This one was one of those “Last minute decisions”. So much so, that I printed my ticket at home. I’d heard a couple of people singing the praises about “Cats In Space” (Hello Dave Ling) so thought I’d go check ’em out. With the supposed line-up of Dirty Thrills, Rock Goddess & Cats In Space it was a no brainer really. Of course, shit happens as Jody from Rock Goddess got ill so they cancelled a few shows 🙁 Also Dirty Thrills didn’t turn up ! Oh well, lets make the most of it 🙂
Once again, I took a late train to Nottingham, arriving around 4.30 pm. Went straight to my hotel & chilled for a while. As per, I went to the venue 15mins before doors. Once I was in, I was shocked to see they hadn’t opened the balcony. Not only that, they put my seat on the only raised area near the merch. If you’ve never been to Rescue Rooms before, here’s a pic which shows where i was :
The yellow line marks where the merch table went up to, whilst the red X marks where my seat was ! Tbh, it didn’t really get over busy. But the people who were there seemed to enjoy the show.
First act was “Blue Nation”. I’d never seen or heard of them ! They were a bit “Pedestrian”, but solid. In fact, I actually enjoyed their set. The singer was having a laugh with a couple of people in the audience. (Hello “Uncle Mick” & “Aunty Linda” 🙂 )
Later in their set they play a melody of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” & “I’ve Got A Feeling”. Wish I’d filmed that as it was quite decent.
The singer mentions George Harrison. Someone in the audience shouts out “Legend”. Next they play “She’s A Storm” .
They finish their set with a sing a long song “Down By The River”
After a while, the intro tape starts a rolling for “Cats In Space”. It’s a version of the old “Stray Cats” song, “Stray Cat Strut”.
They then come on stage to play a 1-2 of “Johnny Rocket” & “Too Many Gods”. Unfortunately, they have some sound problems during “Johnny Rocket”
They then play “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” followed by “Clown in Your Nightmare”. Before “Mr. Heartache” Paul Manzi says it was their first single. Then he says to us “I wanna hear some of your voices on this one….this is Nottingham right ?!” (Huge cheers)
As I’ve not seen the band before, i don’t know all the titles of their songs. But there’s good crowd interaction.
Later on they play “Hologram Man”
After that one, they played “The Greatest Story Never Told” ?
The main set is finished with “Five Minute Celebrity”
But it’s not all over yet, as they come back to encore with “Thunder in the Night”. As I’d not seen them before tonight, I was rather impressed by their show. I’ll definately go see them again if I can. After everything’s finished, I have the short walk back to my favourite Nottingham hotel, Roomzzz
I’ve started taking later trains to Nottingham, so today I left good old Bostonia at 14.50. Journey was ok, no hold ups. Once in Nottingham, I went strait to Roomzzz. They know me there now as I stay so often. Even ask me which gig I’m going too 🙂 Basically stayed in hotel till 15mins before doors. Walked round to the Rescue Rooms & there was a fair sized queue. Spoke with a couple of security guys about needing a chair & got in early. Originally the lass put a seat over on the right side, looking over the stage. I don’t like being there, so got it moved to centre of the balcony. The prime spot position.
First band on tonight were “Kane’d”. Pretty sure I’ve seen them before, maybe at Camden Rocks festival, but for sure saw them opening for “Romeos Daughter” at Yardbirds, Grimsby back in 2014. They’ve certainly improved since then.
The lads in the band hit the stage first. Started jamming away, then the lasses came on. Everyone on stage gave it their all & I’m sure they won over a few of the crowd. Their set list tonight was :
Wasted, Show Me Your Skeleton,3-2-1, Hey, Hello, I Won’t Bite, I’ll Bring You Home, Reckless, Invidia, Covered in Roses, La di da (From setlist FM)
So to the main attraction : TYKETTO ! Over the years I think I’ve seen them about 10 times. Mostly at either the Rescue Rooms or Rock City. There’s always one thing that’s guaranteed with a Tykes show ; A quality night out ! Tonight’s show is SOLD OUT, so I’m sure the audience will make themselves heard.
The band kick off with ” Inherit the Wind ” & next play ” Meet Me in the Night “. Great stuff 🙂
Danny tells us that they’re recording tonight (same with the rest of the UK tour) which brings loud applause from the ever faithful crowd. Apologies for the darkness of the video clips, I just wasn’t on my game that night.
Danny then tells us the story about being dropped from the label (Geffen?) before “Strength In Numbers” could be released & also that “Music For Nations” was the best label they ever signed to. (Though sadly, MFN is no longer around)
After “Catch My Fall” it’s another classic “End Of The Summer Days”. At least we don’t have to Wait forever for the next song (Yeah, I know, not a good pun)
After that, we get a different version of “Wings”. The girls from Kane’d come onstage to give vocal support 🙂 Good to see all that hair on stage shaking around…& I’m not just talking about Danny 😉
Next up we get “Ain’t That Love”, closley followed by “Write Your Name in the Sky”
Soon enough we’re getting absolute classic Tyketto to finish the main set : “Rescue Me”, “Strength in Numbers”, “Forever Young”. What a way to finish the show ! Bloody loved it. But wait, there’s more to come 🙂
The encore consisted of “The Last Sunset”, “Reach” & the superb “Standing Alone”.
Danny said he was struggling, so he expected the crowd would help him out…and they did
All in all a great night out. These shows are what I live for. I didn’t hang around afterwards because I was feeling quite tired. It’s VERY useful that Roomzzz is just around the corner.
Tyketto set list tonight was : Inherit the Wind, Meet Me in the Night, Catch My Fall, The End of the Summer Days ,Wait Forever,Wings ,Ain’t That Love, Write Your Name in the Sky, Why Do You Cry?, Rescue Me & , Standing Alone.
For this one, i took a much later train to Nottingham. This way i could take my mum out for lunch before going ;-)(Ok, technically, she took me out as i cant’t drive now, but i did pay for lunch 😉 )
My train left Bostonia at 14.45 & was due to arrive Nottingham at 16.17. Train journey went well, with no hold ups. First thing i did once i arrived was to visit WH Smiths ! Why ? Because i couldn’t get the issue of Classic Rock Magazine “She Rocks”, locally, which has skin (Skunk Anansie) on the cover . Was pretty sure they’d have it in Nottingham. Managed to get it in the nick of time as store was closing at 16.30.
Job done, carry on walking to my hotel. Once again i’m staying at Premier Inn as i booked a few stays there cos the price was so cheap. Once checked in, i just hung around at my hotel to relax. Doors tonight had been put forward by 30mins, so that worked for me. I’d tried phoning Rescue Rooms with regard to having a stool, but it always ended up going to the answerphone & the mailbox was full, so I couldn’t leave a msg.
Once i got to Rescue Rooms i had a chat with the lass on the doors & said that i can never get through on the phone etc. She then told me the reason for this, which i wasn’t expecting….it seems that both Rescue Rooms & Rock City have had a change of staff/security. Apparently, the ones that left Rescue Rooms didn’t tell the other people what the passwords were for the answerphone mailbox etc !! If that is true, then i’m sure the people were not very happy bunnies & did it deliberately 😉 So the next time i go RR i wont bother phoning…The lass asked one of the security to find me a stool & when he came back, he walked me up to the balcony. Got the prime position again 🙂
I wasn’t aware that there were two opening acts before earlier today. Both of them i’d never heard of. So i was already thinking “…hope they finish quickly as i’m only here for Paradise Lost!”.
The first band “King Goat” were pretty dire. The singer wore a huge coat/cloak & couldn’t even see his face it was that black. The band didn’t play anything that i liked.
Next it was “Outshine”. Now i actually quite liked them. Their from Sweden & i liked what they played. It was really a good show. So much so, i’ll probably buy the new CD.
I was really looking forward to seeing Paradise Lost again as i hadn’t seen them since around 2009 (At Columbiaclub, Berlin). From memory, Nick Holmes could be a bit of a grumpy old bloke & had a very dry wit about him, so i was wondering how he’d be tonight 😉
They kicked off with ” From The Gallows ” which is from the yet to be released album “Medusa”. It’s a typical dark sounding Paradise Lost song. Next we get “Tragic Idol” which dates back to around 2012. I really nice chunky guitar sound on this one. Then 3 songs in, they play some thing i really know “One Second”. This to me, is classic Paradise Lost. Unfortunately though, there were sound problems during this one. It sounded like there was some kind of a loose connection somewhere as there were “crackles” happening a few times.
“Gods Of Ancient” is another one off “Medusa”. Heavy as fuck & what i can only describe as “growling” vocals.
They seem to play a lot of new songs tonight & older stuff that i don’t really know tbh !
If i’m honest, as the night went along, i kinda got a bit bored with it all. I dunno, maybe as the last shows i’d seen were all high enery stuff (Marmozets) Paradise Lost probably wasn’t a very good choice to see after those Marmozets gigs !
When it came to the encore time, there was one song i was really hoping to hear, namely “Just Say Words”. But they didn’t play it 🙁
After looking online to see the setlists at other venues, it seemed they generally finished with “No Hope In Sight”, “The Longest Winter”, then “Just Say Words”. I’m left wondering why they didn’t play it on this night as it’s a great song.
I left Hotel Rob reasonably early & was surprised just how busy the tubes were. I hate it when they’re so rammed as this day. Good thing i gave myself enough time to get to St Pancras for my train up to Nottingham 😉 Even though i had already booked a hotel in Nottingham, my mate Andy T. was going to drive to Notts & meet me & then drive back to Bostonia after the gig. When my train got into Nottingham, i had a quick look in FOPP, before going to my hotel (Premier Inn, round the corner from Rescue rooms & only cost £31). Once checked in, i went to the Gooseberry Bush for some food. As it was Curry Club night/day, i decided to have the obvious 😉 Couldn’t believe the size of the poppadoms though ! They were literally same size as the curry bowl ! (They’re usually much bigger than this)
After having food, i went back to my hotel & waited for Andy to arrive. As he’d come pretty much after he’d finished work, he went & had a crappy Burger King. When we got to the venue, there was only a small queue (which surprised me really, considering it was sold out). I went to the side door & had a word with security, explained i needed a stool (They’ve still got GREAT ones!) & that Andy was my carer/companion. We hung around for a few minutes as the soundcheck was taking a bit longer than expected. One of the security chaps went to find a stool & put it up in the balcony for me to go to. Once inside, another security guy brought a couple more stools up, so Andy decided to sit on one of them 🙂 That was excellent service tonight. I wish it could be the same always ! (I still don’t get it why Rock City threw away all the old seats/bar stools as the new seats are pretty useless if you want to actually SEE anything from the balcony! Fortunately, i know another good position where these new seats are viable to use )
So, once again, it’s “Queen Zee” opening. Both of us don’t really like their sound etc. I think we were talking more about the bra that the singer (male) was wearing !
We had the perfect position on the balcony to see everything. (After the rubbish experience in Cambridge, i couldn’t wait to see them at a venue with a balcony!)
Marmozets set starts with “New Religion” & then it’s a great 1-2 of “Habits” & “Is It Horrible?”.
I love hearing Wills bass intro to “Like A Battery”, it’s so deep & heavy. At the end of the song Sam says to the crowd “You guys are fuckin awesome”. Then someone in the crowd shouts ” We love you!” Becca reply’s with “Guess what? We love you too….newsflash !”. She then says “Are you ready for a Move,Shake,Hide sort of situation? Show me what you’ve got Nottingham !” Queue huge cheers from the crowd & lots of bouncing around on the floor. Next up we get another classic Marmozets song, “Weird & Wonderful”. Again, it goes down a storm. Towards the end of the song, at the “…I can see it in your right mind,Ever thought to wonder you’re not typical..” part, Becca lets the audience finish with the “…You’re weird and wonderful…” part & she says “Yeah you are !”. One of my favourite new songs is “Insomnia”. To me, it sounds like a messed up (in a good way) lullaby. Good to hear the crowd singing along to it as well. No messing around they go straight into “Meant To Be”. During the middle part, Sam shouts out ” Let’s see you Nottingham ! C’mon Let’s have it! “. Crowd is already going crazy & a small circle pit happens. During “Particle” it’s just the same. A great high energy crowd tonight.
As the intro to “Play” starts, Sam says “..try to get over here…” (to the crowd)
Before “Suffocation” Sam asks Joshy if he “can get the crowd going a bit more?”. Josh leaves his drum kit & wanders down to the front of the stage. He then puts his finger to his mouth, trying to make the crowd be quiet. He then throws his arms in the air to make em all cheer. He does this for both sides & then of course it’s a group effort. Becca then notices some one in the crowd & asks if she’d like to get on stage to have a photo with the crowd! Never seen that happen before. The lass gets up & the photos are took 🙂 Song goes down well & is finished with Josh doing a little drum solo (whilst the guys are tuning up). Becca asks the audience ” Do you believe you were born young & free & you can do whatever the fuck you wanna do? Good on ya !” Yep , it’s time for a rousing version of “Born Young & Free” 🙂
Afterwards, Sam says that Nottingham is the first crowd to have NOT crowd surfed yet. This gets drowned out by loads of the crowd wanting to hear “Vibetech” haha. He then says “Why the fuck is everyone shouting for Vibetech?”. Becca then says, “How about if when we come back next time, we’ll play it then?”. It’s a done deal as far as i’m concerned….but i reckon it will be Rock City next time they come back 🙂
So, during “Lost in Translation”, the security have to work a bit harder as there were so many people crowd surfing. There were only 2 of them (security) but they did a great job of getting the surfers over the barrier etc.
“Lost in Translation” is really cool live. Another new one follows, namely “Run With The Rhythm”. We’re getting close to the end of the show now…
“Why Do You Hate Me” is as ferocious as ever. Bloody love it.
Sam then says “When you go to gigs…the people who look after you , are fucking awesome…Becca, i want to get a picture with these” (He’s talking about the 2 security guys) So up they get & that’s a photo took with the security & all the band…shame they never posted that one. (Here’s a rubbish screen cap 😉 )
The funny thing after that was Sam then said “Ok, we got a picture with them, but lets make em fucking work now !” Absolute classic haha
Before “Major System Error”, Becca says “This is one of my personal favourite songs we’ve ever wrote…& it’s ok to like your own stuff…there’s nowt wrong with it at all!” . It’s really cool to hear the crowd sing the first lines on their own. I guess that means it’s a thumbs up for for the newest album.
What song could they finish with ? Yeah, you guessed it, the beautiful “Captivate You”. Loads of people got up on others shoulders & sang their hearts out.
This was most certainly a great night out !
We wait around for a couple of minutes so the majority of the crowd can get out of the venue. When we walked down the stairs, who should be coming up them,but Sam. I said to him it was another great show,thanks.
Once outside, it was raining a bit. Andy took a tram to go get his car, whilst i went into my hotel to grab my bag & checkout. We’d arranged to meet close by, but there was a little confusion which street he’d parked on 😉 Once we’d found each other we were soon off back to Bostonia. Unfortunately, the weather got worse as it pissed it down! Some parts of the road back had massive puddles, which couldn’t be avoided. I know it was hard work for Andy to drive in these conditions (he doesn’t drive much at night nowadays), so much respect to him for coping with it & getting us home safely. Can’t remember what time we got back home, but i was straight to bed once there ! Once again, thanks Andy for driving.
The following day was a “day off” from the travelling, which i most certainly appreciated. The only downer of the Saturday was that i was told my sister had gone back into hospital 🙁
Nowadays, i prearrange to have a seat/stool when i go to gigs. There were a bunch of shows i was going to at Rock City & i sorted those over the phone. A couple of days before H.E.A.T. at the Rescue Rooms, i realised i’d not sorted out a seat for that one. I tried phoning the venue, but couldn’t get through to anyone. Couldn’t even leave a msg on the answerphone as it was already full. I tried messenging the venue via FB & still no reply. Come gig day, i’d still not had any reply. I was getting a bit paranoid about how this was going to go.
The night before this gig, i was up in Leeds, seeing Wolf Alice @ The Academy. Everything ran smooth with the security, letting myself & Lorah in early etc. As i’m travelling down to Nottingham, i’m thinking “Hope security will be as good as they were in Leeds”.
Once in Nottingham, i go check in to my usual hotel “Roomzzz”. “Oh, it’s you again ! How are you?”. They’re getting to know me there now 😉 After a bit of a relax in my room, i ventured out to get some grub. Along the way, i had a quick look to see if there was a queue outside Rescue Rooms, but there was no one there. After food at the Roebuck, i made my way back to the hotel. As i walked past Rock City, i saw that Opeth were playing there tonight. So wondered how much this would effect the sales of tix for H.E.A.T. (damn, i hope they open the balcony !). After hanging at the hotel for a while, i went to Rescue Rooms a bit earlier than usual. There was only a small queue. I opened the side door & had a chat with security, telling them that the venue had not replied etc. A couple of them looked at each other & laughed ” Yeah mate, that’s the usual thing that happens nowadays!”. They were decent chaps. I asked if the gig would be busy, considering Opeth were playing around the corner. “Yes mate, i think it’s close to selling out”.One of them got me a stool & even carried it up to balcony. Once up there, i saw they’d put the merchandise out downstairs on the raised area on the left. Security chap said “Believe it or not, by having the merch there, it loses space for over 100 people. So it will be very packed down there”.
Eventually everyone was let in & the place soon filled up.
I hadn’t heard (of) the support acts before. The first band “Black Diamonds”, were entertaining in a “cheesy ’80s throw back “sort of way 😉
But gotta say, i loved “Degreeds” set way more. So much so, that i filmed a couple of songs. I’ve since bought 3 of their CDs. They’re a quality band.
I noticed the chap next to me had been trying to (not very) stealthily record (audio) the show & asked if he’d done it all so far. Apparently, he’d made an error & he’d not got one of the sets. I asked if he was gonna do H.E.A.T. & he said he would try. So obviously, i asked if i could get a copy 😉 He didn’t seem like he wanted to share it. When i told him that i had got loads of old shows from Rock City in the ’80s, he seemed a bit more interested 😉 But so far ,i haven’t managed to get a cdr copy of H.E.A.T.s set 🙁 I later found out from Scott that this chap was part of the Grimsby crew who’d travelled to the gig.
It didn’t seem that long before the Grenn Frey song “The Heat Is On” was being played over the PA.(A great way for the band to take the stage)
No messin about, they hit us hard with a new one,off the latest album “Into The Great Unknown”, namely “Bastard Of Society”. A great song to start off with as even though it’s new, it still has the trademark H.E.A.T. sound we all know & love. Next up, it’s back to the early days, with the great sing a long song “Late Night Lady”
Erik briefly mentions that “…We’ve been waiting for so long….Nottingham it’s like the second city (after Stockholm) which i’ve spent most time in ! It feels so good to be back..we are honoured…Thank you for making this a sold out show. Thank you.”
We then get another song from the original H.E.A.T. album. The song is “Straight For Your Heart”. It’s kinda strange thinking how they had a different singer on those first albums. Erik really fits well in the band & he really does justice for those older songs. Let me say now, i was a bit late to the “H.E.A.T. party”. It was the album “Tearing Down The Walls” that really got me into the band & 2014 was the first time i saw them live. I really wish i’d heard them sooner than that. Now we get a classic from that album, namely, “Mannequin Show”. I bloody love this song !
Towards the end of “Beg,Beg,Beg”, Erik decides to crowd surf to the bar to get a shot (of redemption? My bad). The crowd glide him along & he makes it to the bar (with only a few people “touching” him along the way). Once there, after having a shot, he looks up to the balcony & i know exactly whats going through his mind ! He’s gonna climb up to us. I must be blessed some kind of way because when i saw them at Islington Academy in 2014, Erik jumped into the crowd almost next to me & he carried on singing amongst his brethren (i caught it on camera as well). Tonight, he climbs up to where i am & once again i’m capturing it! Talk about luck…
He then wandered around the other side of the balcony, before finally finding his way back to the stage.Next up it’s “We Rule” closely followed by “Time On Our Side”. What a show this has been & we’re only about half way through ! Sometime during the gig,someone in the crowd throws up some underpants! What does Erik do? He obviously puts then on his head!
I’m not really a fan of drum solos. The only ones i’ve ever really enjoyed were by either Cozy Powell or Neil Peart they did something special. So when the drum solo starts tonight, i’m thinking “hope it’s over quickly!”. But to my surprise, it was rather cool ! “Crash” played to “Flash”, if you get my drift.
Following that, we get a whole bunch more fantastic classic H.E.A.T. songs. How about this for the home run : “Breaking The Silence”, “Living On The Run”, “Eye Of The Storm”, “In & Out Of Trouble”. Makes me breathless just thinking about it !
During “Living On The Run” Erik just cannot stay on the stage so he jumps down into the crowd & they all sing along with him…”Hey someones touching my ass” 😉
The main set finishes with “Inferno”. Before playing it, Erik says ” Nottingham we love you ! Unbelievable ! Unbelievable ! I’ve got goose bumps on my balls! ” (That’s not something you hear very often lol) It always cracks me up when he sings the line ” I like to drink & masturbate” :-). But what a fantastic song this is. Great vocals & they all just rock out like crazy. This is the kind of gig i live for. Everyone having fun both on & off the stage.
Obviously, they come back for an encore , they treat us to “A Shot At Redemption”. Fantastic stuff & what a way to finish this most excellent night.
I loved every minute of this show.
Afterwards, i went for a quick pint at The Gooseberry Bush, then back to my hotel.
I took a later train than usual as it was a much quicker journey. Checked into “Rooomzz” hotel & had a little relaxation before going to the venue. After the total clusterfuck with entry at rock city a couple of days back, i phone Rescue Rooms to arrange everything again….& try make sure no one pinches my stool like what happened at the last gig here ! Whilst waiting to be sorted out, i bumped into Rob Maher. Hadn’t seen him in ages. Was just about to have a chat with him & security said i could go in. Tonight it was a much smoother entry 😉 Got the spot i wanted & the bar stool was in place.
About 30mins after doors, the lights go down & it’s the familiar sounds over the PA as the intro to “Heaven in the Back Seat”. The band are right on it. Hard to believe this song is so “old”. As with most of they’re songs, there’s a timeless quality to them. Oh, just need to point out that they have a stand in bassist as Ed Poole is away doing his other gig with Bonnie Tyler in New Zealand. Next up we get “Attracted to the Animal” (from the 2nd album ” Delectable”). 3rd song, from 3rd album is “Touch” This is quite interesting. Did they do it deliberately or was it just the way it happened to be albums 1,2,3, ? Not that it matters, it’s all great stuff. Next we get another from the album titled “Spin”. This time it’s the song “Radio”. It’s great to see everyone up on stage really enjoying themselves. Whilst the audience isn’t exactly jumping around like crazy (you don’t get that at RD shows) they are very appreciative. I see a couple of lasses, a few people back, who are really into it dancin away. That’s good to see.
It’s now time for a bit more audience participation during ” Bittersweet. ”
There’s only about 4 more songs left & they just seem to fly by. These last songs are “Alive” , “Inside Out”, the super emotional “I Cry Myself To Sleep” & finally ” Wild Child “.
Not long back i saw “Heart” at a couple of UK shows & forgot that they had covered ” Wild Child “. They play it slightly different, but of course, it’s Romeos Daughters song & cannot be topped 😉
So that was a very nice warm up to this evening 🙂
After a while it’s time for Tyketto. Tonights show was a rearranged date from last year (as was the whole UK tour). Considering it was a Sunday, there was a fantastic turn out. Just goes to show that if you have a quality line up people will come. During the intro tape, something that stood out to me (apart from the classic music clips) was when the narrator said something along the lines of “…..switch your phones to camera mode….”. I thought that was pretty cool, as i take that as they’re accepting the fact that so many people nowadays will not only take photos, but also record short clips. (Oh how times have changed since i snuck my video camera into Rock City back in ’95 & filmed their gig secretly 😉 ) I guess some of the crowd have been doing this for a while as the guys directly on both my left & right seemed to film the whole show of their Panny TZ cameras 😉
Tyketto kick off with, er… ” Kick Like A Mule ” 😉 After that, Chris plays the memorable riff to “Wings” & Danny asks ” …Nottingham are you ready to sing?..” But of course we were ! Hey it’s Nottingham & a pretty much full house.
After Kick, they go straight into ” Wings “. Such a classic & mighty fine vocals from the crowd. No holding up, we get another timeless classic ” Rescue Me “. Man, only 3 songs in & the night is on fire already. Judging by the smiles on stage, the guys are having a fantastic time.
About midway through tonights set they crank out “Dig In Deep” followed by the amazing “Standing Alone” . It’s astounding that after all these years Danny sounds as good as he ever has done.
There’s only another 5 or so songs before the end of the set. They finish the main set with “Love To Love”.
Of course, there’s been a song missing tonight & it has to be the encore as it just defines Tyketto. Yup, you guessed it, “Forever Young”. What a great night out it’s been.
True to their word, both bands came out afterwards for chats & photos. You don’t have to pay extra for that unlike some bands. (Though of course it’s cool if the punters buy some merchandise as it all makes a difference 😉 )
I go downstairs to briefly meet/chat with Leigh & Craig. Walking up to Leigh, it’s so nice she says ” Simon ! I saw online you were coming “. Again, it’s nice when someone you’ve admired for years says something nice like “…it’s good to see you’re still going to gigs despite what you’ve had to put up with..”. That means the world to me, thank you. Both Leigh & Craig seem taken aback when i show them where i had my brain biopsy done. We were talking about gigs at the same time & i said in my lifetime i’ve been to over 900 shows. Craig kinda misheard me & thought i’d had that many operations ! Leigh soon put him right though 😉
All in all, it was a great night out. Two quality bands for a very reasonable ticket price. These kind of gigs are so much better than arena shows as far as i’m concerned.
Ady picked me up around 4pm. Once in Nottingham, we parked on a side street which was free, but a bit of a walk to venue. Ady went off for a Subway whilst i went to sort out my bar stool in the venue. We went up the back stairs in the bar & she left me a stool there. Seemed silly to have to go back outside, but i guess it’s protocol. Once outside, i bumped into Carl & Lisa. Wasn’t expecting to see them, so was a nice surprise. Had a good old chat 🙂 Once we were let in i went straight up to balcony. My stool had gone! There was a couple on the right side with a stool & a bloke on his own on the left with a stool. Seemed obvious the bloke on the left wasn’t disabled, so i asked him ” Are you disabled?” His reply was ” No”. So i told him he’d took my stool ! He was fine about it. Easy mistake to make 😉
First act was Bernie Marsden (ex Whitesnake). Being honest, i wasn’t looking forward to it! But, i found his banter was funny & he certainly sings a LOT better than Coverdale nowadays 😉 Ended up really enjoying his set as did most of the audience by the looks/sound of things.
It’s quite amazing to think that ” Indiscreet ” was released 30 years ago ! That would make me 20 years old at the time. When i look back to that era now, i think how lucky i was to be experiencing the early years of acts like Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer etc etc Unique times for sure. But i digress…
FM start with the usual intro & go straight into “Digging Up The Dirt”. Then it’s an old classic “I Belong To The Night”. Only two songs in & the whole crowd seems to be behind them. As always, Steve Overlands vocals are spot on. It’s funny how some singers from the same era are sounding rough nowadays & yet Mr Overland is pure quality as ever.
We get a couple more old classics from the album ” Indiscreet”, namely “Let Love Be The Leader”
…..followed by the hit “Frozen Heart”. I always associate “Frozen Heart” with a lass i was seeing back in the day during that era.
There’s good crowd interaction on ” Face To Face ”
They play all the tracks from ” Indiscreet ” tonight & it’s fleshed out by songs from the albums ” Heroes & Villains ” & ” Rockville “. I found it interesting they encored with ” Story Of My Life “. I always thought it “plodded along” tbh. However, i’d imagine a lot of fans like it as they may see it as an “anthem” & something to wave the arms about 😉
The strangest thing of the night for myself though, in a similar vein to what Heart did recently, was they finished the show with a couple of cover songs by Whitesnake (Heart did the same playing Led Zep) ! Ok, it’s obvious it gives them the chance to jam with Bernie & the songs were great,but, i prefer bands to finish with their own songs 😉
Whatever, it was a great night !
After the recent disappointment of having to miss Hands Of Grettel in London (Due to the puking from my meds) I was really looking forward to this one. I love a bit of good old ” pop rock ” 🙂
My train travel went fine & as i walked past Rescue Rooms it was already quite busy as the band were doing meet n greets later. I was soon checked into my hotel. Just had to stay there a while to get the energy levels back up (Once again, i’d been surprised that walking from train station into town took it out of me so much. I think i still expect too much…)
When i went back to venue, half the queue had gone.(M&Gs). After a while my mate Jason & his missus Kristy arrived. Was good to have a catch up. Once inside the venue, for the first time ever that i’ve known, they had the lighting desk up on the balcony. I asked if i was ok to be where i was & reply was “yeah, but we’ll put out barrier later”. I assumed that meant just around the lighting desk. Later it turned out the were sectioning off & effectively losing half the balcony for punters! They told me to move,but, after explaining i’d been waiting a long time & was under impression i’d be fine, the guy said “Ok stay there,but if security come up, you’re on your own”. So yep, i was now winging it 😉
Gotta admit, i couldn’t get into “Beach Weather” or ” As It is “. I just find these bands a little boring nowadays. One of the kids had nice hair though lol. Seriously, i think i was more on edge about security kicking me out, so couldn’t really take them in (Even if i wanted too)
An intro & then Against The Current were on stage. It kinda threw me the way the stage was kind of empty & the guitarists were behind the speaker cabinets. (After later online investigation, i realised this is because officially there’s 3 members of the band & the others are touring guys) Chrissy seemed pretty impressed that the show had sold out as it was their first time at this venue. She also explained that ” Roo ” (guitar/keys) was from Nottingham, after which the crowd chanted ” One Of us ” 😉
A couple more songs & then Chrissy starts talking about a cover song they did. Of course, everyone twigged on quickly 😉 I must admit, “My Chemical Romance” are one of those bands i just cannot get into. “Hate” is a strong word, but i’m not that far off ! ( Same goes for ” Bullet For My Valentine” lol) But saying that, this song does work :
Next up, it’s possibly my fave ATC song ” Young & Relentless”. Just brilliant pop rock 🙂 Then to bring things down a bit, we get a couple of acoustic versions of songs ; ” Infinity ” & ” In Our Bones “. I’m pleased that they perform “Brighter” & “Wasteland” in the same order as on the album. They just work so well together.
This was a decent night out. I said my goodbyes to Jase & then wandered off to my hotel.
With Iron Maiden tickets going on sale at 9am the following morning, i decided i’d go queue early. Might as well seeing as i’m here. Didn’t sleep too well & got up early. Was at venue just around 7am…& was the only person there haha. Eventually a few others arrived,but, it was no where as busy as i thought it would be. Got us decent tix.
A rollercoaster of an evening ! Delayed leaving, crazy traffic, forgetting to scan in at the car park, typically a “40minute” delay on food (which in fact was nothing like that), more “fun” in the pub (not! lol), a gig which started great, had one crap band & finished with a great set from Cancer Bats. Once home, the night was very close to finishing really bad as almost had a head on crash at a petrol station of all places ! Live n learn…
Well this was a strange old night ! It started pretty rubbish due to the friends i was picking up were not ready. Those 20 minutes made all the difference to how the evening would go. ( Nowadays, i’ve got the timing perfect for Nottingham, usually arrive about 5.10pm so miss the traffic & have time to grab food if wanted before the gig). Roads were busy, we hit the rush hour traffic in Nottingham & ended up over 30 minutes later parking up. So tonight was gonna be a bit of a rush….when it really shouldn’t have been.
As luck would have it, when i got into the venue it wasn’t over busy. So i *just* managed to get front row of the balcony. First band up were Incite, a well heavy band from Phoenix AZ, USA. Whilst there wasn’t a big crowd for them, the ones who were there were really getting into them. I really enjoyed their set. They even had Liam from Cancer Bats join them for one song 😉
Next up were “Lord Dying”. They were excellent. A bit more “instrumental” than Incite. Unfortunately, i didn’t get any video of them as their set seemed to be cut short (They said there were 2 more songs & after the first they said it was over 🙁 )
The (now) local band , Palm Reader were the weakest act of the night for me.
As ever, Cancer Bats kicked some serious ass. It was one hell of a show in a packed out venue with loads of moshing down there.
I always love Cancer Bats version of “Sabotage”
My night almost ended in tragedy once i got home ! I always go to the petrol station once home so i’m tanked up ready for next journey etc. Tonight i had the misfortune of almost having a little twat driving the WRONG WAY around a roundabout & almost hitting me head on. It was only due to my quick reactions & composure that it was avoided. Yes, it did really shake me up when i thought of what could have happened. I was later annoyed with myself as i didn’t go after the little kid in his silver Corsa, but it was too late. I did however inform police of the incident, so if they wanted to follow it up, it would be easy as there would be CCTV at both the petrol station & Tescos. I’ve done my part…
Half expected the queue to be busy & it sure was. Luckily, i managed to get a great spot on the balcony. The first band “Silent Screams” went down very well with the young audience 😉 They had a circle pit & even a “wall of death”. Whilst i wouldn’t buy their CD (or go see them headline), they were entertaining. I’m just not much of a fan of “shouty” vocals.
Next up it was New Years Day. Unfortunately, the sound wasn’t great (a problem that continued all night) the vocals needed to be higher in the mix. However, i think for a lot of people that didn’t even matter as they were either just smashing the hell out of each other, or just swooning over Ash 😉
Their set was short, maxing out at about 35minutes & doing around 7 songs. Second song in, “I’m No Good” Ash got the crowd jumping along straight away. Basically, she had everyone in the palm of her hand .
Motionless In White were entertaining but they had sound problems all night. Lost count of the amount of times someone went from the mixing desk to the stage! Ash also joined them for “Contemptress”
Before “Mr. Heartache” Paul Manzi says it was their first single. Then he says to us “I wanna hear some of your voices on this one….this is Nottingham right ?!” (Huge cheers)
As I’d not seen them before tonight, I was rather impressed by their show. I’ll definately go see them again if I can. After everything’s finished, I have the short walk back to my favourite Nottingham hotel, Roomzzz 
