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With the closure
of Bradford’s Rio earlier this month, not only saw the end of an era but
we hope the beginning of a new dawn, as the somewhat smaller, no we won't
say smaller we’ll say intimate, surroundings of The Gasworks gives the
gigging public of Bradford somewhere to go on a weekend to see a band.
This would be my
baptism to the venue and from first impressions you get that this is a
proper rock bar with TV screens all around you, that not only show rock
videos at their very best, but also project the bands on stage, so all who
enter can check out the live bands no matter where they're positioned.
As we arrived at
the venue and stared at the big screen immediately in front of you as you
first enter the building, we saw that Nottingham’s Sweet Obsession were
already into their set and were almost finished! So sorry to those
guys. But what I heard was good honest rock n roll, which seemed
lost on the few that had arrived early and sadly seemed more interested in
catching up with friends than checking out the band.
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The main reason
for coming down was to get a sniff of 80’s glam nostalgia from a couple of
the genres finest vocalists aka Stevie Rachelle and Steve Summers.
The two both contributing to Shameless albums throughout the years, as
well as Tuff and Pretty Boy Floyd respectfully.
First up was
Rachelle who together with the Shameless band of Alexx ‘Skunk’ Michael on
bass, Todd 'T' Burr on
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B.C. on guitar, Andy Brings on
guitar, who together would also act as backing band for Steve Summers
half of the set. |
Back to Rachelle
and the boys who got things going with a set that mixed both Tuff material
with Shameless stuff. First off it was ‘Non Stop City’ which really
set the ball rolling with Rachelle’s vocals sounding really good.
Then it was time for ‘I Love The Way You Make Me Sick’, which carried on
the Shameless material. With the venue not exactly swelling with
numbers, the few that were there managed to pull themselves away from the
bar and join the rest of us down the front as the band went into one of my
favourite Tuff songs ‘Good Guys Wear Black’, which still rocked after all
these years.
For a small venue the sound quality was excellent if somewhat
a bit loud (but maybe that was just my age showing) and after the band
intros it was back to business with ‘In Dogs We Trust’, before slowing
things down a touch with ‘Your The One’.
In keeping with the more mellower material the set continued with
another from Tuff’s ‘What Comes Around Goes Around’ album this time ‘I
Hate Kissing You Goodbye’, then rocking things up a bit with ‘So Many
Seasons’, before finishing this first part of the set with another
favourite off 'What Comes Around Goes Around', the feel good rocker
‘All New Generation’, which saw Andy leave the stage and go walkabout
around the audience, making excellent |
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opportunities for some of the fans. |
After a short
break it was time for Steve Summers to take up the mike and mix it up with
both Pretty Boy Floyd stuff and Shameless material. Opening up his account
with ‘Rock n' Roll Outlaws’, before the first of the new Shameless songs the
title track of the new album ‘Famous 4 Madness’.
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It was back to
the Pretty Boy Floyd debut album for ‘48 hrs’ which got the audience going
as they got to sing along too, which really seemed to get the band going as they
after that they looked like they were having fun on stage despite the poor turn out.
Summer’s
said he preferred tonight's crowd to the last time he was in town when the played Rio’s as
he preferred the more intimate atmosphere of this type of venue.
Then it was time
to really rock it up as the went into ‘Your Mama Don’t Know’ and the
second of the new Shameless songs ‘Wild Junkie’. Next it was time to
slow things down a little with another Pretty Boy Floyd classic the moving
‘I Wanna Be With You’. |
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Gently followed by the third of the
new Shameless songs was next ‘She’s Watching
You’, which saw BC, and Andy just rip it up on the guitars. |
This portion of
the set was concluded with a kick ass party rock song that the audience
could chose. We had been
given the choice of either 'Toast of the Town' or 'Livewire' and the winner
was ‘Livewire’, which I must say wasn’t my choice I would have preferred
‘Toast of the Town’ but sure was kick ass all the same.
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There wasn’t
exactly a break as Michael’s, B.C. and the rest of the band stayed on stage
and gave us their rendition of the Ramones classic ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’, they
were then joined by Rachelle for the next cover the rocking version of Poison’s
‘Talk Dirty Too Me’. This was a night to party and party the bands
all did and totally rocked the joint.
Summer’s
rejoined the band for the remainder of the set as it continued with ‘Queen
For A Day’, ‘Set The Night On Fire’ and the final new one ‘Crash Down’.
The night was ended with Rachelle and the boys from Sweet Seduction
joining everyone on stage for Kiss’s ‘Shout It |
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Loud’, which ended a great night, it just a pity there weren’t a few
more bodies. |
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