Black Country Communion Sway Into Hammersmith
Black Country Communion may, as Glenn Hughes says more than once tonight, be a band built on friendship. But they’re also a band built on supreme talent. Best known for his time with Dream Theater, the six-packed Derek Sherinian is one of those players who can...
Fallen Angels Offer Smoke Signals to the Ancient Gods: Fields of the Nephilim Live
With few commercial releases in the last decade Fields of the Nephilim have relied on their status as one of the original and most influential British goth rock bands to maintain their fan base. From their musical style to their carefully cultivated look, they set a...
Five Finger Death Punch Knock Out Wembley Arena
Metal is all about volume and intensity. Which is exactly what Of Mice And Men supply as they kick off a night of guttural vocals, guitar riffs of sledgehammer subtlety, soul-shaking drum fills, chest thumping, and sweaty, screaming, moshing fans at Wembley...
Extreme Get The Funk Out Live At Brixton Academy
Extreme formed an essential part of the soundtrack to my youth. Their debut album may have looked (and let’s be honest here) sounded like an offering from a formulaic late eighties hair metal band, but with the release of Pornograffitti and III Sides To Every Story,...
Bombs Away As One OK Rock Hit Shepherd’s Bush Empire
One OK Rock are, to use a familiar phrase, big in Japan. So big in fact that last summer, across two shows at Shizuoka’s Nagisaen Park, the band played to a total of 110 000 fans. Captured in the forthcoming concert film 2016 Special Live In Nagisaen, the gigs were on...
Reconciliation Of Love and Fury: Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes @ Brixton Academy
Ex-Gallows and Pure Love frontman Frank Carter is one of the most exciting performers to witness live. Never predictable, with hardcore punk band Gallows he was an explosion of vitriolic rage, lyrics streaming out of him to vent pain and...
Robert Plant Shifts Space And Time At Royal Albert Hall
Like every well-worn rock ‘n roll story, Robert Plant’s has definite touchstones. He possesses one of the genre’s finest voices. He’s the original golden god who, with Led Zeppelin, defined what it is to be a rock star. He’s not one for nostalgia, turning his back on...
Benjamin Clementine Lays Down A Challenge At Brixton Academy
Benjamin Clementine knows the conventions that live gigs follow. “I play, you clap,” he observes at one point during his Brixton Academy performance. So the hits from his 2015 Mercury Prize-winning debut, At Least For Now, get an airing. A generous selection of...
JW Jones Raises The Temperature @ London’s Borderline
JW Jones is an award-winning Canadian blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has released eight studio albums, performed in 19 countries, toured four continents, and played with legends like Buddy Guy, Canned Heat, and Red Hot Chili Peppers phenomenon Chad Smith....
Reinventing Himself On The Road: John Bramwell Live @ Union Chapel
After many years as frontman of Manchester-based band I Am Kloot, in 2013 John Bramwell took a change of direction and set out on a "Never-ending" solo tour that charted a course that has criss-crossed this country and into the continent. It's a journey that has...
The Pretty Reckless Run Wild At Brixton Academy
The stage is what makes or breaks a band. There are no do-overs, no overdubs, no ProTools to iron out those imperfections. It’s just you, your songs, and (especially if you’re an opening band) an audience to win over. The Pretty Reckless, who’ve been doing this since...
The Age Of Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons: Live @ Sheffield Academy
It is not often that rock legends make a stop in Sheffield, but this Monday in November a guitarist, his three sons, and singer Neil Starr rolled into town to raise the roof of the O2 Academy, supporting Aussie-rockers Airbourne. It was therefore no surprise that the...
REWS: Expectations High
Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time. The right place was the Hawley Arms during the Camden Rocks Festival on a glorious early June day this year. The right time was around half past four in the afternoon when a band of which I was...
Jim White Plays Guitars & Talks Jesus At Dingwalls & St Mary’s Guildford.
Jim White is back on tour to promote his current album the very cool Waffles, Triangles & Jesus that is out now on Loose Music. This is the second time I’ve been to hear Jim play the last time was at St Pancras Old Church and like at that gig his support act are...
Bad Touch Feel Good At Islington Academy
All bands, if they're around long enough, reach that point where youthful urgency overlaps with experience. Bad Touch are now in that zone. Currently on their first UK headline tour (“eight years in the making,” as frontman Stevie Westwood puts it), the group have two...
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