” – 2 Dimmu Borgir sets with no support. The first set was a run through of an entire album voted on before the tour by fans and the second being a selection from the Dimmu Borgir back catalogue. The album which won the vote was Enthrone Darkness Triumphant. I voted for a different album personally but was pleased to see this one win. I voted for Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia because it has the very first Dimmu Borgir song I ever listened to on their, Sympozium. Ah, nostalgia.

The crowd roared with mass approval when the opening notes from Mourning Palace played over the PA. This level of enjoyment remained throughout the entire of the gig. There was a certain sinister atmosphere in the venue, created not only by the music but by the lights and smoke. In between and during songs there was a lot of crowd interaction, with Shagrath wanting to see a lot of horns thrown in the air, something which the crowd had no trouble doing. “Raabjorn Speiler Draugheimens Skodde” was the final song of the first set. Shagrath declared the evening to be a celebration towards the 14 year old Enthrone Darkness Triumphant album, and what a celebration it was.



The second set began following a brief interval. It started with a drum solo from Daray which was immense. The rest of the band returned to the stage for Vredesbyrd. Following this, Shagrath said “Left are the kings of the carnival creation, carrying out the echoes of the fallen” to start the next song, which was “Kings of the Carnival Creation” which truly was one of the highlights of the second set. We were treated then to 3 songs from the new album, Abrahadabra - Dimmu Borgir (a song about strength and unity), Ritualist and Gateways. The set then finished with the powerful Puritania. Throughout the material from the new album, Shagrath had demanded mass headbanging which happened slightly. During Puritania, almost every person in the room was banging their head. Dimmu Borgir left the stage but the crowd wanted more. Sure enough they returned and closed the night with The Serpentine Offering and Progenies of the Great Apocalypse, which was a stunning close to this evening.



A special night all round with a superb performance and set list from Dimmu Borgir. I really feel this tour has benefited from being in smaller venues. The sheer intensity coming from the band combined with the intimacy of the venue and the almost demonic atmosphere created a stunning show. I will see them again, at Wacken 2012 where they will play with an Orchestra. That has the potential to be even better than this gig, but we shall wait and see.

Review: Alter Bridge @ MEN Arena 24/11/2011

For Alter Bridge, Thursday marked their biggest headlining gig ever. For me, Thursday was the first time I would be seeing a headline Alter Bridge show. I saw them at Rock AM Ring 2008 and remember being impressed with them. I also remember wanting to see them both times they came close to me (they did UK tours with Portsmouth and Southampton Guildhall dates). However, I never got sorted out and ended up missing the gigs. I was looking forward to this gig not just because I would be getting to see Alter Bridge again but they were being supported by a band I love in the form of Black Stone Cherry (BSC). I’ve seen them twice when they’ve come into town and once at a festival and it’s all been good. The other band on the bill was one called Theory of a Deadman (TOADM). I did some investigative work, with the help of Spotify, and found out they seemed pretty good.

Arriving in the MEN arena, I noticed that the upper tier was covered. I can only assume that is because Alter Bridge isn’t quite a MEN sell out band just yet. The timing of the arrival could not have been worse. The MEN Arena does things differently to any other arena I’ve been to in that to access the standing area, you have to walk through the lower tier of seating and get to the floor that way to have ticket swapped for wristband. I quite like the system as it means avoiding a 10 mile walk to get to the only standing entrance door at the o2 Arena. However, this time around I didn’t care for the system because as we walked in and got maybe 3 stairs down into seating, the lights went out for TOADM. That was really quite dangerous actually. There was no way of seeing where the steps were, and there were a lot of them to go. I think that may need to be changed. Anyway, didn’t fall down them this time so no matter!

TOADM headlined this tour out in America. It was a 5 band tour with Alter Bridge and BSC (plus two other bands) playing below them. I don’t know if it was the fact they weren’t headlining or whether they are just boring live, but I wasn’t overly impressed with them. They lacked any form of stage presence I felt. Musically they were fine but they weren’t great. They had some sound issues (not sure if that’s due to them being a support band though) but they can’t be blamed for the set being not all that enjoyable. I hope it was due to them not headlining, but they aren’t massive in this country so you would assume they would want to be in top form to sell themselves to all of these potential fans watching them. I wasn’t impressed by them and to be honest I probably won’t go out of my way to see them again. They did come out to Blame Canada from the South Park movie though, which was win.



After a short break, it was time for BSC. I had no doubts about how good these guys would be. I had said before their set that seeing them at this gig would probably tide me over and I wouldn’t end up going to their March headline tour. They played a set which evenly covered their 3 studio albums which was good. They are just fantastic live. There is little for me to say which hasn’t already been said elsewhere but they are just one of those bands who deliver live every time. One thing which made me smile was that sing-along moments were loud. It seemed that the now much bigger crowd generally approved of BSC, especially during the song Peace Is Free. The energy coming from the band was infectious. The crowd was loud for the last two songs, Blame It On The Boom Boom and Lonely Train which signed off a great support slot. At the beginning of the set, I said I wasn’t going to see them in March. Now, I probably will.



Having seen Alter Bridge only the one time, and it being at a festival, I knew they were comfortable on the big stage. As soon as the lights went off, the MEN crowd exploded. I thought they were loud for BSC but damn! Opening with Slip To The Void, they proceeded to play a very strong set list (although from what I am hearing, it wasn’t that different to their last tours set). The band seemed to be genuinely blown away by the response they were getting from the crowd. Highlights from the set for me include the opener, I Know It Hurts, Metalingus, Blackbird, Isolation and Open Your Eyes. The rest was really good to be fair. I only have one gripe with what they did on stage and that occurred during the encore. When they went off, the crowd (or at least quite a few people near me) were chanting for more. The house lights didn’t come back on, that’s usually a good indicator they are coming back! Anyway, they played Open Your Eyes and took a pause. During this pause, Myles Kennedy thanked the crowd again for coming out and paid tribute to Freddie Mercury (Thursday marked 20 years since he passed away). Him and the other guitarist then proceeded to duel (I guess is the best word) with guitar solos. It was a bit strange and seemed pointless to me. I kinda guessed throughout the rest of the show that these guys could play guitar. Anyway, aside from that, it was a cracking gig. Alter Bridge will headline and sell out arenas in their own right soon I think, and they certainly have the ability to perform on the big arena stage. BSC will I’m sure continue to grow and grow in popularity in this country if they continue to be as good as they are live. TOADM though...I just don’t know. Maybe their headline shows in March next year will be better? I don’t know, as I won’t be there.

Give The Dog A Bone

With November coming to an end shortly and the first of the summer festivals in Europe not happening for at least 6 months (I’m not sure if there is one in May or not), it makes perfect sense for me to post a blog about the topic. I am going to cover two specifically – Wacken and Download. I haven’t spoken much about Wacken since they announced the first 7 bands at the festival. The festival has been steadily announcing bands since then and we know a fair amount of the line up now. For sake of ease, I am going to go through each band that has been confirmed A-Z.

Amon Amarth – This is a band I’ve wanted to see for quite a long time. I’ve had a ticket to see them headline in London which I then couldn’t make. I also had a ticket to see them support Children of Bodom but I couldn’t make that gig either. They haven’t played a festival I have been to either but they were announced for Wacken 2009 which I had a ticket for but ended up selling it (on reflection, I really regret that decision). I am looking forward to seeing them.

Axel Rudi Pell – They were announced for Wacken 2008 but had to pull out. I remember thinking that was a bad thing. On reflection, they seem like they could be worth a watch (assuming they don’t pull out again).

Coroner – I don’t know much about Coroner but they seem like they are worth a watch. They appear to be a pretty decent thrash band.

Cradle of Filth – They are a band I’ve been aware of for some time now but never seen live (even when they played Portsmouth – dropped the ball on that one). Anyway, if there is no clash I will give them a watch.

Danko Jones (Spoken Word) – I would like to see Danko Jones at a festival some time, but I don’t see me watching him do spoken word for a number of reasons. The main one being it will likely be in German.

Dark Funeral – No ta. They, like Mayhem, are not for me. Granted, if there is nothing else on I may as well watch them, but as they will likely be on the Black stage, there will be something on the Party stage!

Dimmu Borgir – Well, I am massively in favour of seeing Dimmu Borgir at Wacken. They used pyro on the smallest stage at Rock AM Ring, so I can’t imagine what they will do on a big festival stage. Oh, and they will also have an orchestra with them, so that should be fun.

Endstille – See Dark Funeral entry.

Forbidden – They seem like they could be worth a watch. Another thrash band that seem pretty good but truth be told would likely lose a clash against another band I wanted to see.

Gamma Ray – Definitely got to see Gamma Ray. They seem really good. Thanks to Wacken I’m a lot more receptive to Power Metal, part of the reason why I must try and see Gamma Ray

HammerFall – See above really! I was really happy to see these as a part of the first announcement.

Henry Rollins – Every time I’ve seen Henry Rollins, it has been really good. I will do all I can to catch him, but I am concerned that he also will do his sets in German. I don’t even know if he can speak German, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he can.

In Extremo – These have to be seen! I don’t know much by them but what I’m listening to now has folk, metal and industrial elements. Sounds like it should be good!

Machine Head – I am actually looking forward to seeing Machine Head. I haven’t seen them since 2009 and since then they have released a new album so if nothing else, at least the set list will be different. The new album is alright as well, which helps matters.

Ministry – I had a ticket for the CuLatour which I thought would be the final chance to see them. I had a ticket for the last UK date on that tour as well. I couldn’t make the gig so I assumed that was it and I wouldn’t get to see them again. Al Jourgensen seemed fairly adamant at the time that Ministry were done. So to see them announced for Wacken is amazing. I will definitely have to watch them.

Moonspell – This band seem pretty good. Fairly gothic and doom-y (I accept that isn’t a word). Shall give them a watch

Napalm Death – I have to be honest, I couldn’t have given two shits about this band when they were announced for Wacken. However since I saw the vocalist appear with Volbeat on stage in London, I have been a lot more receptive to them. They shall have to be watched.

Opeth – The latest announcement for the festival and it is certainly a strong one. They played Sonisphere this year but I missed them due to a clash. I last saw them supporting Dream Theater and they were really good. I will give them a watch.

Paradise Lost – I really like this band and think the album Draconian Times is stunning. I saw them do a short set at Sonisphere 2009 which I enjoyed, so I am looking forward to seeing them do a full set at Wacken.

Saturnian – They are from the UK! That’s all I have on that one

Scorpions – This is going to be superb - Scorpions closing out Wacken 2012 with a best of set. I am really looking forward to see them

Sick Of It All – Epic announcement this is! Saw them at Sonisphere 2010 and rated them a 10. Definitely going to see them again.

Six Feet Under – I don’t know anything by them. All I know is the vocalist is the original one from Cannibal Corpse (the one who provided the vocals for such family favourites as I Cum Blood and Entrails Ripped from a Virgins Cunt). Might give them a watch.

U.D.O – The vocalist from U.D.O appeared during Skyline’s set at Wacken 2011. After that appearance I thought “I’d like to see them” and then they got announced for Wacken 2012. Strange how that happened really!

Volbeat – OH MY A GOD! That was pretty much my response when I saw they had been announced. At the tail end of my Volbeat in London review, I said: “They were outstanding live last night and left me hoping for another UK tour next year (and a Wacken appearance hopefully).” Well, this show is the only European show in 2012, so I get one of my wishes come true. Only European show of 2012 and I will be there, now that is cool!

Watain – I missed them at Sonisphere due to my headache. I was annoyed about this. However, they are at Wacken so that should be good.

Winterfylleth – Nah, not for me.

So that is the round up of all the bands that have been announced so far. I like quite a lot of them and want to see most of them. That’s always a good thing until times are announced and then it is an utter cunt. Oh well, crossing bridges when they arrive and all. Graspop just announced their first lot of bands and aside from Black Sabbath, the announcement is pretty good (BS making it awesome). Aside from the bands that played the last Wacken festival and the ones who are booked for the next one, I hope Lamb of God, Sacred Reich and Obituary get announced for Wacken.

Changing countries and festivals now, let’s head back to the UK to Donington Park, where a purple looking dog brings music occasionally. There was rumbling about Download getting ready to announce a headliner for their 2012 festival recently and I was excited as I always am. I haven’t spent the weekend at Download since 2007 but I always look at their line up before deciding my summer plans. Anyways, they not only announced one headliner, but over the space of a week, they announced all 3.



My word! That is a good set of headliners! Let’s deal with the major one as far as I am concerned. Metallica at Download is awesome. They are heading back to Donington for the first time since 2006 and like last time, they are playing an album in full. Last time it was Master of Puppets, this time it is Metallica (The Black Album). That is awesome for me as it was that album which got me into Metallica (much like a lot of their fan base I am sure). The main difference though between the two albums is that Master of Puppets has 8 songs on it, while the Black Album has 12. Generally speaking a Metallica set list is 18 songs long, which only leaves 6 songs to cover 8 albums (9 if you include St Anger, but does anyone include St Anger?) Anyway, this is my realistic guess at the set list, assuming of course that they stick to the 18 song set formula and play the album in order, like they did Master of Puppets:

Creeping Death
For Whom The Bell Tolls
---------------------------
Enter Sandman
Sad But True
Holier Than Thou
The Unforgiven
Wherever I May Roam
Don't Tread On Me
Through The Never
Nothing Else Matters
Of Wolf and Man
The God That Failed
My Friend of Misery
The Struggle Within
--------------------------------
One
Master of Puppets
-------------------------------
Breadfan
Seek and Destroy

Seek and Destroy seems to be the go-to set closer for the last few years. Despite the fact on the 2011 Big Four tour, whenever they played a Sonisphere festival they didn’t do it that way; I think for this summer vacation tour, it will be that way around. Breadfan is just my guess at the cover song they will do. It could be anything in that spot truth be told. As for the rest of my guesses, the only one which may get cut is For Whom The Bell Tolls but I couldn’t possibly guess what they would swap it with. One thing I love about Metallica is that they aren’t afraid to mix up the set lists and even though this could be the 9th time of seeing them, I would always have seen something I’d never seen live before. Metallica would once again be a must see.

Black Sabbath is one that honestly I can’t decide how excited I am about seeing. The name value makes the announcement genius and it would be impossible for me to say that the original four members of the (arguably) first ever heavy metal band getting back together after a tour is important. But I saw Ozzy Osbourne at Wacken this year who played War Pigs, Iron Man and Paranoid (Black Sabbath wise anyway) which are my favourite songs of theirs. I’ve also seen Heaven and Hell, which was Dio-era Black Sabbath and saw them play the best of the Black Sabbath material they released. I flit between Ozzy-era and Dio-era as my favourite era of Black Sabbath but I believe I’ve seen the best of both worlds. I wouldn’t object to seeing more Black Sabbath material but I feel it would be more of a nostalgia trip seeing Ozzy-led Black Sabbath rather than going to see a band I need to see. I’m not saying that is a bad thing at all.

The Prodigy is an interesting choice of main stage headliner for Download. While I’ve not read any of the stuff, I understand there has been a complete shit storm on the Download Festival Facebook page from people who are desperately trying to cling onto the idea that Download is a metal festival (which is odd as it’s never been a metal festival – rock festival yes). They’ve played Download twice before (2006 and 2009) so it is not as if they or even this genre of music is new to Download. They have also played prominent spots at the festival (headlining the 2nd stage both times they played if memory serves). Them playing again, 3 years after they last played is fair enough. Headlining the main stage is something else. Are they right to headline? In my opinion, yes they are. They have headlined and more recently sub headlined the Reading/Leeds festivals (which I’d say are bigger festivals than Download). They have played high up the bill at Glastonbury and generally attract a fairly high position wherever they play. They are obviously a big enough band to headline Download. People are saying they are not suitable which is obviously nonsense. If they weren’t suitable, then they wouldn’t be playing the festival at all. I for one look forward to seeing them (again, assuming I go) and hope they can recreate something like their set at MK Bowl (I wasn’t there, but I’ve seen videos of it and they looked epic).

So, Download is off to a strong start. I hope to be there for the weekend but will definitely be there for at least one day. And truthfully, if I had to pick one day, it would be Metallica. To see them play The Black Album in full would be amazing. All I know is that festival season is starting to kick into gear and I love it when that happens.

Review: Toxic Shock - Deliverance

For Fans Of: Aerosmith; Guns N’ Roses; Motley Crue; Metallica; Audioslave; Pearl Jam

Toxic Shock is a Portsmouth based band, formed out of the ashes of other local groups. They describe themselves as a Classic Rock/80s Hard Rock band and list a number of big names as their influences. Toxic Shock has just released their debut EP, Deliverance, which is available at all your favourite online haunts (links to follow). The big question here though; does Deliverance deliver?

Before talking about the songs that make up the EP themselves, I think there needs to be a mention made about the production of the EP. It is of high-quality and is clear that some time has been put into making this sound as good as it does.

The EP starts with Make Ma Stand which is an excellent way to open. The song is a mesh of the 80s hard rock style Toxic Shock bill themselves as along with a healthy dose of all the good stuff which emerged from Metallica’s Load/Reload era. This track is a dirty rock & roll song which you could break the speed limit to (I’m not recommending you do in fact break the speed limit to this song, I’m just saying you could!). Insane is a superb track which honours the influences the band cite as having, while making it their own at the same time. While honouring the rock music of years gone by, it gives off a modern vibe almost. Quite like that present when listening to The Darkness or Steel Panther, although to their credit, Toxic Shock is nowhere near as cheesy. Insane is very catchy with a riff you can bang your head along to.

Decreasing the speed somewhat, Vanity is a nod to the grungier side of rock. There is a definite Audioslave/Pearl Jam vibe to this song. It is a noticeable change in style to the previous two songs but this is by no means a bad thing. If anything, it shows off the bands ability to alter their sound, while still writing good material. The title track, Deliverance, is another good song influenced by icons of the past but this time different. I hear a fair amount of Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy in this track. It is another good example of Toxic Shock taking all the best from the bands that influenced them while making the song sound modern. This is another catchy song which forces you to bang your head. This is not optional. The final song, Bring It Down is a great closer as it is simply kick ass hard rock music.

Deliverance is a great debut EP from Toxic Shock. The influences present on this collection of songs are vast, and yet the songs sound fresh and modern. I would highly recommend listening to this EP. Deliverance without doubt delivers (and with that, is the last time I will engage in word play with the EPs title!)



Links
Official Website
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Twitter
MySpace
iTunes
Amazon
Napster
eMusic

Review - Fozzy @ Talking Heads, Southampton 3/11/11

I walked into The Talking Heads for the 2nd time in 3 weeks really quite excited. Seeing a Fozzy headline show was something I had not done. I also was only able to watch half their set at Sonisphere. As I arrived, there was a band on stage (I didn’t catch their name). They seemed alright but the in between song banter bugged me. I get that if you are a local band opening a gig like this, there is a chance I won’t have heard of you. Hell, I don’t know many of the support bands I see when I go to gigs unless I research them. Anyway, you don’t need to remind me that I don’t know who you are. They also came across as disrespectful to Fozzy. I get that Fozzy probably didn’t choose them to open and it was the promoters call (or possibly the venue...I dunno how this works) but they said something to the effect of “coming up are two bands who are just as good as Fozzy”. That may or may not be true (for the record, in this case it is not) but your job is to open the gig and pump up the headline set, while selling your own material. Perhaps this is a minor thing which bugs me but it did. Maybe the intent was not to be disrespectful but to me, that is how it came across. I liked what I heard from them but I’ve spent more time talking about how they annoyed me rather than their music. Like I said, they seemed alright...whoever they were! The next band was called Verses. They seemed pretty good and got a fairly good reaction from the crowd. However the job of really warming up the crowd before Fozzy fell to a band called Jett Black. They were excellent. I was told by a friend that I had to see these guys and I do not regret it one bit. They were a lot of fun and are also a good listen. As a crowd, Jett Black warmed us up, and it was time for Fozzy.



From the off, Fozzy were superb and this remained the case until the last note of Enemy at the end of the gig. Personal highlights of the gig for me included Paraskavedekatriaphobia (Friday the 13th), God Pounds His Nails, Under Blackened Skies, Enemy, Let The Madness Begin and Martyr No More. It truly was a superb setlist from Fozzy. A superb performance from the band which was met with a superb crowd. At the end of every song, there were loud and prolonged Fozzy chants. Chris Jericho early on in the gig asked if we could come in the trailer with them and come to every gig. Considering how good this gig was, I’d be in favour of that. The chants varied throughout the night from “we love you Fozzy, we do!” to “fuck you Reading!” when we were told we were the best crowd on the tour. Granted, it was only the 2nd night and we might have been topped since then but what the hell, I’ll take it!



I recall reading on Twitter that this tour will be Fozzy’s last visit to the UK for quite some time. I hope that this is not true because they were superb. If it is though, I’m sure when they come back; they will be just as good, if not better.

Bück Dich

It’s been a week since the Rugby World Cup has ended and already, I miss it not being on. Just to briefly cover what happened in the final weekend of the tournament, Australia beat Wales in a hard fought contest to the bronze medal. They won 21-18. The final was another close fought contest between France and New Zealand. Both teams didn’t play their best and I think it is fair to say that the best team finished 2nd. New Zealand won the game 8-7 and ended 24 years of waiting for another World Cup. Frances wait continues as they lost their 3rd World Cup Final. I said on September 18th that my pick was New Zealand, and they won the tournament. I am quite pleased about this and am excited to see what will happen at the next RWC, in England. Will Martin Johnson be England’s head coach for the 2015 RWC? IT is hard to say, but I think if he doesn’t go before, he will go if England doesn’t win the 2012 Six Nations tournament. I bet the Wales v France game will be slightly interesting this time around eh?

In other rugby news, since I last posted, Bath have played 3 games, 2 in the LV Cup and 1 in the premiership, and won all 3! The first was against Newport Gwent Dragons (16-46 to Bath), the second was against Worcester (which I was at, the full time score being 46-13) and yesterday against London Irish (the final score being 13-12 to Bath). 3 big and important wins for Bath going into next weekend’s game against the undefeated Harlequins. The Quins are on an utter roll at the moment and I don’t know if Bath will have enough to beat them, but I hope they do as I will be there. It is good to see the players from the Rugby World Cup returning now and hopefully we can build on these three games and keep going forward. The Heineken Cup campaign starts on November 20th, so that is something to look forward to.

That is all the rugby talk for this post done with, now on to another regular topic of this blog and that is music of the live variety.

A while ago now, I purchased a ticket to see Rammstein play in London on their Made In Germany 1995-2011 tour, which will be a best of tour. I really enjoyed them on the LIFAD tour but a best of tour can only be better than an album tour in my mind. Details of this tour have been scarce until recently. They hadn’t even released the track list for the best of album which is due to be released alongside the tour so while educated guesses could be made about what would be on the tour and what wouldn’t, no-one knew for sure. In all fairness, we still don’t but now we have a better idea. The first nugget of information was a picture of the stage layout (similar to that you would find on Ticketmaster).



TWO STAGES AND A BRIDGE?! Awesome! The show indoors in Manchester was superb, so I can’t imagine how much better it could be with 2 stages and a bridge. This makes me very happy. However there is still the stumbling block before complete excitement can be had. What will be played? Rammstein don’t mix setlists up (when they have such a complex stage show like theirs, it would be nigh on impossible to mix it up). Before the LIFAD tour, they played some rehearsal shows and the setlist was changed slightly but what they played then is much what we saw in Manchester and at Sonisphere. The following is the setlist from one of Rammstein’s recent rehearsal gigs for the Made In Germany 1995-2011 tour:

01 Sonne
02 Mein Land
03 Keine Lust
04 Sehnsucht
05 Asche zu Asche
06 Feuer frei!
07 Mutter
08 Mein Teil
09 Du riechst so gut
10 Links 2 3 4
11 Du hast
12 Haifisch

13 Bück dich (2nd stage)
14 Mann gegen Mann (2nd stage)
15 Pussy (2nd stage)

16 Mein Herz brennt
17 Ich will
18 Wollt ihr das Bett in Flammen sehen?

19 Engel
20 Amerika


Oh my fuck! That is pretty much the perfect Rammstein setlist for me. I could make some additions to make it the perfect setlist but this is amazing. This setlist absolutely smokes the one from the LIFAD tour. Seeing this makes me seriously excited for February and I’ve got a number of big gigs lined up before that! This is going to be just sublime. I also saw details from the show surrounding the song Bück dich.

As the band vanishes, Richard starts to play with the Keyboards. I've seen 'reviews' that say he turn's DJ and that this is the Combichrist influence, utter nonsense, he was playing the same intro as on LAB, complete with Woooo sections with the crowd, but with no burning keyboard. Eventually the stage centre doors open up and in a cloud of light and smoke Till reappears with Flake on a leash, Schneider and Ollie also tag along bare-chested and on all fours like dogs as well. (The only real area of conjecture that I am going to make is that in the full show, Till will have all three of them on leashes and he will lead them along the runway to the second stage. like dogs) So for tonight the area that is pretending to be the second stage is lit by four white spots from above, all other lights go out. Paul remains dressed on stage left Ollie and Schneider take up their instruments. , Flake is dressed in leather mini shorts with drop down butt flap, thigh high boots and a ball gag harness. There is no box for him to crouch on and he's pulled here and there by Till, really abusing him. Finally he adopts the position, crouching on all fours at the stage front, Till undoes the flap of Flake's shorts and we're treated to the sight of the pale soft moon of Flake's butt! No squirty penis tonight, but Till does pull out of his pocket a rubber pink dildo which he then pretends to insert into Flakes ass, but then, genuinely laughing, Till moves between Flake and the audience so he's blocking what he's doing from the audience, and tries to really shove it in, judging by Flakes reaction I'd say he nearly got there! just after that Flake while trying to re-button his shorts is yanked by Till and falls awkwardly onto a mike stand which looked like it hurt him, there really wasn’t enough room to do it all properly on the corner of the stage they were using.

So it goes without saying that I’ve purchased another ticket to see them in Birmingham.

That is all for this post. I have nothing else to prattle on about. Posting this the same day as my Volbeat review. Look out for a review of Fozzy coming soon from their Southampton gig as well as some other stuff. Now, go outside.

Review: Volbeat @ HMV Forum, London 29/10/2011

For weeks and days beforehand excitement for this gig had been building. This was a gig I’ve been looking forward to since the end of 2010. Volbeat had to cancel their 2010 tour of the K, which included a Portsmouth date. I was gutted as it meant another long wait before seeing them for the first time. That first time came at Sonisphere 2011, when they opened the main stage on the last day. They were one of the best bands that day for me (topped only by Slipknot) and in my review of them, I said I couldn’t wait to see them in October. That day was yesterday.

Before talking about the gig, I would like to quickly discuss the venue. The gig was at the HMV Forum which is in Kentish Town, London. I previously dismissed the chance to see Dimmu Borgir in this venue as I thought it was too difficult to get to (how things change, I’m seeing Dimmu in just under a month in Manchester). Since then, I realised the error of my ways and when gigs have gone there, I have seriously considered them. I’d not been though until yesterday and I would like to say that I am very impressed. There were discussions on the train up about how London needed another iconic venue such like the Astoria. I feel the Forum could fill that gap, until something new is opened. The only concern I have about the venue is sound quality. The bass drums over-powered everything



The night was opened up by Black Spiders, the band who were due to open for Volbeat on the cancelled 2010 tour. I’ve seen them in a number of support slots but they seem to get better every time. I hadn’t seen them since they released their first album, Sons Of The North, so I was looking forward to hear some newer material. A headache stopped me from seeing them at Sonisphere 2011 so I was very pleased they were supporting again. I was right to be happy about this as they were excellent. Opening with the crowd pleasing Stay Down, they got the entire crowd involved right away. Commanding all middle fingers in the air and several loud chants of “Fuck You Black Spiders”, the band was off to a very strong start. One thing which can’t be avoided is that very few people in the venue appeared to not know who Black Spiders were. During Stay Down and at other points throughout the set, the crowd were given the chance to sing the next line, which they did and loudly. Black Spiders have played a lot of support slots and it is clearly to their credit, as they played last night in a venue of 2000+ people, most of whom knowing and liking them. The set included KISS Tried To Kill Me, St Peter and Just Like A Woman from the Sons of the North and a couple of songs which were new. Black Spiders were excellent, and I fully expect them to headline the HMV forum one day, considering the reaction they got there. I am hoping they will do another headline tour in 2012. They did 2 legs of a headline tour this year and I missed both legs. Assuming there is a do-able date, that mistake will not happen again.



As the floor started to fill up more, the anticipation for Volbeat increased. I’d seen reports from other dates where people had said it was the best gig they had ever been to. As the lights dimmed and the intro music was played, the place was hopping. Volbeat got off to a fantastic start, opening with The Human Instrument, Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood and Heaven Nor Hell. Volbeat signalled early they intended this night to be epic. The roars from the crowd were near deafening when they played the first few bars of a song, especially at this stage for The Mirror and The Ripper. Not long after this, an acoustic guitar was bought on stage. This could only mean one thing and that was the tribute to Johnny Cash in the form of Sad Mans Tongue. The introduction of this song was a popular choice for the crowd as the cheer for it was massive. So far, the gig had been flawless for me and I was looking forward to hearing it continue to improve. After A New Day, Michael Poulsen addressed the crowd, asking what we wanted to hear. A number of suggestions were yelled out (quite a lot for Still Counting) before the band played brief parts of Motorhead and Metallica songs. Poulsen then said after asking for more suggestions that he likes Napalm Death, which got a cheer. During this cheer, Poulsen said something which I didn’t catch, but I can only assume it was an introduction as Mark “Barney” Greenway from Napalm Death walked out on stage to do vocals on Evelyn with Volbeat. This was a very cool moment.





The rest of the set was just awesome (including the brief homage to Queen with I Want To Break Free), ending on 16 Dollars and Still Counting. 16 Dollars was excellent but Still Counting was just phenomenal. The crowd sang the opening lines of the song before Poulsen took over, and it was just superb. After a short break, they were back and blasted through a stunning encore which consisted of A Warrior’s Call, Fallen, Thanks, I Only Want To Be With You/Boa |(JDM) and Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza – the encore was just as tremendous as the rest of the gig. Volbeat played the opening of Raining Blood to close arguably the best gig I’ve been to this year. I used a lot of superlatives to describe how good Volbeat were, but honestly I could have used more. They were outstanding live last night and left me hoping for another UK tour next year (and a Wacken appearance hopefully).

When The Time Is Right

One of the recent topics of discussion for this page has been the Rugby World Cup. As it has been on, and as I am a rugby union fan, this makes some sense. I feel a certain degree of sadness knowing that the coverage I am about to write is the semi-final coverage and that there is only one more weekend of Rugby World Cup action. I will likely continue covering rugby, but Bath rugby. There are two reasons for this. The first reason is that they are my Aviva premiership team. The second being that I have just purchased a mini season ticket for them, so will be going to see them play at least 8 times before the end of the season. I really am quite excited about this as my last visit to The Rec (Bath’s home ground) was a really fun time. Anyway, I will cover my visits there when they happen. For now it is semi final weekend of the RWC!

Despite being disappointed that England did not make it to this stage, I was really pleased that a home nation had made it to the final four. Wales have done really well in the tournament and deserved to be there. I know some people who opt not to support the Welsh in anything for the simple reason that they are Welsh (including Swansea in the Football Premier League) which I don’t quite understand. I get it if it is done in humour but to legitimately dislike a team for being Welsh is odd. Then again, I legitimately dislike and hope French teams lose at sport, so I guess I’m just a hypocrite really. Getting back to the matter at hand, I would like to think that the people I referred to earlier could find it in themselves (assuming they like rugby...I actually don’t know whether this is true for most of them) to support Wales. Wales v France was the semi final game from the northern hemisphere and it was always going to be a cracker.

It goes without saying there is probably only one major talking point of the game and that is not the result. In the 18th minute, Sam Warburton tackled Vincent Cleric. On first watch, the tackle looked perfectly legitimate which is what made the following melee between players confusing. In said scuffle, Warburton left the field, having been sent off by referee Alain Rolland. The commentators were shocked. The pundits were shocked. I watched the game with my parents and we were all shocked. Suddenly this game had changed and not in a good way. The referee in this one moment of madness had taken away the world cup semi final we had all hoped to see. Wales were now a man down with over 60 minutes to play. At half time, France went in 6-3 in front. It could have been much worse. Wales defended amazingly considering they were a man down. Their kicking was not great though (the conditions were really against them). France scored one more penalty and were 9-3 in front. Mike Phillips scored a try which was not converted for Wales to get the score to 9-8 to France. It was a close end but unfortunately for Wales, it was not their day and 9-8 was the final score. The end of the game and the major talking point got people asking questions non-stop about the game. The main one being a major “what if Sam Warburton never got sent off”? I didn’t think it was a red card. I thought he should have received a sin binning and told to calm down or he would be off. Just now, I have read that a directive was issued regarding dangerous tackles in 2009 which said the following (summarised by the BBC):

"The player is lifted and then forced or 'speared' into the ground (red card offence).
"The lifted player is dropped to the ground from a height with no regard to the player's safety (red card offence).
"For all other types of dangerous lifting tackles a yellow card or penalty may be considered sufficient."

Considering this, I am unhappy to report that I can see why Alain Rolland sent off Sam Warburton. It does not change the fact though that this red card was a key moment in the game and was fundamental in determining its outcome. Pro’s and ex-pro’s took to twitter to vent about the decision, believing it to be incorrect. Some examples (again sourced from the BBC):

• "Rolland u've had a shocker.... Not the first time either!!! We're not here to watch u.... (England wing Mark Cueto)
• "Should have been a yellow but never a red, poor Sam he's been the heart and soul of Wales! (England full-back Ben Foden)
• "Yellow card, no one says another word. Sam Warburton wrongly sent off. " (Scotland scrum-half Rory Lawson)
• "Really gutted for Wales - never a red card" (Ex-Scotland lock Doddie Weir)
Wales will now play in the 3rd/4th play playoff match. It seems really unfair and it will take a long time for Welsh rugby to shake this off. However I have been very impressed by the team and do believe they will continue to improve. Will they win the 2015 World Cup? I obviously don’t know but it is safe to say they cannot be ruled out of contention for it.

I have much less to say about the second semi final, which is odd considering what game it was. When people are faced with the question “what is the biggest game in rugby union” a lot will say Australia v New Zealand. The tri-nation tournament which took place earlier this year saw Australia and New Zealand each win a game against each other (Australia eventually winning the tournament). So it is safe to say going into the RWC, they were fairly even matched. The surroundings just added to the enormity of this contest; World Cup Semi Final in New Zealand. It had all the ingredients to be legendry.

Legendry it was not. It was a superb, hard fought game of rugby though with the best team winning (I guess this had to happen in at least one of the semi finals!) New Zealand just kept Australia out of the game for the majority of it and punished them whenever they could. They scored a try early on but the conversion was missed and so was a relatively easy looking penalty. I wondered at the time if this would come back and bite NZ in the arse. Australia scored a penalty following their first foray into the NZ 22 (although they battered the defence to credit has to go to them for not conceding a try). Weepu made it 8-3 fairly soon after and NZ were back on top. Weepu missed another penalty again which was easier than the one scored (or certainly looked so at least). Drop goals from both sides and another penalty score meant the half time score was 14-6 to New Zealand. The second half was mostly dominated by New Zealand, who scored the only points of the half. The final score was 20-6.

This means we will see the 3rd/4th place playoff on Friday be decided between Wales and Australia. I do think Wales can win this match and hope that they do. I will be unable to watch it as I’ll be at work but I am sure that I will be following it closely. The final will take place between New Zealand and France. I severely hope that the All Blacks add a second RWC to their trophy cabinet and condemn the French to a third RWC final defeat. As I said at the beginning of this post, it is sad to see the RWC come to an end, but it has made me realise how much of a rugby fan I am, and that will continue throughout this season and many seasons to come!

That will do for rugby coverage for now. However there is always more sport to talk about, so I will briefly talk about Pompey. I’m not going to go into each performance since I saw them last, but I will say it has not been great. There needed to be a change at Fratton Park and there was one. Steve Cotterill, the manager, was linked with the vacant manager’s position at Nottingham Forest, previously filled by former England manager Steve McClaren. I dismissed this rumour at first but thought “worse things could happen to Pompey right now”. Well, I was wrong to dismiss the rumours as he resigned as Pompey manager to take the Forest job, the day before the televised game against Barnsley. For the game, we had Stuart Grey and Pompey legend Guy Whittingham in the caretaker manager’s position. Whittingham said before the game that we would be playing the same tactics that Cotterill had been planning midweek, which made me grimace. However the formation was different than it had been for a long time, which was a nice change. However the performance in itself was much better by Pompey and while the first half wasn’t wonderful, it was promising. The second half was significantly better to watch and Pompey were rewarded with 2 goals in two minutes, the first being a superb strike by David Norris. The second a tap-in by Luke Varney. I was delighted. I am hoping we can build on this result and start getting some points on the board and get away from the dreaded bottom 3.

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I am drawing a line under the sports talk. Hello to everyone who couldn’t give two shits about sport. How you doing? I have a few more things to talk about in this blog before giving my fingers a rest.

I am going to plug the shit out of this but on my other blog, I’m Done With Smoking, I’ve covered how I’m quitting smoking almost every day since I’ve quit. It has been 5 weeks since I last had a smoke so go give it a read and if you feel so obliged, comment on what I’ve written. Hell you could do that here as well if you like. Am I losing you? Thought so, moving on!

I say I am going to do new things for this blog all the time. This won’t be a regular feature but it might crop up occasionally. However, it has a snappy title called “Prick of the Post” – How’s that for a fun name. Anyway, this is given to someone who has fucked me off for whatever reason. In this instance, it is Axl Rose. It is surprising, even to me, that he managed that from where he is. I love Guns N’ Roses. I think they have released some superb albums and I really liked the latest offering, Chinese Democracy. It isn’t ground breaking but it is a good album. However, after seeing Guns live in 2006, I had very little interest in doing so again. Axl did not come across good during that set. I have actually just read some reviews about the set I saw in 2006 which were very complimentary. All I remember is it started off pretty poorly but got much better as it went on. I also remember seeing a Guns N Roses diehard fan crying when Axl walked off during another hissy fit. That is what I associate with GnR now. I found myself gaining a lot of respect for Axl when reading the chapter in Chris Jericho’s second autobiography, Undisputed, where he talks about meeting him and spending a fair bit of time with him. Anyway, they must be doing something right as whenever they come to the UK, they sell an arse load of tickets and truthfully, I always find myself considering going – despite Download 2006. The main reason I don’t, other than the aforementioned DL2006 set is the concern as to what time the show will actually begin. Axl released a statement recently, dealing with the issue of the band coming on stage late. This is taken from Planet Rock’s website.

"Love it Hate it Accept it Debate it — You want 8 o'clock shows go find F-R-I-E-N-D-S or hit a cinema somewhere...or you wanna be informed go catch the 10-o'clock news... this is Rock N' Roll! Treat yourself don't cheat yourself thinking you're gonna go to school or work or whatever you 'normally' do the next day. Oh and remember before you get high and never want to come down. 'You can have anything you want but you better not take it from me!' This is Guns N’ Roses and when the time is right the stage will ignite. Looking forward to sharing that with rockers soon!"

What I take from this statement is to hell with the rules the venue sets for a gig and to hell with the next day – if I want to see GnR, I have to be prepared that they will come on stage when the time is right. So if I want to see GnR, I have to book a hotel basically as they aren’t coming to Portsmouth any time soon. And even if I do that, they may not finish in time for me to get back to that hotel. Cheers! What this statement appears to say is that going to see GnR is a treat, and it should be treated as such. Sorry Axl, but for this statement you are a cunt. He clearly doesn’t realise that people can’t just drop everything to see GnR or any band. Almost every other artist who performs live respects their money-paying crowd by turning up on time and putting in a good performance. They accept that while it is rock and roll (or whatever genre), people have taken time out of their lives and money out of their wallets to come and see them and reward them for doing so. Not every gig is good, but the least they do is turn up at a respectable time. Turning up at 11pm is not acceptable and justifying it by saying “its rock and roll” is horse shit! Fuck you Axl, now I definitely won’t pay to see you again.

Finally, Wootton Bassett has been given the royal seal of approval and can now use its full name of Royal Wootton Bassett on recognition for the townspeople paying their respect to the soldiers who had died fighting for this country in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hundreds then Thousands lined the street to pay their respects to soldiers who had died. The people paid their respects to 355 people who had died and passed through their town. I think this is a just reward and I think it is one of those feel good stories that everyone can get behind. I do think the Queen herself should have been there to oversee the first town in over 100 years being given the royal seal of approval, but regardless of that, this is a good thing which has happened and it is perfect recognition to the residents and the respects they paid.

That’s all I’ve got. I’ll probably be back to post about next weekend. More rugby on TV and my first visit to The Rec. I cannot wait!