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On a night not
fit for man nor beast we set out down the now familiar road to Bradford’s
bright city lights and our second visit to the Gasworks rock bar.
The journey wasn’t without its pit falls as the rain came pelting down.
The A1 was closed due to flooding and the thought of building an Ark at
this particular time had come to mind and as time drew on it was looking
unlikely that we would make the journey down. At one point we even
contemplated turning round and returning home, but being the optimists we
are we arrived at the venue some ninety minute later than planned and
expected to walk into the venue with Eden half way through their set.
However, as it was we weren't the only ones having trouble getting to the
venue as the sound tech had suffered similar problems, so
we didn’t miss either of the two bands sets, much to our relief.
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Opening up tonight were the newly formed
Tomorrow The World, a band formed by two of the recently split Tara’s
Secret guys Craig Chapman on guitars and
Brian Lincoln on drums.
Together with Debbie Bennett on vocals, Ian Harvey on guitar and Dave
Deaville on bass and keyboards they are Tomorrow The World.
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The band came on
stage with little fanfare as the regular Friday night crowd at The
Gasworks were far from being AOR orientated as the various piercings
and Manson wanabee’s showed. |
But the band
persevered with their gentle more refined approach to AOR as they opened
up their set with ‘Long Time Coming’, a song that on another night in
front of a more like minded audience would have gone down well.
The band did not let
the lack of enthusiasm put them off as they continued with the more
mellower side of things with ‘Lonely Too’ and ‘You'll Be The Death Of Me’, before Craig
Chapman took over vocal duties for the only Tara’s Secret song of the set
‘Am I A Fool’.
Then Bennett
returned to the mike for the final two songs, which sadly still didn’t get
any reaction from the punters at the bar, but I put this down to the
immensely sticky floor of The Gasworks which can take some getting used
to.
As a band I think
Tomorrow The World are still finding their feet and with the right AOR
crowd the band could really come out of their shells. These are just
early days for the band so we shall have to see what the future has in
store for them.
Now for the main
reason for the arduous trip down tonight Eden who are led by two towering
names in British rock firstly the mighty Vince ‘Dodgy’ O’Regan on guitars
and former Kick front man the powerhouse vocalist Nick Workman, they are
joined by Al Mill on bass, Paul Rodgers on drums and completing the
line-up James Screation on guitars and keyboards.
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Now if you're
expecting something along the lines of the Pulse or Alibi material that
Vince has been involved with before, then your in for a hell of surprise
as Eden are about to knock down the walls of paradise with their riff
enthuse hard rock. They got the ball rolling with ‘Heads Up’ taken
from the bands debut album ‘Open Minds’ and from the off they set out
their stall to rock the very rafters of The Gasworks as Vince just spewed
out some fantastic guitar work and with Workman as the perfect partner
with his powerful yet melodic vocals, I knew we were in for a hell of a
set.
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The band went
straight into the second song of the set ‘Coming Back For More’ without
giving us a chance to catch our breath. This was another full on
hard rock assault with O'Regan just superb and at his most comfortable
that I have ever seen him, this is definitely his forte.
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It was time to hear
something off the band forthcoming release ‘Karma Coming’, this was the
ballsy rocker ‘For Crying Out Loud’ with Workman showing what a terrific
vocalist he really is and with O'Regan at his most riff-tastic this pair
are a match made in rock heaven.
Things just went
from strength to strength with the title track off the new album ‘Karma
Coming’, a more bluesy affair this time but still retaining that hard edge
this is the band that O'Regan’s guitar style has been crying out for.
They did manage to bring it down a touch with ‘The Last Goodbye’ while
retaining that edge to remind us of the real venom that the band can
produce.
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Then after a quick
tune up O'Regan is ready to rock once more and really goes to town on
‘Higher’, then we come to one of the many highlights of the set
with the fantastic anthemic tones of ‘Fools Parade’. This is just a
magnificent song that encapsulates the vocals of Workman to great effect
and takes me back to his Kick days, this is just a short rest bite as its
back to the meatier material with ‘I’m Nothing’ and ‘Love/Hate’ which
Workman informs us was in fact the first song they wrote as a band.
As the set was coming to a close it was time for another from the
forthcoming album 'Karma Coming', this time a really ballsy rocker
entitled ‘Can't Slow Down’, before ending a great set with ‘Neon
Light’ |
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with its definite
Eastern feel. This was a great night and well worth the trip
down and I would say that Eden could be the saviours that British Hard
Rock scene has been crying out for and would definitely travel to see
them again, as should any fans of good honest no nonsense Rock. |
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