Event: Z Records Festival 2001
Venue:
The Ritz, Manchester,
England
Date: Sunday 6th May 2001
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BURNING RAIN
A little before 6 pm
we had our 5th band of the day hit the stage.
This was the famous Burning Rain that I had heard about earlier in the day
from some of the other punters.
Lead singer Keith St John looked scaringly like a white Jimmy Hendrix
doppelganger in his leopard print shirt and waistcoat. He even took on the
mad persona of this mighty rock legend.
The bands material is deeply influenced by the likes of Deep Purple and
Led Zeppelin and it showed in a lot of their songs.
Coming over to perform from the heady heights of LA this band looked cocky
and full of confidence.
Whether they felt it inside or not we shall never know but they carried it
off very well.
A large proportion of the crowd had come along today to see the wondrous
Doug Aldrich play with the band and play he did. Were we impressed? Yup!
Nothing to complain about his performance at all.
During the softer tunes they sounded not a million miles away from David
Coverdale in his solo material. Not such a bad thing to be compared to
someone like that and I know I wasn't the only one who was under that
impression.
The camera man that was filming the set seemed quite intent on getting a
lot of close ups of the band and at times seemed to be getting in their
way.
In fact the keyboard player who to be fair to him has only just joined the
band, looked at times to be positively terrified as it swept about inches
from his face. Poor mite was still trying desperately to read the music
sheet in front of him and you could see the fear in his face incase they
were knocked away.
All this said he did still manage to pull off the songs without any duff
notes, well none that I noticed.
A very musically vibrant set and one that was very charged from the very
first song right to the last one.
They came to make an impression and an impression they sure did make on us
all.
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Setlist:
Smooth Locomotion
Love Emotion
Metal Superman
Cherie don't break my Heart
Tokyo Rising
Cherry Grove
Love de Jour
Can't turn your back on Love
Fireball
Judgement Day
Fool no More |
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VON GROOVE
Deputy headliners, is that what we could call them? Well second off last
then! We saw Canadian AOR gods Von Groove.
This was the very first time this band had played live in Europe and here
they were now standing before our very eyes. Not only that but they were
complete with new bass guitarist Tom Lewis.
Anyone who thought he looked familiar would probably remember him better
for his time with the Honeymoon Suite.
Lead singer Michael Shotton knew that this was their big chance to impress
and made sure that he did everything in his power to make it happen. Were
we impressed?
Well you got to hand it to them they sang some good songs and played some
good tunes.
Ask anyone who likes AOR to name their top 5 favourite bands and most
likely Von Groove would appear near the top. Quite an accomplishment when
they haven't played over here before.
A big surprise to many would be to find out that Michael does in fact hail
from none other than our own fair Newcastle upon Tyne. Yes, the man's a
Geordie! And proud of it by the sounds of it as he kept referring to it
throughout the set.
One member of the audience got a bit of a shock when he tried to heckle
them from the middle of the crowd, Michael shot off the front of the stage
and was after him like a whippet after a rabbit. Ha! Bet he won't do that
again in a hurry!
It was all in good fun but it made sure that anyone else that might have
been getting any funny ideas kept them to themselves for the remainder of
the set.
The second style award of the day has to go to guitarist Mladen who looked
super cool in his top hat, white shirt and black pants and jacket. Even
when things started to get warm he just took off his jacket and kept on
playing with his hat on.
Wearing an eye-catching crucifix hung low around his neck he wowed the
crowd with his impressive playing.
Not since the days of the great Tony Clarkin have we seen a guitarist look
such a cool dude while wearing a hat on stage.
Another great feat of their energetic lead singer was that he climbed one
of the speaker towers to sing from the top, not original by any means but
he was the first of the day to attempt such a feat.
Fans of the band will be pleased to know that they intend coming back over
from their native Canada to play our shores hopefully later in the year.
Keep your eyes peeled and your fingers crossed is all we can say.
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Setlist included:
Chameleon
Should've been Me
Once is not Enough
House of Dreams
Lily
Kashmir (as an encore) |
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ENUFF Z NUFF
Top of the bill we had a band that needed no introductions at all when
they took to the stage. The mighty Enuff Z Nuff had rode into town and
were ready for action.
The band may have been 15 minutes late going on stage but we soon forgave
them. This may have been the first gig the band had played in over a month
but they were as sharp and together as they ever were.
Front man Chip looked calm and collected in his tie-dyed purple trousers
and black leather cap and biker jacket proclaiming him to be a member of
the Chicago police.
Some people would look like a reject from the Village People in such an emsemble but not our Chip, he looked more a like a man not to be messed
with.
Donnie stood to his right wearing a most magnificent patchwork coat that
set off his red hair blue eyes a treat. That jacket should have been given
a style award all of its own, it was lush.
One can only presume that it was for this very fact only that some idiot
threw a bottle of water at Donnie when they started off their opening
song, either that or some jealous person who shouldn't have been at a gig
like this if that's the way they were going to treat our special guests.
A lesser man would have thrown down his gear and stormed off the stage, as
I have seen done in the past with other bands. But on no, not our Donnie,
he may have been furious inside but he didn't let it show.
Like the true pro his is he carried on and focused more on the room full
of heaving fans who were there to see them and not this sad individual who
probably got a good kicking later on for what he did.
To Chip's left we had the wonderful Monaco wearing a white vest top and
black pants, then last but not least we had the ever cheerful Ricky
looking as happy as ever wearing a bit smile and looking rather topless
from between the drum kit! Phroaw!
A lot of people have tried to write off Monaco as just another guitarist,
but today he certainly showed us all just how much of a talented player he
really is. He may look a bit on the miserable side at times but I think
that was more to do with his deep thinking and concentration whilst
playing on stage. He does smile occasionally; I have witnessed this once
or twice when he hasn't been playing.
Ricky played an impromptu drum solo during the earlier half of the gig
while the stage tech's assisted Chip with a problem with his equipment.
The set was littered with all our favourites including For Now, Baby Loves
You and Kiss The Clown.
The crowd loved every minute of it, the band looked like they were
enjoying it as well which is always good to see.
Like Von Groove's front man Michael, Donnie also took to the speaker
towers to do a song, whether he would have done this anyway if Michael
hadn't we will never know, I suspect he would have as he was high on the
atmosphere of the fans which was totally intoxicating.
It was like walking into and seeing a long lost friend having these guys
play for us once more. Why have they left it so long? Was a question a lot
of us were asking, we loved them before and here we are still loving them.
Lets hope they don't leave it as long before they return to these shores.
One rather strange occurrence was the appearance of two scantily dressed
young women during one of their songs. Obviously wannabe fans and never
once introduced to us by the band.
I wonder if the band actually knew who they were as they looked as
startled as we did when they appeared.
I know a lot of their fans weren't too happy with their actions as it kind
of soiled the appearance of what was a great show.
The girls gyrated around for a song and then left as quickly and they
appeared, leaving us back with the people we had really come to see which
was after all the band.
The band closed the set with the anthem like New Thing. During the latter
part of the song Chip fell back over some stage equipment and actually
hurt himself quite badly.
Only those at the front were fully aware of what had happened and the set
was quickly brought to an end. A lot of people there won't have realised
that although he kept on playing he was in immense pain and was lucky to
be able to continue the set, never mind the UK tour.
Like a true pro he carried on till the song had finished.
To all the people who complained that there was no encore I think we
should count ourselves lucky that this freak incident didn't happen
earlier in the set. Also the set was supposed to finish slap bang at 10.30
pm and they were still playing at 10.40 pm. |
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Setlist:
Revolution
Heaven or Hell
For Now
Fly Away
Takin' a Ride
Fly high Michelle
Kiss the Clown
Time to let you Go
Invisible
Baby loves You
Rock n' World
New Thing |
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An overall impressive day with a
lot of very good bands, topped with some excellent bands as well.
There was something here for everyone and if this doesn't put the Z
Festivals onto the great festivals of the year list then I would like to
ask for a re-count.
Anyone wanting to see more of the Z Records bands in action should check
out the August line-up. |
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