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UFO – The Plug, Sheffield, Friday 31st August 2007 Set Times
~ 8:30 – 10.30 I have been meaning to check out this venue for quite a few months (situated down the Moor around the corner from Wollies on Matilda Street) since I have heard how good the sound is in there, so what better reason to go than to see some True Legends Of Hard Rock, UFO who are still going strong after a good 3 decades and many a beer and bottle being emptied. Hey, hang on a minute I was in here a few years ago to see a band called ‘Four Star Mary’ but at that point in time it was known as ‘Club Zero’ I reckon.
Sadly I missed the support band, ‘Free For All’ – that everyone thought were a Free but turned out not to be. A few locals were that impressed but I guess I’ll find out some other time. I did see a fan of there’s with a CD of theirs so there they must have done something right. I was mightily impressed to see just how many people were in the Plug tonight who were more than happy to be blasted with some electrifying 70’s styled rock at its best – plenty of old geezers and gals that could have been long lost friends of Tommy Saxondale – now I wonder if he was once a roadie for UFO as well?
With the sounds of ‘Alex Harvey’s'The Healer ringing through the PA, the lads touch down on earth from a round silver flying disk that was seen earlier in the skies of Sheffield that day – nah only kidding brothers and sisters, they use a tour bus these days, and they amble onto the platform for some solid rockin’ sounds for the next 2 hours where we are treated to songs of new and old, kicking the gig off with ‘Mother Mary’ which is greeted with rapturous applause and closely followed by ‘Letting Go’.
It’s hard to believe after listening to vocalist Phil Mogg that he is 60 on his next birthday as he hits every note spot on with crystal clear clarity – talk about being better than most of the up and coming singers of nowadays so-called rock – they’ve got nothing on this boy let me tell ya.
Bandwise they are tight as tight with the supreme Vinnie Moore really holding everything together with his tremendous playing on both acoustic and electric guitars – stealing the show on many an occasion with his lighting powered fingers.
Andy Parker is up there keeping the solid backbeat while Paul Raymond warms up the vibe with his exquisite keyboard and guitar skills throughout the whole show – swapping from once instrument to the other mid-song at the appropriate given time in the number.
Pete Way is well, Pete Way – simply as that – pounding out the bass notes like he’s a lead guitarist and posing as often as he can in his red and black tight strides. It was funny at times to see him try and take over the vocals during the classic chorus of ‘Lights Out’. “You should never let a bass player near a microphone as they can’t sing” Phil Mogg says or words to that effect.
Pete even decides to have a lie down on the stage while Vinnie is doing a crackin’ solo – Way don’t fall asleep though as he plays along most of the time. Well it’s Rock ‘n’ Roll and who says you can’t have a bit of Jesterism going down on the stage – whether it was all part of the act for the night or what, I’ll guess we’ll never know.
Anyways, the night was damn good to put it bluntly and full of great songs – we were encouraged to clap along to many of the songs – as if anyone needed prompting for that.
Highlights of the gig included obviously the classics that were of course played at the end like ‘Doctor, Doctor’ and ‘Too Hot To Handle’ but also the opening number from the current album ‘The Money Puzzle’ called ‘Hard Being Me that everyone loved and the odd ballad as well due to guys of this standard being able touch the hearts as well as to rock up the house.
Looking forward to seeing the lads return back to Sheffield soon. 9/10 By Glenn Milligan |
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UNHOLY ALLIANCE 2 - BIRMINGHAM NEC 1st November, 2006 Twenty-seven quid for five metal bands, including two of my favourites? Oh all right then. Unfortunately the NEC was by no means full, perhaps 5,000 were in attendance. Proceedings began at the unholy hour of 17:50, when Canada's Thine Eyes Bleed bounded onstage and played twenty-five minutes of solid thrash. The interval (just 15 minutes) featured an advert for the new Mortal Kombat videogame. Crass commercialism. Children of Bodom are the best band from Finland ever, it's really as simple as that. With the exception of In Flames, no one plays melodic death metal with more fire and passion. Their forty-minute set went down a storm with the crowd, which didn't seem too familiar with the band's material. Alexi Laiho's solos were stunning, and the truncated set left the crowd desperate for more. Maybe my 3rd favourite band will do a club tour next year. 1. Theme from 'Naked Gun' Intro Lamb Of God's Metalcore has largely passed me
by, but the boys from Virginia were a firm favourite with the crowd.
They played for forty-five minutes and highlights included 'Walk With
Me In Hell', 'Redneck' (both of which are from their new CD 'Sacrament'),
and 'Now You've Got Something To Die For'. Randy Blythe is a superb
frontman, and cajoled the crowd into several In Flames from Stockholm are my 2nd favourite
band. This was the third time I have seen them in the past year, and
was probably the best show yet. Inspite of rhythm guitarist Jesper Stromblod
having to return home, the jesters played a varied set of crowd pleasers
instead of just plugging 'Come Clarity'. Anders Friden proved that he
can easily handle a crowd this size, hopefully 1. Pinball Map There are many adjectives I could use to describe Slayer, but sadly 'original', 'innovative', and 'interesting' are not among them. What they do, they do very well, Dave Lombardo in particular is a fine drummer and Jeff Hanneman defies his years impressively, looking exactly as he did on the 'South of Heaven' tour in 1988. Unfortunately after producing one of the best lp's ever made in 1986, they have spent the last 20 years playing the same songs or writing new ones that sound bar-for-bar identical. The crowd reacted insanely to their every move, but I found Los Angles' answer to Status Quo to be a trifle tedious. Never mind, it was a terrific night, and next week I get to see my number one band - the peerless Opeth. Slayer set list: 1. Raining
Blood Encore Raining Blood Sorry, just my little Slayer joke - the setlist, which only seemed like one song, actually ran: Mandatory
Suicide By Roy Evans |
