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If your were to
ask the more mature rock fans out there to name their top five vocalists
of all time the name of Graham Bonnet would undoubtedly be one of those
mentioned by most, and tonight Graham returns with The Taz Taylor Band to
bring us a night of nostalgia and also a chance to hear some of the new
material he has done with Taz Taylor on the new album ‘Welcome To
America’.
But first the
formality of the support, well now here we go, with news that Planet of
Women weren’t able to make tonight’s show, the call went out to local band
Ainsley and the Porn Stars just six hours before show time to fill the
vacant support slot.
Ainsley and the
Porn Stars are normally a five piece band but due to the short notice the
band members were somewhat trimmed down to just the trio of Ainsley Jones
on guitar and vocals, Krista Joel on bass and Shaun Butterworth on drums,
but this didn’t deter the band who came on stage full of vigour and eager
to please. Ainsley was dressed in a rather shocking Silver Sparkled
jacket, or shirt it was hard to tell, a black leather trilby with Krista
donned in hot pants and a tube top with feather boa.
The band did their
best but without the keyboards and extra guitar that the band usually
bring, I can hardly give a fair impression of the band. Their short
five song set of 'Avenger', 'Bitch of a Ginger', 'On My Radar', |
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'You’re the Monkey' and 'Goodside' failed to impress, but on another night with a
full band who knows. |
Now on to the
main event, with events in Sheffield over this past week the turnout for
tonight’s show showed that there may no longer be the foundries here, but
the folks round here are made of steel and won't let anything get them
down, so I hail the fortitude of all the locals for attending tonight.
Now as vocalist
go you can't get any more higher a calibre than that of Graham Bonnet with
his days in Rainbow, MSG, Alcatraz and now with the new venture joining
The Taz Taylor Band. Bonnet once again treads the boards to give us
one hell of show and with the guy coming up to sixty this year, this is
even a greater achievement as he shows the years haven’t thwarted his
desire for rock n' roll.
As Taz Taylor,
Dirk Krause, Val Trainor and Bob Miller hit the stage it's not until the
great man himself makes his self known that the crowd really react.
Bonnet no longer wears those trade mark Hawaiian shirts, tonight he was
dressed in a suit and tie and dark sunglasses, looking not too dissimilar
to a mature Max Headroom.
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Things get
underway with a couple of classics from Rainbow’s 'Down To Earth' album,
firstly ‘Eyes of the World’ and then ‘Loves No Friend’. Both pulled
off quite superbly by the band with Taz Taylor just showing what a fine
guitar player he really is as he matches Blackmore note for note with such
a relaxed approach, it's quite hypnotic watching his ease of playing.
Next up it was
the first offering from the new Taz Taylor Band album 'Welcome To
America', ‘Fighters Fist’. It's clear that Bonnet hasn’t yet
mastered the lyrics of some of the material as he has them on the floor in
front of him, but this doesn’t matter to anyone here tonight, we just came
to see the great man perform. The set continues with the title track
of the
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album ‘Welcome to America’, again with Bonnet referring to the floor
for guidance then eventually he lifts lyrics off the floor as he says
to the crowd ... "we’ll pass them among you later and we'll
have a right good sing along” ... such was his good tempered banter,
for most it shows what a great showman Bonnet really is. |
The only song
from his MSG years was next ‘Desert Song’ with Taz showing his immaculate
guitar playing once more as he captured the song superbly.
Bonnet left the
stage for a few moments as Taz and the rest of the band went back to their
'Caffeine Racer' album for a couple of sterling instrumentals ‘Chilling
Time’ and ‘Pot Of Gold’, which once again highlighted the talent of
Taylor as he just tamed the fret board of his Gibson Destroyer, he is
undoubtedly one of the finest guitar talents around today.
It was time for
Bonnet to return to the stage in a more casual look with a short sleeved
t-shirt as the band went into the only song from his Alcatraz days ‘Suffer
Me’, which as all the songs did tonight, sounded just as fresh as they did
all those years ago.
The surprise
package of the show had to be when Trainor beat out the first few seconds
of Rainbow’s ‘Stargazer’, a song not from Bonnet's days with the band, but
he pulled it off with perfection and gave Ronnie James Dio a run for his
money with the crowd also singing every line. This was indeed a very
special moment for many here tonight.
After that
stirring rendition it was back to the more recent Taz Taylor material with
‘Happy Hour’ and then Bonnet left the stage once again as the rest of the
band gave us gave us a medley from 'Caffeine Racer' before Bonnet returned
to sing was back ‘Nightgames’, which went down a storm.
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Another surprise
package came in the form of the Carole King cover ‘Will You Still Love Me
Tomorrow’, which surprisingly rocked with the Boardwalk choir lending a
hand on the higher notes. Then it was back to the 'Welcome To
America' album for one of my favourites off the album, a track which took
most the crowd back to those glory days when the only way to hear your
favourite rock track was on ‘Radio Luxemburg’.
With the set
almost at a close it was time for the big guns as they finished in style
with ‘All Night Long’ and ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, both rocking
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they did back in 1979 (yes it was that long ago!). The band left
the stage for a just a few moments before returning to put the icing
the cake for many with ‘Lost In Hollywood’, which rounded off a great
night of rock both old and new. |
It was also great to see the band come straight out after the show to
mingle with the fans and sign stuff and have photo's taken. Some of
those vinyl's looked like they should be under armed guard once the man
himself Mr Bonnet had signed them, such was the fans devotion to their
hero. The whole band were a joy to watch perform and a joy to meet
in person after the gig, upbeat and jovial and well worth beating back the
storms and the floods to see them perform here tonight. |
