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Contagious
The second band on
the bill today were the one's that really pulled us back down to the
festival today. We'd gone from knowing absolutely nothing about them at
all at the last one; to being well and truly in awe of them in one fell
swoop.
There's nothing worse than seeing a band that make such a big impression
on your senses, only to have to wait what seems like ages before you get
the chance to see them perform again.
Contagious is indeed one of those bands and their music is so terribly
addictive that it should come with a health warning.
'Beware! Listen to this band and you will indeed be asked to sign not only
your soul over to them, but also your granny's knickers too!' It's like
making a pact with the devil once their infectious grooves get under your
skin you just can't get them out of your head.
The band came onstage shortly before 5 o' clock which is generally a bit
of a bad time, as people tend to start getting a bit cranky and wander off
for food. Not with this band, oh no. They managed to draw their
ever-growing legion of fans to the front of the stage and held them firmly
there as they launched into the new song 'Hear it Calling'. A track taken
from their forthcoming album due out in October.
Whoah! Have these boys been practicing hard or what? If we thought they
were good in May then nothing could have prepared us for this huge leap
forward they made with their set today.
The songs came thick and fast and it really sounds like they have finally
found their niche with these new ones. The whole band gave a magnificent
performance here today. All you could do was stand there and be mesmerized
by them.
The biggest surprise when you watch this band is lead singer Glenn. Have
you ever seen a man stand on stage and look so calm, then open his mouth
and just flood the room with such golden sounds? He makes it look as easy
as breathing!
He's got that pure classic rock sound to his voice that has sadly been
largely lost over the years. It's like listening to one of the greats such
as Robert Plant or David Coverdale perform.
Although the songs are largely guitar driven they aren't smothered by
them, instead they are rather taken gently by the hand and taken for a
good night out. Stormin' Norman provided us with the pulse like back beat
that kept our feet tapping and our heads bobbing along to all the songs.
The band is full of characters, it really is. Who could fail to be
captivated by the ever-happy John on keyboards and his wondrous new
additions to the songs?
Beside him we saw guitarist Pete who has really come on leaps and bounds
with this new material and gave us a blinding performance. Good to see him
being given the opportunity to show us what he's really made of.
At the other side of the stage we had the infamous Mr. Tony Marshall. Dare
I say it; we had a bit of a Tom Jones thing going on here today with this
lad. I kid you not!
About half way through the set he was smothered by a deluge of women's
knickers that had been thrown on mass at him from his girlie fans in the
audience.
 At
first I'm not sure he knew what they were until he picked up one rather
huge pair of white Bridget Jones which had 'Tony - We love you!' scrawled
across the front in thick black marker.
His face was an absolute picture and the rest of the band just burst into
hysterics at it all.
I wonder if he'll do a David Lee Roth and make a pair of trousers out of
them? They were certainly big enough!
Standing beside Tony and probably wishing he had chosen somewhere safer to
stand was the mystery new bass player who had taken over the duty after
the loss of the very popular Paul from the band.
Not sure whether this is a permanent fixture in the band or not, but you
have to admit he did a good job at short notice. Somehow I doubt he quite
realized just what he'd let himself in for mind you!
The whole set was stuffed full of fantastic rock songs that grabbed you
from the start and gave you a good shaking.
They have so much energy and are so vibrant and alive that they couldn't
fail to lift even the heaviest of moods. Who could fail to notice the
crowd going absolutely mental when they launched into everybody's
favourite 'Muscle'?
It's a good job the floor was solid otherwise the crowd would have gone
through it. A lot of the new songs were in the same vein with their big
chorus's and addictive beat.
We have been told that when the new album is released in October, the band
will be touring the butt off it. Let's hope so because the scene needs
bands like Contagious to give them a good time.
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