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The conclusion
of what has been a very hectic week gig wise for the Mayfair Mall crew
came to an end today with the return of Z Rocks.
This would be my first time at the
Limelight and the overall impression of the venue was a positive one. The
facilities were good, the availability of something to eat at these all
day shindigs has always been an issue. With a mini cafe of sorts in
the room adjacent to the concert hall, today we didn't have far to venture
for food.
Enemy of Thought
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To start today’s proceedings off were
‘Enemy of Thought’. Although the band were announced as the
remnants of Melodic Rockers Contagious with Pete Frank on guitar and Stormin Norman on drums, the bands sound is a million miles away from
anything that Contagious ever did.
The heavier sound is something Pete
has always wanted to play and with Enemy of Thought he certainly has achieved it.
Opening up these sort of mini
festivals has always been a daunting task for any band, but give them
their due, Enemy of Thought did themselves proud. They came out
and delivered the goods in their allotted 30 min slot.
Opening up with ‘Ever Again’, a song that
showed what a great sound the band could produce, then continued with ‘Who
The Hell Are You?’, with Pete showing what a talented guitar player he
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The band slowed things up a little with
the menacing ‘No Remorse’, a fairly new song for the band which I think
perhaps needs a little more practise, and maybe a few vocal effects to
fully bring the song on. The same could be said for ‘Monster Growing
Inside’, but still with a little more work these could be a massive songs
for the band. After all this is still a new band and while the newer
songs need a bit of strengthening up with practise, the older songs sound
spot on in both their power and delivery.
The set continued with the monster ‘I
Am’, which was my favourite track from the bands EP that I was sent some
time ago.
The song of the day from the band had to
be ‘Purest Form’, which is more favourable to the vocals of Chris Adams,
and is early Sabbath at their best. The band then finished off their
impressive set with ‘I Speak’, which once again gave Pete a chance to
shine.
My overall thoughts of the band are that
with a little more practice, and a little work on the vocals, the year
06/07 looks very promising for Enemy of Thought. If you haven't got a
copy of the EP then I can highly recommend you check it out.
Crimes of Passion
Next up were ‘Crimes of Passion’, a band
that over the past year have grown into quite a band.
The band emerged like a phoenix for the
ashes from Deadline and the name change, change of vocalist, and change of
style musically, has given
the band more scope to expand into a wider market.
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I've seen this band on quite a few occasions
now and was really looking forward to this particular performance. I was
also looking forward
to hearing the bands new songs, to which there were plenty in today’s set.
It's now blatantly apparent that all ties with
the Deadline moniker have been well and truly thrown aside for a much more
dynamic and alive approach to the music.
This new lease of life the band seems
largely to have
come in the form of new vocalist Dale who brings his larger than life
persona to the band.
As far as today’s set goes Crimes of
Passion has opted for new material and dropped all earlier material of
the Deadline era. The set opened up with ‘Pray For You’ and
immediately Dale was in full flow leaping about the stage like a man
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Sadly the sound seemed to have taken sum what of a
nose dive
from the Enemy of Thought set, as the guitar didn’t sound as crisp as they should.
Indeed after the
set Dale revealed that he couldn’t even hear himself on the on stage monitors.
But sound aside, Crimes of Passion still put on a great show.
The set continued with the new songs
‘Exit Wounds’ ‘The Death of Me’ and ‘My Miracle’ and the excellent
‘Breathless and Beautiful’. The set was then rounded off with a
cover of Warrant's
‘Rainmaker’.
As I said before Dale has brought new
life into an almost dead band and let's hope things go from strength to
strength. Indeed there are now absolutely no similarities left to
the band known as Deadline. Crimes of Passion are a new band in
every way with the musicians finding a new jest for life.
Dante Fox
Next up was the Midlands own Dante Fox
who hit the stage around 4 o’clock and tried their best to provoke some
sort of reaction from what had been so far a very dormant audience.
I’ve never been a big fan of the band, but
give them their due they do put 110% into each performance, and you can't
fault the powerful vocals of Sue Willets one iota.
The sound was a little better for Dante
Fox with only one or two dead mike moments. They opened up with ‘I Can't
See You Alone’ and then quickly went into ‘Something Going On’. By
this time some members of
the crowd were starting warming to the band and started making their way
tenderly towards the stage.
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Dante Fox have always been a band big on
the power ballads and today was no exception with songs like ‘City Lights’,
‘Break Me Down’ and ‘Goodbye To Yesterday’. There were a few cry’s from
the back of the auditorium for the Stevie Lang’s ‘Remember’, which tends
to be the bands usual set closer.
The band wavered a way from the power
ballads with the excellent ‘Firing Guns’, if the bands set contained a few
more tracks like this one then I would be a bit more enthusiastic about
see the band live more.
The band yielded to the crowds chant and
changed the set running order and played ‘Remember’, which was an excellent
version of the song and vocals are spot on every time I’ve
heard it.
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The closed the
set with ‘Last Goodbye’ another power ballad. Although this was
another workman like performance from the band, I’m sure that if they had
been around when the likes of Alannah Myles were high in the charts, Dante Fox would be a
lot bigger band. As it is let's hope that the new album will bring a harder
sound and bigger audience appeal, otherwise they might find their vocation
takes them more along the lines of the cruise ship circuit.
Winterstrain
The festival needed a shot of adrenalin
and that’s just what the next band brought with them. Norsemen Winterstrain set
siege to the venue with a blaze of glory opening up with ‘Temptations’ and
immediately they got the audience moving, which was a good thing because
by this time some had started to take root.
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Their own brand of Norwegian progressive
metal was music to my ears as the set continued with the 1998 track
‘Family Secret’ from the album Return To The Mirror. The band seemed
genuinely honoured to be part of the day and seemed to be really enjoying
the experience.
Their set was straight ahead melody and
power this seemed to hail the start of the day proper for many in the crowd, as
suddenly there were signs
of life from every corner of the room by people who definitely seemed to enjoy what Winterstrain were giving
them.
The set continued with ‘In Your Head’ and
‘Rumours That Speak’ before things slowed down with ‘Broken To Dust’. The
band then introduced a guest backing vocalist, non other than Shy’s Tony
Mills who apparently also did backing vocals on the bands album and who was
instrumental in getting the band over to the UK. So it seemed only right
that he joined the band on the live performance. |
The band continued with a magnificent
performance of ‘The
Battle’, with vocalist Geir Helge Fredheim giving it his all. Then ‘Leon’ before
going into what was the highlight of the set for me, ‘Mountain Inside The
Stone’, still with the mighty Tony Mills on backing vocals. The set closed with ‘From
The Other Side’ and the last track of a far too short set was ‘Another
Time’.
This was the first time for me and most
of the audience to sample Winterstain and I for one was certainly
impressed.
Demon
The question now was could Demon continue
the momentum that Winterstain brought to the days proceedings, the answer
was a definite yes. Demon are a band very much in the Tygers of Pan Tang
mould delivering classic rock vibes with a touch of keyboard panache.
The band led by manic front man Dave Hill
opened up with ‘Night of the Demon’, with the antics of Hill being the
focal point of the set as he gestured every word of every song.
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With a vast back catalogue to pick from
the band got everything right with the choice of songs for today’s
performance. Next up was ‘Into the Nightmare’ and a
song some twenty-year-old song ‘Plague’.
But it was the song of the bands
'Unexpected Guest' album that really set the crowd alight. Tracks liked
‘Sign of the Madman’ ‘ The Spell’ and the song that started it all off for
the band ‘Don’t Break the Circle’. The set was brought to a close with
the rousing ‘No Hell On Earth.
The band might be a little long in the
tooth but they still have rock running through their veins and still give
it their all, and with a European tour later this month in the pipeline
things are looking up for the aged rockers.
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Vaughn
What can a say about the next act that
hasn’t been said before, simply nothing, as late inclusions to the day as
Von Groove couldn’t play for one reason or another (rumours abound) it was
up to Vaughn to save the day.
Danny Vaughn has kept the Vaughn band
name alive with the help of some of the cream of British melodic rock
talent, and with this line-up he intends on going into the studio later
this year to record a new Vaughn album.
The set was very similar in vein to that
of the set that the band did at Firefest last year, with Danny’s vast back
catalogue to choose from, it must have been hard not to simulate the Firefest show in its entirety, as most of
today's audience had been at that very show. As Danny said as he looked out among the crowd, he saw lots of now
familiar faces.
The set opened up with something a little
funky ‘Feel The Power’ before it was down to some good old’ rock n roll with
‘Wings’ the it was back to the mid eighties for some Waysted. So far Danny
had gone through nearly twenty years in only three songs, before settling
for something off the 'Soldiers and Sailors' album, which is probably my favourite
Vaughn album. Singing ‘Is That All There Is’ it was plain for all to see that
the
band were pulling out all the stops and really enjoying themselves.
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Then it was time for a touch more Tyketto
with ‘Meet Me In The Night’, a song that still gets the crowd going.
But it was the Waysted years that really
brought back memories for me with ‘How The West Was Won’ and my all time
favourite Waysted song ‘Heaven Tonight’, which was a track that someone
e-mailed Danny and requested he play today, and play he did.
As Danny introduced the band to everyone,
I was pleased to hear the biggest cheer go out when guitarist Pat Heath’s
name was announced as I think he is one Britain’s least appreciated
guitars players and he doesn’t always get the praise he deserves.
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It was the encore that was a bit special
as Danny returned to the stage alone and did an outstanding rendition of
‘Standing Alone’, which was helped in the chorus by the very appreciative
crowd.
As the rest of the band returned to the
stage to perform ‘Fearless’ and what has become the band obligatory last
song ‘Forever Young’. This ended another first rate performance by the
band.
Shy
With the Vaughn set still fresh in the
crowds mind it was time for headliners Shy to shine, and as the gig was
being recorded for a live album the opus was on the audience to give it
all they have.
Shy have always been a band I had
dismissed in the past, but after seeing Shy give one of the performances of
the day at Firefest 2 last year I was really looking forward to tonight’s
show.
It's was plain to see as the dividing
screen went up that Tony Mills had his business face on and was 100%
committed to the gig. The band opened up in great style with
‘Breakaway’ and ‘Skydiving’ two of my favourite Shy tracks.
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The two vocal styles of Mills and Vaughn
are very different, but the AOR fraternity holds both singers in very high
esteem. So who came out best today I would have
to say Tony Mills for his cock sure attitude and his stage persona have no
equal.
The set continued with the classic
‘Emergency’ before things were slowed down a little with ‘When The Love Is
Over’ and then a song the band haven’t played in ages ‘Communicate’.
The band were in great form and even
Tony was giving a occasional rye smile, the set continued with ‘Cant Fight
The Nights’, ‘Soul Searching’, ‘ Whole Lotto Feelings’, and the outstanding
‘Breakdown The Walls’, which really got the crowd going.
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The set was rounded off with
‘Reflections’ with Steve Harris at his immaculate best, and the rousing
‘No Other Way’ before the band left the stage obviously drained from
another great Shy show.
The audience were encouraged to bring the
band back by the compare but it wasn’t looking good for an encore.
Then
host Mark Alger came on to the stage and asked if we minded if the band
did an acoustic set as the band were exhausted, p***ed was his exact
words. The crowds roar of approval saw the band come on stage to perform two
excellent acoustic versions of ‘Talk to Me’ and ‘Telephone’, which capped
off perfectly what was in all an excellent day.
And with the announcement of another Z
Rocks later in the year and the rumours of there being no Firefest this
year, it gives Z Rocks a shot at giving the AOR crowd something to look
forward to.
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