Concert Reviews

20.04.2016 The Assembly Room, Leamington Spa £24.75 If ever there was a band that can be described as visionary it must be Hawkwind. Formed in 1969 the band survived every fashion trend there was be it the New Romantics, Synth Pop or Punk and that’s perhaps because Hawkwind embrace and always have embraced electronic elements in their music and although they are down to earth good old fashioned rockers their psychedelic anthems seem timeless. Difficult to pigeon hole (thank the numerous gods for that) their music has often been labelled as: space rock and I think that is accurate. Like many bands that have been rocking the universe for as long, or half as long, as Hawkwind, the band has experienced many lineup changes and founding member Dave Brock has been there from the start through all the successes and the not so successful times. Hawkwind had over 20 albums charting in the British charts and their early 70s single ‘Silver Machine’ remains their biggest hit...

12.04.2016 Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham £67.50 Frankfurt/Germany born Hans Zimmer is among the few composers of Hollywood whose name carries the same weight as that of the actors or the director. He has had a hand in over 150 movies and has won over 100 awards including three classical BRIT awards, four Grammies, an Oscar™ for the Disney smash hit ‘The Lion King’ and two golden globes awards. He is certainly no stranger to success. The night in Birmingham was magical and we were told that Hans had never played outside of London and that we were the first to experience his music in a concert setting and, boy, were we in for a treat. Zimmer performed with a 40+ piece orchestra and a 20+ piece choir and brought the house down. He reminisced that the last time he performed in Birmingham was thirty years ago when he arrived in a Ford Transit and performed in a pub. The ‘rags to riches’ story doesn’t quite apply to Zimmer as even as a young man he could afford a ste...