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This September
seems to be a nostalgia month, following the Blitzkrieg show a few weeks
ago we yet again find ourselves visiting the Newcastle Carling Academy for
one of my all time favourite hard rock bands, I say hard rock because the
Tygers Of Pan Tang are indeed a hard rock band even though they were
tagged with the NWOBHM title, as were most of the British bands of the
early 80's.
Like Blitzkrieg the band have been kept
going by one man, in Blitzkrieg's corner Brian Ross and in the Tygers camp
Robb Weir, together the pair believe in their bands and that's something
that lacks in today’s young bands, the belief in what you are doing.
The band today have taken the bull by the
horns and brought the Tygers sound bang up to date, while still staying
true to their roots. Alongside Weir are Dean Robertson on guitar,
Brian West on bass, Craig Ellis on drums and completing the line-up the
vocal talents of Jacopo Meille.
I’ve seen the Tygers in their many
variations throughout the years and I must say that after checking them
out late last year at Bradford Rio’s I was well impressed with the band,
especially the powerhouse vocals of Meille who has acted like Rock N' Roll
viagra and given the Tygers a hard rock hard on, nothing against Rich
Weeks and Tony Liddell.
First up tonight are Stockton’s A Fable
For The Curious, who delivered a set of pure Metal mixing elements of
Metallica and Megadeth with the hard edge of Slayer and modern metal of
Disturbed, including tracks of note like the dark metal of ‘Born Again’,
‘Fable For The Curious’ and the impressive cover of ‘Halo’, all top notch
metal tracks and set the crowd alight, especially the three guys down the
front who head-banged to every song, which got them so noticed, that they
were handed some t-shirts in thanks for their support, which I thought was
a nice touch and one you don’t see to often.
Now for the Tygers, as the intro faded
the big cats roared into action starting things off with ‘Hellbound’ from
the legendary Spellbound album, which sounded remarkably fresh and
vibrant, much I must say is due to Meille’s vocals. As the band
played the venue just seemed to fill up from nowhere, which reminded me of
Wayne's World when the ghost of Jim Morrison appeared and said ... "Book
It and They Will Come" ... which never seemed more apt than tonight as the
venue soon became a vibrant hot bed of bodies eager to partake in a little
Hard Rock Tygers style.
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The set continued with more from the
'Spellbound' album this time ‘Take It’ was given a new lease of life
before the band introduced us the first of two new tracks ‘Live 4 2day',
which I must say sounded superb as the Tyger once again roared as Weir and
Deano parried riffs against each other. This was in addition to
vying for most outrageous shirt of the night! When the two of them
get together on stage it was as if a kaleidoscope had exploded. But
back to the songs, if this is an example of the new Tygers then bring it
on as this on was superb. |
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The band kept the good times rollin' with
'Raised on Rock' from the bands 'The Cage' opus, again sounding as fresh
as ever. Then Robb does what Robb does best, as he got his personal
favourite Tygers song 'Suzie Smiled' underway it's hard to believe this
song is now twenty seven years old and it still sound great and valid in
these modern times.
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It was then time for song of the night
for me the second of the new songs ‘Bury The Hatchet’, which again sees
the band reinventing themselves without changing much. Such is the
chemistry within the band that they seem to feed of each other and inject
new life into the band. This is a band fully rejuvenated and ready
to play some real damn fine hard rockin' tunes.
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Now it was Deano’s turn to show off his
stuff as he got 'Don’t Stop By' underway with Weir not far behind, as the
two feed of each others energy and bounce off each other musically, which
is always great to see from a fans point of view. Next it was time
for Weir to do his best Bon Jovi impression (only kidding Robb!), as he
whipped out his voicebox for a stormin' rendition of 'Slave For Freedom'
before he and Deano set out to burn the fret boards as the two showed that
you can't keep the old dogs down. For all you young guitarists out
there, this is how it's done and done with style! |
Then it was time to once again journey
back to 'Spellbound' for ‘Silver and Gold’ before the outstanding ‘Rock &
Roll Man’ and ‘Don’t Touch Me There’. The band finished off their
set with ‘Gangland' and then left the stage too rapturous applause, only
to return soon after for the encore. The songs that everyone had
been waiting patiently for all night, firstly with ‘Euthanasia’, then
finishing off with what else but 'Love Potion No.9', which induced a crowd
sing-a-long and rounded off a superb and most memorable night of great
British Hard Rock. These nights may be few and far between but when
you have a corking set like tonight's performance they are etched in your
memories forever. |
