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Once
again were back at Bradford Rio for the 3rd time in a week.
This
time to see the mighty Statetrooper. But alas the crowd is somewhat thin
on the ground, which leads me to question what has happened to the rock fan
in Yorkshire? If they can't be bothered to attend a local venue then the
number of bands willing to play said venue will diminish. But enough of my
warbling and to the show.
Opening
up for Statetrooper on this mini tour are the reborn Deadline. With the
introduction of new front man Dale Radcliffe, the whole Deadline sound has
been reshaped and rebooted beyond recognition. The band have come
out stronger than ever and this has made them a force to be
reckoned with. Bringing forth tonight a
set that even includes a mixture of older Deadline songs with a couple of new songs mixed in
for good measure, the band set out to impress and do just that.
The likes
of 'Out of Reach' sounded so fresh. New song 'Exit Wound' being a
prime example of the new direction the band are going in now. The
songs have a harder edge
them, while still retaining that melodic feel to them. The other new track
'Dream of Me' just has to be heard to be believed. It shows a maturity in
the quality of song writing that the band have failed to provide in the
past. The band finished off their set perfectly with Skin's 'Look But Don’t Touch',
which is something that the old Deadline
couldn’t have gotten away with in a million years.
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New front man
Dale has
the ability to take this band that stage further. His stage presence and
interactivity with the audience never ceased to amaze me. Anyone
witnessing the bands performance tonight would have thought they were
playing for a crowd of 10,000 the way Mr Radcliffe worked the crowd.
Now that's what I call a lead singer! |
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In fact the energy he exudes
from every pore seems to be rapidly being absorbed by the rest of the band
as they now seem physically more chilled out and happy in what they are
doing. I kid you not, they even smile and move about the stage now
which is something I can't remember them ever doing before. This
once two
dimensional band have been given the kiss of life and for the first time
in a great many years they seem to have remembered that being in band is
meant to be fun.
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My
personal feeling are that the band have been held back for too many years
with former vocalist Steve Lunn and a change of name to go with the new
sound and direction of the band seems the way to go. The work ethic of the
band over the years is second to none and they have supported some of the
biggest names in the melodic rock genre and haven’t gotten the breaks.
Hopefully this new lease of life will bring them just rewards.
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Now to
Statetrooper, a band that I first seen live at the ill fated 'Night of Rock'
at The Boardwalk in Sheffield earlier this year. The bands performance
at that event impressed
me greatly, enough to make me want to come on out tonight and check their
live set out again. I've been a fan of Gary Barden since his MSG
days so it's always a great honour to watch this master at work.
Being the
pros that Statetrooper are, they put on a show despite the audience
numbers being somewhat on the slim side. I guess the band have been
away for so long that it's going to take a bit of time for word to get out
that 'the boys' are back in town. In fact they're not only back, but
they're ready to rock you like you've not
been rocked in a long time.
Their set
didn't stray too far from the one they played at The Boardwalk, with the
majority of tracks coming from their latest release 'The Calling'.
An album that is well worth checking out if you haven't had a chance to do
so already. The only
line-up changes from that at Sheffield was the introduction of a new
drummer to the ranks, and the seemingly lack of a keyboard player,
although this later fact didn't affect the bands performance at all.
Opening
up with the title track off said new album, Barden was in great fettle and
guitarists Jeff Summers and Martin Mikkels are as sharp as ever.
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The next
song 'Casablanca' is a personal favourite of mine off the same album and is just as
good live. This was quickly followed by 'I'm Alive' which was described by Gary as a
... ''behind the bike shed
song''. By this time the band were really starting to enjoy the gig and
were having heaps of fun on stage. Which from a fans point of view
is always great to see, after all why should we be the only ones having a
ball?
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The bands
first album may have been released by in 1989, but the track 'Shape Of
Things To Come' still fits into the set amongst the bands newer songs, and still
sounds solid.
But the
highlight of the new album 'Amerasians' the hard hitting track about the
Vietnam war is the next track and sounds even better live if that was at
all possible. The next three songs 'Don't Say Goodbye', 'D.O.A' and
'How
Does It Feel' are once again off the new album, and once again Martin Mikkels shines on all three tracks, especially on D.O.A.
The only
other track off the bands first album played tonight is 'Veni Vichi Vinci',
which the band have to use a sample keyboard intro. To which Gary Barden
informs us
he doesn’t like using, but hey needs must. Again the quality of Summers song
writing means that the song doesn’t suffer from the lack of keyboards.
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The last track is the awesome 'Twilights Last Gleaming'. After which
the band dispense with the formalities of leaving the stage only to come
back on, and go into 'Armed And Ready', which we all could see coming.
Well let's be honest, it simply wouldn’t be the same if there wasn’t at
least on MSG track played here tonight! Once again Martin Mikkels makes the track his own with some breathtaking
guitar work. |
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All in all this was another fine performance by a band crammed full of
quality musicians and was well worth the 100-mile plus journey from the North
East to see.
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