Tag: Rock City

Apocalyptica + Vamps , Rock City, Nottingham 25-11-15

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I was absolutely fuming before this gig! Why ? I was meant to collect a ticket on the door & Alt-Tickets had NOT sent the collection list to Rock City. So whilst myself & a bunch more were waiting, people were streaming into the venue & taking the best spots. Fortunately, tonight Cat went with me so she got in the venue whilst i waited around like a spare part in the foyer. Whatever, this fiasco really wound me up & basically ruined my night. I hate incompetence. I’ve since emailed both RC/Alt-tickets complaining. RC just passed the buck. Alt-tickets did accept they were at fault & have offered to refund my collection fee of £1.50…wow big deal ! I’ll obviously never order a ticket for collection here again. In the end, i did get into the show. It was ok. Nothing fantastic. I’ve ticked them off the list of bands too see 😉

P.S. The irony was also when you collect tickets, they don’t actually give you a ticket! You just get a till receipt, which you give to the doorman! Good ol’ Cat gave me her ticket…..which i think was an attempt to try calm me down 😉 Its appreciated.

Clutch, rock city, Nottingham 24-11-15

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I left work early & was on the road to Nottingham by 3.30. Had a decent drive & was in Nottingham by 5.30ish. Carl & Lisa were already there in the queue, along with Chris & Teresa. In fact, they were the only ones in the queue apart from some chap from Mexico (i think?). Doors were a little later tonight, being at 7pm. The time flew by as we caught up & exchanged our latest gig travelling stories. (They had all been following the Clutch tour – respect ! ). Tonight we had two opening bands & the second one , ” Planet Of Zeus ” (From Athens, Greece) were bloody fantastic ! I hadn’t heard a thing by them before the show,but, Carl & Lisa said ” We think you’ll like them! “. They were so right 🙂

I must say, Planet Of Zeus seemed to really strike a chord with the crowd. They got a great reaction. I wondered for how many, this was their first time seeing them, like myself. Great band.

Clutch were just the same outstanding quality as always. No messin, straight ahead rock n roll. They had the audience eating out of their hands from the off. There were a lot of NEW songs off the latest CD ” Psychic Warfare” , in fact, at one point, Mr Fallon even says ” Two more songs & we’ll have played it all” 🙂

 

Killing Joke , The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, Rock City, Nottingham 28-10-15

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The doors were due to open earlier than i’d ever noticed before & my journey wasn’t very good due to traffic. Got to multi storey & was gonna do my usual thing where you pre pay the parking (so when you leave, you don’t have to stand in the queue to just pay), but, in the words of the guy on the desk ;  ” I don’t know what i’m doing ! “. Eventually gave up as time was getting towards 5.30. I was *amazed* to see only 2 people outside the venue! I had my suspicions & sure enough, once inside, the balcony was closed. So straight to the position under the stairs it was. The first band, ” The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing” were different. But if i’m truthful, they didn’t do a lot for me.

Funniest thing was after their set, i realised a chap stood next to me was someone i knew…even though we’d not seen each other before. That was well funny. Fortunately by the time Killing Joke were due on stage, the place had filled out very well. They received a heroes welcome. Interestingly, Jaz said tonight was the 15th time they’d played Rock City. To my shame, i’d never seen any of those previous gigs ;-( It was a top gig & everything i expected it would be. KJ are still so unique after all thse years.

” Wake Up! Indie All Dayer ! “, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Wedding Present, Brix & The Extricated, Sultans Of Ping FC, Rock City, Nottingham 17-10-15

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Another last minute gig….i hate staying in 😉 Used the tram park & ride & it worked a treat ; £3.50 all day to park. Went for usual beer n burger at Wethers, then had a look in FOPP. Again i was first person at venue, but it guarantees the position i wanna be at in the room (If i stayed any longer in the city, i’d end up spending money lol). Surprisingly , the balcony wasn’t open, so i went next best place under the stairs. First band was “The Sultans Of Ping”. I only knew of them from their minor hit “Where’s Me Jumper” back in the day. Cannot say i’d missed much tbh . Next it was “Brix & The Extricated”. I was never a fan of “The Fall”, so again, cannot say this set did much for me. Oh, apparently it was the 30 year anniversary  to the day since Brix first played at Rock City.DSC05220

 

Next it’s “The Wedding Present”. It’s quite funny to me that i’d never seen them live before until this year & now i see them a second time within a couple of weeks! I absolutely love the bass sound they have. They got a decent reaction, but, not as good as in London.DSC05237

 

Finally it’s “Echo & The Bunnymen”. I still find it strange that i also never saw them “back in the day”. I’ve only seen them once before, at Reading Festival back in ’98. What a different “look” old Macca had that day lol. I digress….Tonight, typically, there’s loads of dry ice (Are we at a Sisters gig? ) & basically it’s like watching silhouettes up there ! DSC05259

The good things about tonight : His singing is still fantastic, it’s a nicely balanced set, his singing is still fantastic, the crowd seem to love it, his singing is still fantastic 🙂 The not so good was, the lighting was rubbish, after every song Macca would go to his little table & either have a drink or a quick fag (or both), his interaction with the crowd consisted of ” Ta” or “Sound! “. DSC05260

But despite that, i still enjoyed the Bunnymen as the quality of the sounds has stood the test of time & his singing is still fantastic 😉

Biters , the basement, Rock City, Nottingham 26-9-15

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Tonights plan was to visit Cat at her new home in Grantham & then carry on to Nottingham for some rock n roll ! Everything worked a treat 😉 I saw online that tickets for Biters were £3.75. Very reasonable. However, the show was also part of the “Hey Hey Hey ” club night. Fortunately Cat saw this & by us adding our names to the online guest list, we got in for £1 ! Superb bargain. Upon arrival in Nottingham, we went to our usual, “The Roebuck” for beer n burger….why change a good thing ? Then it was on to The Pit & Pendulum pub for more drinks. Finally we get to Rock City & pay that high price of £1 entry 🙂 The support band had just come on. They were very energetic, especially when the guitarist fell flat on his back…maybe intentional? It wasn’t very busy to start off with. There was a guy down the front who (i’d hope) was, having a bad trip, judging by his “moves” lol.  I bumped into Chris, who used to be in “New Generation Superstars”, so that was a nice little catch up after all those years.

Biters came on all guns blazing. They’re a typical ’70s/’80s sounding band ( No Cat, they’re not THAT old lol). Good fun rock n roll. Main man “Tuk” is nicely in your face & has good banter. Loved it when he called out the people at the back/sides & the guy too interested in his mobile phone 😉 He also thanked the young ladies that were dancing all through their set & knew the words to the songs. It was just straight ahead rock n roll. Nothing groundbreaking, but it was fun with a capital F 🙂 As Chris said, this was a proper band & “They have a gang mentality”. They played a decent selection from the debut album “Electric Blood” plus a couple of oldies. Unfortunately, we didn’t get an encore as the sound was cut when their official time was up 🙁

We then checked out the various rooms playing some great sounds & ended up in the main room people watching etc. Cat : ” How come i’ve not been to this before? It’s a great club night ! “. Well, as i said, the plan was to have done this after Amaranthe gig, but we didn’t quite manage it. For sure we will do one of these nights properly in future though 😉

P.S. I truly hope that the *tall* photographer who was down there *the WHOLE bloody show* managed to get a decent shot…

The Wildhearts , Baby Chaos, Hey! Hello!, Rock City, Nottingham 17-9-15

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I was surprised about a couple of things at this show. Firstly, i was the first person at the door! But, it is a drinking crowd,so could be expected. Secondly, it was very surprising that they hadn’t sold enough tickets to have the balcony open. So, good thing i got there early to be able to take prime position under the stairs (A great place to see/film from 😉 ) Hey! Hello! started proceedings & went down very well. I love the energy & fun of this band. Tonight we also had the bonus of Chris from Eureka Machines standing in on guitar. Hollis is a brilliant star in the making. So full of energy & covering all the stage. Obviously, having Ginger up on stage gives them an advantage,but, they really were damn good. Was great to see everyone enjoying themselves up there. I’m really looking forward to their second album & of course their headline tour in December.

Baby Chaos had a hard job following Hey! Hello! They were good,but, i felt were a bit repetitive. The Wildhearts just delivered,as always. Now it might be sacrilege to say it, but, i’ve never been much of a fan of PHUQ album…the one they were playing in full tonight! But seeing as i never saw it the first time around, i felt i had to go. Obviously, we get a nice few other oldies after the main album set & it was just killer. I really wish i could have gone to another gig as they are changing it up each night. Respect to them for doing that. They actually ran over the 10pm curfew tonight (those pesky club nights). I was in my car by 10.10 & on the way home!

Hoobastank, P.O.D. , Alien Ant Farm, Rock city, Nottingham 9-5-15

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I’d been wanting to see Hoobastank for yonks. When they announced UK dates, with such a great line-up, it was a given i’d go ! AAF were better than i thought they’d be. P.O.D. were pretty great & cool to see Sonny come up to the barrier to touch base. Hoobastank were exactly what i was expecting. A great show & will for sure see them again if i get the chance 🙂