Festival: Z Festival 2002

Artist:  Sons Of Angels

Venue: The Ritz, Manchester

Date: 5 May 2002  

Yes it was that time again, doesn't time fly when you're having fun? It hardly seems like yesterday that we were standing in this very room cheering on the likes of Contagious and Seven Wishes. Well 12 months have passed since the last one and today we were looking forward to seeing what this years line-up had to offer.

Sons of Angels

First up on the stage today we had Sons of Angels. Now we were well and truly impressed with their Z debut 'Slumber with the Lion' and were really looking forward to seeing them live here today.

Did they live up to our expectations then? Well yes they did for a large part. I accept they are the sort of band you either love or you loathe, but thankfully it's the love side of that coin that we feel about them.

As soon as they took their positions on the stage it became obvious very quickly that the photo inside the CD cover was a very old picture as they all looked VERY different.

Gone were the long locks and the mighty Steffan had turned into a bank manager overnight! He may have looked like Mr. Stuffy but that didn't stop him from totally blowing us away with his guitar playing. Whoah what that man can do with a guitar was quite a surprise to more than a few people I bet.  Those solo's were fantastic man.

The band looked a little uncertain during their first song but you've got to remember that this was lunchtime and they were the first band up to play. However by the time they went into their second song they were all engine running and ready to party. 'Burning Childhood' was the song and Rock n' Roll was the order of the day.

Dressed in his 1990 tour t-shirt lead singer Solli beamed out a smile like a man possessed, clearly the band were ecstatic as being invited to perform at such a prestigious festival.

Poor chap appeared to have come to some mishap and had the middle fingers of his right hand well and truly strapped up. Good job he's the singer and not the guitar player!

The set was a good mixture of songs old and new, including a fair selection from their first album. One which I'm sure after today's performance will be once more sought out and played by the punters.

Highlights of the set have to include the lovely ballad 'Stranded' which was covered by just Solli and the keyboard player for a large part. If you like the big Bon Jovi ballads then you'd have loved to have heard this gem.

'Love you too Much' which is one little beauty that really got my blood pumping. What a great feel good song that is. Who could fail to be enslaved by it's rousing chorus. I know I wasn't the only one bopping about to this song, we were a sea of jiggling bodies up at the front.

A jolly good start to the day. Sons of Angels are tremendous fun to watch and their songs have that big 80's hair band feel to them without the sickly sweet tackiness that enveloped most bands of that era.

They're fun, they're funky, and Solli knows how to strut his stuff with the best of them. Yeehaw - I'd be your cowgirl any day!

Setlist: No Sorrow, Burning Childhood, Hunger for Love, Lonely Rose, Fire, Slumber with the Lion, Stranded, Love you too Much, Stranded, Cowgirl, Fight, Rock n' Roll Star

 

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