Concert Reviews

The last thirty something years of going to and reviewing gigs, interviewing artists for radio, magazines and this blog were absolutely amazing. And the new decade starts off exciting already with the longest running Kiss tribute band 'Dressed to Kill' and 'Pure Queen ' coming to the Station in Cannock and legendary rock bands such as Whitesnake , Foreigner & Europe touring together. We also already got our tickets for WASP for 2020 - exciting times. And we are also on Facebook now.

Known as the premier Scorpions tribute band, the Scopyons were amazing from start to finish. It is quite a feat to faithfully recreate the magic of the mighty Scorpions but Scopyons did just that. With a back catalogue of 18 studio albums (and   many amazing live albums) there is no shortage of songs to choose from and while the setlist included all the major Scorpions hits including ‘Blackout’, ‘Tease me, please me’, ‘Holiday’ ‘Still loving you’, ‘Rock you like a hurricane’ and the ever touching unofficial hymn of Germany ‘Wind of change’, the Scopyons also played many lesser played tracks such as the instrumental ‘Coast to Coast’ off the acclaimed Lovedrive album. Noticeably absent was music from all Scorpions albums that featured ex member Uli Jon Roth as the scopyons didn’t want to play any of ‘his’ songs while Roth is on tour in the UK. Musically the Scopyons were truly amazing and humour played

Co-incidentally Poison’s debut album ‘Look what the cat dragged in’ was released on this day in 1986, fitting therefore for this high energy tribute act to kick off with a track from that very album. Poizon are all very skilled musicians and it was fun to watch them on stage keeping glam rock alive. Other songs in their set were gems such as ‘I won’t forget’, ‘Ride the wind’, ‘I want action’ and the ever popular as well as perfectly rendered ‘Every rose has its thorn’. A great act to watch and enjoy

Both Sulpher & Defy Theory were support act for Rammlied but I didn’t get a chance to see them as the friend I was with couldn’t deal with the humidity at the Station. I still enjoyed the evening very much. Defy Theory are from South Africa and tonight’s gig was their very first performance in England and they were charismatic, down to earth and the music was upbeat and groovy all throughout, Thoroughly enjoyable. Sulpher, who last played at the Station in March this year, were awesome, too. Full of energy and they cranked up their instruments and appeared to be twice as loud and ferocious than they were last time and it absolutely suited their material. I couldn’t stay for the whole set but that’s ok – there is always more to come at the Station

Two great bands in a top venue, that’s what great night outs are made of. The Station has recently and rightly so been voted top UK live music venue in the public gig forum poll and the number of acts and the variety of acts performing here is truly amazing. Buzzard, founded in 2012, have two albums under their belt and their third one titled: ‘Feed me to the wolves’ is scheduled for release in August this year. This hard-hitting, dynamic and fun to watch trio uses the slogan ‘ Motoerhead meets Nirvana’ and that hits the nail on the head. Not surprising then to find two Nirvana covers on the set list. Apart from their own material and the aforementioned Nirvana covers they also rendered a high energy cover of Billy Idol’s ‘White wedding’. A great band worth following and supporting. Minutes later a very familiar ‘We are Motoerhead and we play rock and roll’ introduced Motoerheadache and from the first note onward they blew me away as they really sounded like t

I remember Zakk Wylde telling me at the 2005 Kiss Expo in Nottingham : 'The funny thing is, where I live, I live in Freemantle in Perth where Bon Scott grew up. I was saying earlier, there are about three AC/DC tribute bands in the Perth area and they try their hardest not to do any Bon Scott material, especialle 'It's a long way to the top' as this is, unofficially, Australia's national anthem. You try that and you don't sound a lot like Bon Scott - you're bottled! No one else in the band, only the singer. I have seen it happening, it is not good you know'. And it took me til today to see an AC/DC tribute band – but this wasn’t just your ordinary tribute act, this was UK’s nr 1 AC/DC tribute act and they were absolutely incredible. Their frontman wouldn’t have been at risk of being bottled although he sounded exactly like Brian Johnson as opposed to Bon Scott but the Bon Scott era songs which included gems such as ‘Whole lotta

Dementia Aware Fest is a nationwide hard rock extravaganza for a good cause and the aware fest usually features a multitude of bands who play in different venues on different dates to raise awareness for the crippling disease called ‘dementia’, although the word itself is an umbrella term as dementia can be caused by numerous things including Alzheimer’s disease and strokes. The event at the Station, by far the most exciting rock club in the Cannock area, raised a total of £1020 for dementia charities and hosted a total of seven bands. I had time to stay for the first four and they were all enthusiastic and musically really great. ‘Saints of Arcadia’ performed for roughly 45 minutes and they were rocking yet somewhat gentle as opposed to hard and heavy. Singer Nick Jennison effortlessly ‘switched’ between falsetto and probably barbiton and the band had a great chemistry on stage and were very well received. Manchester based ‘MouthIn The South’ were