Artists: Eden & Tomorrow The World

Venue: The Gasworks, Bradford

Date: 15 June 2007   

On a night not fit for man nor beast we set out down the now familiar road to Bradford’s bright city lights and our second visit to the Gasworks rock bar.  The journey wasn’t without its pit falls as the rain came pelting down.  The A1 was closed due to flooding and the thought of building an Ark at this particular time had come to mind and as time drew on it was looking unlikely that we would make the journey down.  At one point we even contemplated turning round and returning home, but being the optimists we are we arrived at the venue some ninety minute later than planned and expected to walk into the venue with Eden half way through their set.  However, as it was we weren't the only ones having trouble getting to the venue as the sound tech had suffered similar problems, so we didn’t miss either of the two bands sets, much to our relief.

Opening up tonight were the newly formed Tomorrow The World, a band formed by two of the recently split Tara’s Secret guys Craig Chapman on guitars and Brian Lincoln on drums.  Together with Debbie Bennett on vocals, Ian Harvey on guitar and Dave Deaville on bass and keyboards they are Tomorrow The World.

The band came on stage with little fanfare as the regular Friday night crowd at The Gasworks were far from being AOR orientated as the various piercings and Manson wanabee’s showed.

But the band persevered with their gentle more refined approach to AOR as they opened up their set with ‘Long Time Coming’, a song that on another night in front of a more like minded audience would have gone down well.

The band did not let the lack of enthusiasm put them off as they continued with the more mellower side of things with ‘Lonely Too’ and ‘You'll Be The Death Of Me’, before Craig Chapman took over vocal duties for the only Tara’s Secret song of the set ‘Am I A Fool’.

Then Bennett returned to the mike for the final two songs, which sadly still didn’t get any reaction from the punters at the bar, but I put this down to the immensely sticky floor of The Gasworks which can take some getting used to.

As a band I think Tomorrow The World are still finding their feet and with the right AOR crowd the band could really come out of their shells.  These are just early days for the band so we shall have to see what the future has in store for them.

Now for the main reason for the arduous trip down tonight Eden who are led by two towering names in British rock firstly the mighty Vince ‘Dodgy’ O’Regan on guitars and former Kick front man the powerhouse vocalist Nick Workman, they are joined by Al Mill on bass, Paul Rodgers on drums and completing the line-up James Screation on guitars and keyboards.

Now if you're expecting something along the lines of the Pulse or Alibi material that Vince has been involved with before, then your in for a hell of surprise as Eden are about to knock down the walls of paradise with their riff enthuse hard rock.  They got the ball rolling with ‘Heads Up’ taken from the bands debut album ‘Open Minds’ and from the off they set out their stall to rock the very rafters of The Gasworks as Vince just spewed out some fantastic guitar work and with Workman as the perfect partner with his powerful yet melodic vocals, I knew we were in for a hell of a set.

The band went straight into the second song of the set ‘Coming Back For More’ without giving us a chance to catch our breath.  This was another full on hard rock assault with O'Regan just superb and at his most comfortable that I have ever seen him, this is definitely his forte.

It was time to hear something off the band forthcoming release ‘Karma Coming’, this was the ballsy rocker ‘For Crying Out Loud’ with Workman showing what a terrific vocalist he really is and with O'Regan at his most riff-tastic this pair are a match made in rock heaven.

Things just went from strength to strength with the title track off the new album ‘Karma Coming’, a more bluesy affair this time but still retaining that hard edge this is the band that O'Regan’s guitar style has been crying out for.  They did manage to bring it down a touch with ‘The Last Goodbye’ while retaining that edge to remind us of the real venom that the band can produce.

 Then after a quick tune up O'Regan is ready to rock once more and really goes to town on ‘Higher’, then we come to one of the many highlights of the set with the fantastic anthemic tones of ‘Fools Parade’.  This is just a magnificent song that encapsulates the vocals of Workman to great effect and takes me back to his Kick days, this is just a short rest bite as its back to the meatier material with ‘I’m Nothing’ and ‘Love/Hate’ which Workman informs us was in fact the first song they wrote as a band.

As the set was coming to a close it was time for another from the forthcoming album 'Karma Coming', this time a really ballsy rocker entitled ‘Can't Slow Down’, before ending a great set with ‘Neon Light’ with its definite Eastern feel.  This was a great night and well worth the trip down and I would say that Eden could be the saviours that British Hard Rock scene has been crying out for and would definitely travel to see them again, as should any fans of good honest no nonsense Rock.
 

 

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