Artist: MSG, Fury UK & Power Quest

Venue:  02 Academy, Sheffield

Date: 17 December 2009  

With the cold chills of winter coming thick and fast and Christmas just days away it was time to get one more show in before grandfather time clocks up another year, so down to Sheffield we went to see not just one of my all time favourite bands in MSG (with Barden on the mike) but also two bands that we at the Mayfair Mall hold in high esteem, Fury UK and Power Quest.

Both supports have had very different years, one in turmoil and one striding ahead, but tonight all was not straight forward for these two bands even before the show started.

As we arrived at the venue we were firstly stunned at the lack of a queue when we turned the corner, then we were informed tonight’s show would be in the smaller of the two rooms at the Academy.  Then we were informed that the doors wouldn’t be opening as scheduled at seven o’clock, seeing as we arrived around six fifty five these two factors were a tad alarming.

We turned the corner and saw the entrance to the Academy 2 and still no crowd just around twenty eager fans, maybe the snow had had an effect on the numbers getting in early, but sadly this wasn’t the fact.  As we stood in the queue we heard someone say the bands were still sound checking, again I thought they must have been a casualty to the weather and arrived late, but this was not the case as we later found out.

As I said before Power Quest have had a turbulent 2009 with firstly the departure of vocalist Alessio Garavello, then shortly afterwards guitarist Andrea Martongeli and drummer Francesco Tresca both leaving the band.  This on top of the fact it was only last year that bassist Steve Scott left the band, all leaving Steve Williams as the sole surviving (and founding) member to contemplate whether to continue the band under the Power Quest moniker. Steve not being one to deflect a challenge soon set about rebuilding the band with new members with Pete Morten on vocals, adding a twin guitar assault in the form of Ben Randall and Andy Midgley, and a

powerhouse rhythm section of Rich Smith on drums and Paul Finnie on bass.

As Power Quest hit the stage and it was immediately noticeable that the band were having major sound difficulties (not surprising as we later found out that both support bands didn’t get a sound check as Michael Schenker didn’t turn up at the venue until five minutes before scheduled 7.00 door opening!).  However this did not deter the band from giving their all, although it has to be said, this wasn’t the best way to introduce the new incarnation of the band.  With such poor sound the new line-up didn’t come across as they should.

They soldiered on through their set opening up with ‘Cemetery Gates’ but Pete’s vocals weren’t coming across as strong as they should, but still they soldiered on.

The set continue with some Power Quest classics like ‘Hold On To Love’, which was given a different dynamic with Pete being joined on stage by Heidi Manstom for a duet.  Again the sound was a bit muffled out front, I don’t know what it sounded like on stage but they both seemed to be enjoying it. With the set cut down to five songs the best of the rest would have to be ‘Edge of Time’ and the set closer ‘Neverworld’, which by this time the sound had been somewhat sorted but not as crisp as it should.  This was a major shame because we know the band are far better than this performance would show, which reflects on other peoples opinion of the band if this was their first taste of them.

Checking up on reports of the shows following this one, the band were allowed sound checks and the sound was improved and especially on the shows the band headlined in-between the MSG shows I understood went down a storm with the army of fans the band have here in the UK.  I for one will not be taking this show as the bench mark for what the band can do and will be checking them out for definite in the new year. 

Now with the changes in set times and the late opening of the venue meant that a scheduled interview with Power Quest resulted in us having to miss Fury UK's set, but from the talk at the bar afterwards they were on solid form as usual.

Now on to MSG. I had misgivings about how the show would go after the late start and was wondering if the set would be cut short, but my fears were unduly felt as they put on a full show and no matter what had gone before the band were excellent with Schenker simply sublime.

The set opened up with ‘Ride On My Way’ and from here on in the crowd had forgot the late arrival and the chilly winter conditions outside as Schenker was burning up the fret board enough to keep us all warm.

With Barden on the mike this was enough for me, but Schenker had put together and all star line-up for this leg of the tour with Chris Slade pounding out the beat on drums, the legend that is Chris Glen on bass, and filling in the gaps on rhythm guitar and keyboards the multi talented Wayne Findley.  As the set concentrated on the first two MSG albums (the best in my opinion) with such classic cuts like ‘Cry For The Nation’, ‘Armed And Ready’ and 'Ready To Rock’ going down a storm with the 95%, shall we say mature male crowd, whom some were intent on shuffling around to get a better view of Schenker, but the small stage made this endeavour fruitless.

The set climaxed in my opinion with ‘On And On’ and ‘Attack Of The Mad Axeman’, which were just great to hear live once more and rounded off the main part of the set.

The band left the stage for a few moments a before returning for the encore of ‘Dancing With The Gypsy’ and the show stopper ‘Rock Bottom’, which the majority of the crowd had stopped to hear despite the show running over the 11 o’clock curfew.

We had planned to see MSG at the Newcastle show but we came down with cold so we had to miss the show, but we sent another of our reviewer to the show, which was moved from the smaller of the two rooms at the O2 Academy to the larger hall.  By all reports MSG went down a storm, as did Fury UK the only support for that show.

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