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Well it’s a
Tuesday night and what is normally a dead night is about to become alive
as one of the most hallowed NWOBHM bands Diamond Head returns after a
five-year wait.
The normal formality of support slot was
filled by the three-piece sensation from Manchester Fury UK, who just blew
me and quite a few others away tonight with the guitar fuelled hard rock.
The band led by the flighty fingers of
Chris Appleton whose deft guitar playing was just one of the highlights of
the bands performance, and with fellow band mates Adz Galloway on drums
and Marc Dawson on bass, the band set out their task to impress from the
off as they opened their account with ‘Krueger’ and instantly I was
impressed with Appleton’s deft guitar playing.
Things went from strength the strength as
they continued their set with ‘Natural Disaster’, which saw bassist Dawson
take a wander around the venue to get up close and personal with the
audience. Then it was straight into another excellent song
‘Mercenaries’, but one of songs of the set for me had to be the next one
the quite superb ‘Hear No Evil’, with Appleton and Dawson sharing vocal
duties on this monster.
The set continued with the heavier
‘Breakthrough’ and the title track of their first album ‘My Tomorrow’,
before rounding off with one of the best new metal tracks from a young and
up and coming band the showstopper ‘Death By Lightning’, which rounded off
a great set and one I'm sure won the band many new fans tonight and one
which will see me checking them out again hopefully in the not too distant
future.
Now to the main event Diamond Head, who I
must admit since their Canterbury release I haven’t heard that much of,
but after tonight’s show I’m going to rectify as they just rocked!
Even though like many of the bands of the
NWOBHM era the band are down to just one of two original members, they
refuse to lay down and die and carry on regardless as long as there is
fire in their bellies.
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The only remaining member of the original
line-up is founding member Brian Tatler who can still rip up a fret board
like there’s no tomorrow and with fellow band mates Karl Wilcox, who has
actually been with the band since 1985 and Eddie Moohan not long behind
him, with the newest members being former Notorious frontman Nick Tart
joining the band in 2004, replacing original front man Sean Harris and the
new boy in the pack is guitarist Andy Abberley, who completes the now
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new look Diamond Head, and what a
fantastic line-up they make. |
Now after the history lesson it's back to
the show. As the band come on to the diminutive Trillians stage they
are welcomed by an almighty cheer by the crowd as they opened up the set
with the thunderously catchy 'Mine All Mine', which was quickly followed
by a classic, the one that got it all started ‘Lighting To The Nations’,
with Tart showing what a great vocalist he really is as he just belted out
the classic as if he was there at the beginning. The band kept the
nostalgia trip going with another all time great the superb ‘The Prince’,
which still sounded great after all these years.
It was time for some more recent stuff as
the band went back to their 2005 album ‘All Will Be Revealed’ for ‘Give It
To Me’, by this time their were a few heads bobbing down at the front and
they continued to bob as the band continued with a song off the bands
forthcoming album ‘What’s In Your Head’ with the excellent ‘This Planet
And Me’, a song that brings the whole Diamond Head sound up to date with
some great guitar work by Tatler.
Then it was once again back to the
classic material with a superb rendition of ‘To The Devil His Due’, as
this song shows, as with many of the original material, the band really
were years ahead of their time musically.
It was back to the new album for the
thunderously heavy tones of ‘Skin On Skin’ then we were in for a real
treat as the band threw back the years with the trio ‘Sucking My Love’,
‘Helpless’ and ‘It's Electric’, before putting the icing on the cake as
Hart asked the crowd “ARE YOU EVIL NEWCASTLE?!?” and at once we all knew
what was coming next as a mass of headbangers surrounded the stage the
band went into ‘Am I Evil, which capped off a great set.
Wilcox remained on stage and asked the crowd if they wanted more and
more we got. As the |
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band returned to cap off the night with
‘Streets of Gold’, which just went down a storm, as did all the songs
tonight. I for one can't wait to hear the new album when it
comes out because the songs we heard tonight really impressed me. |
So the NWOBHM refuses to die and with Saxon
touring a few weeks ago and both the likes of Blitzkrieg and The Tygers of Pan Tang soon
to do shows in Newcastle, this year let's us hope the tide is turning once
more as once again we can salute British Metal at its finest. |
