The Eleventh Hour: concert

Showing posts with label concert. Show all posts

Friday, 6 January 2012

December 2011… Feat: Tyketto/Wrathchild/Def Leppard/Motley Crue/Steel Panther/ Dr. & The Medics/Dawn Trader/Thunder/HELL…

December 31^st… HELL (MFN Shipley Gate)…

And now the end is near etc… yes folks it’s New Years Eve and as we say goodbye to 2011 and a big HELLo to 2012 there’s time for just one more gig and boy what a show it was. HELL round off their renascence with a New Years Eve show to remember and by doing so lay down their intensions for next year. The setting is MFN in Thunder Valley and the atmosphere is building to a crescendo, earlier in the year the reformed NWOBHM band made their comeback at MFN after a quarter of a century away from the scene and sold the place out. Tonight they play a phenomenal set of old songs from their debut album ‘Human Remains’ and some new songs from their forthcoming much anticipated second album. Although tonight is not sold out it is still packed with not only local people but many who have travelled long distances to be here. HELL have built up a fanatical following over the past year or so, way back in the early 1980’s this was not always the case, I was at their first show in 83’ I think it was and their was a fraction of the people at that one than is here tonight. The reason for this in my view is that HELL were way ahead of the time but now the world is ready for them it looks likely that a major tour is imminent so it’s time to ‘deliver us from evil’ as the dawn of a new year begins ‘let battle commence’… GD.

HELL - Macbeth

HELL - The Devil's Deadly Weapon

HELL - The Oppressors/Blasphemy and the Master

HELL - Deliver Us From Evil

Monday, 2 January 2012

December 2011… Feat: Tyketto/Wrathchild/Def Leppard/Motley Crue/Steel Panther/ Dr. & The Medics/Dawn Trader/Thunder/Hell…

December 18^th… Dawn Trader… (The Rescue Rooms Nottingham)…

It’s Christmas party season and not to be done out of hosting one Dawn Trader have booked into the re-vamped Rescue Rooms in Nottingham. Trader have had an astronomical year having launched their debut album ‘Castle’ back in May (25 years late) as well as supporting great bands like Y&T and the mighty Status Quo to cement their return. The master of ceremonies tonight is none other than rock leg end Mr. Badaxe who insists on playing an acoustic set of Badaxe songs, altogether now… ‘Who’s that hiding in the garden? It’s Bin Laden it’s Bin Laden’. After these debased shenanigans it’s time for a bit of sanity and a bunch of young lads called Sucker Punch play a support set which appeals to the younger members of the crowd. When Dawn Trader do hit the stage they seem determined to make tonight a memorable one with several former band members taking to the stage to perform with them. However the best kept secret of the evening (not) was to be a guest appearance by none other than Graham Oliver (Saxon/OD Saxon) pictured with GD, Graham once jammed with the Trader boys in the early 80’s and has waited till tonight to repeat the feat. Saxon’s ‘Wheels of steel’, Cream’s ‘white room’ and a rock n’ roll medley are played to a warm reception from the audience. This show was all about having fun and fun is what we had, despite Mr. Badaxe playing for us twice. I met up with Graham Oliver after the show and was reliably informed that Oliver Dawson Saxon will be releasing a new album in the New Year and playing this very venue in March with Dawn Trader, a show well worth waiting for GD.

Dawn Trader - Wheels of Steel

Dawn Trader - White Room

Dawn Trader - Whole Lotta Trouble

Dawn Trader - Angel

Friday, 23 December 2011

December 2011… Feat: Tyketto/Wrathchild/Def Leppard/Motley Crue/Steel Panther/ Dr. & The Medics/Dawn Trader/Thunder/Hell…

December 8^th… Def Leppard + Motley Crue + Steel Panther (Nottingham Arena)…

First off let’s get one thing clear, arena gigs are not my cup of tea however on this occasion I’ve made an exception and upon arrival at the venue proceed to bump into pretty much everyone I know which is loads of fun... Crue and Leppard, not an obvious alliance (in the words of Vince Neil… ‘ Crazy shit man’) but these days I recon neither band can sell out an arena tour on their own so by attracting two sets of fans and like yours truly, fans of both bands a sell out is guaranteed.

First up is Steel Panther, what can I say about this lot? A cabaret act? A parody band? A tongue in cheek outfit? Well, having laughed at their one joke (a bad one at that) the rest of their act was a travesty, thing is it’s all been done before (Spinal Tap, Bad News, Badaxe, The Macc Lads) one album, one tour, take the money and run, fine but I’ve heard Panther have released a second album, incredulous! Like the drummers Nome de plume, Styx Zardinia Steel Panther are definitely shafting the punters and seemingly getting away with it, hay ho.

On with the show and Motley Cure take to the stage, I’m almost deafened by the noise and that’s just the ladies in the crowd screaming at Nikki Sixx. Crue play a predictable but enjoyable set of old favourites with star of the show Tommy Lee playing piano and riding his drum kit around a roller coaster loop and at one point when left on his own on stage and running out of things to say he offered to take his clothes off… ‘You’ve all seen it before’ he quips. His fellow Crue are sadly not as entertaining and seem to be playing it all by numbers.

Although tonight is a double headlining show some one has to go on last. Def Leppard sadly fail to pull this off, they have a vast back catalogue of songs and thirty plus years of experience which somehow has deserted them in their hour of need. Playing a lack lustre set of boring songs Leppard fall short of their predecessors on the stage, Sweet’s ‘Action’ being covered badly is just one low point, with a hand full of good songs ‘let it go’, ‘Armageddon it’, ‘animal’ and ‘photograph’ being surrounded by a bucket load of tedious numbers the entire evening ended in anticlimax, Motely Crue should have gone on last but over all I had a whale of a time at this social event of the year… GD