Word up everybody say, When you hear the call you've gotta get it underway

Friday 19 March 2010 - and tonight Matthew, we are down at The Duchess for an evening pregnant with the possibility of slightly-heavier-than-usual music.

As we arrived, the first band, Scream Arena were just finishing their penultimate song before launching into House of Pain, which I would certainly slot into the heavy rock category. Apparently they come from York and are currently unsigned which, given their polished performance, I find somewhat surprising.

The second band of the evening were another local outfit, but one I have so far missed, Morpheus Rising. MP consists of Graeme Tennick (vocals), Pete Harwood (guitar), Daymo Sweeting (guitar), Andy Smith (bass), and Paul (Gibbo) Gibbons (drums), although for tonight the bass was played by someone disguised as Andy Smith who I understand was in Cheltenham. The band came onto the stage to the strain's of Orff's Carmina Burana, one of my favourite pieces of music, so a good start. They gave us Save The Day, Brave New World, Fighting Man, Lord of The North, Gypsy King, and Hold On. MP bill themselves as NWoBHM - TNG (The Next Generation) and certainly I could hear elements of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden in their songs. Pete and Daymo produce a brilliant two-guitar sound. Graeme has a voice that reminds me of Ray Wilson (Stilkskin, Genesis) and he can certainly hold a note. I found the drums were mixed slightly too high which tended to drown out the guitar soloing. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed MP and look forward seeing them again soon.

Finally, the band we were here to see, GUN. In their present incarnation, GUN consist of Toby Jepson (ex of Little Angels), brothers Dante and Giuliano 'Jools' Gizzi, and a chap on drums whose name escapes me, sorry. There was certainly a hard core of fans in the audience who knew all the words for the sing-backs, sadly I and my little group were not familiar enough with their work to do the same. I will be rectifying this by a quick visit to play.com! Basically, their performance was drawn from their first albums; Taking On The World (1989), Gallus (1992), and Swagger (1994), plus three songs from their latest 5 track EP, Popkiller (2009). The actual tracks were: Welcome To The Real world, Money, Stand In Line, Popkiller, Money To Burn, Taking On The World, Let Your Hair Down, Better Days, Seraphina, Don't Say It's Over, Something Worthwhile, Inside Out, Steal Your Fire, and for the encore - Shame On You, and of course Word Up. An extremely enjoyable evening and, as mentioned before, CD purchases will be imminent!

Scream Arena screams back

I have been contacted by Andy Paul, he of Scream Arena fame. Andy was kind enough to point out that his hair is not a perm, but in fact the natural way his hair curls when dried following a shower, apologies to Andy for that. I’m only jealous because I have no hair of my own! He also let me know that the gig at Certificate 18 was only the 4th that Scream Arena had ever played, which surprised me as I did think that they sounded very tight. Despite the fact that I was generally pretty neutral about the gig, I should point out that a large proportion of the audience really enjoyed it.

Andy also mentioned that lead guiarist Chris trained at GIT (the Guitar Institute of Technology in Los Angeles, now Musicians Institute ) and has jammed with the guys from Toto and Stevie Wonder. Pretty awesome credentials if you ask me!

Minutes to Midnight

Another night on the town and feeling decidedly ragged. Not me though! Wednesday finds me gate-crashing Certificate18 for a mid-week feast for the ears. The occasion? Roy has recommended listening to Uniting The Elements.

I arrive half way through the set of Arctic Fury, heavy metal muthas, which I don’t mind at all since I’m currently going through a bit of a metal phase. More like mental! Although not technically the most accomplished of musicians, vocals were a bit wobbly, the guitar solos a bit rubbish, and their timing was not exactly spot on. Despite everything, their songs were good and they put up a fine performance. Arctic Fury are: Nick Montegriffo (Vocals), Alex Mullings and Rick Blomfield (Guitars), Liam 'Yom' Hardy (Drums), and Gaz Percival (Bass.)

Scream Arena were a bit weird. Heavy metal, as before, but the lead singer (Andy Paul) had an enormous ‘80s poodle perm and that bass player (Nick Daniel) had long blond hair that kept covering up his face like some kind of veil. On the other hand, the lead guitarist (Chris White) looked like he had just been dragged in from a building site; normal looking bloke, normal hair, normal clothes, just a normal-Norman. Other band members were: ‘Zep’ on drums, and Simon Gillott on rhythm guitar. Technically they were very good and they had obviously rehearsed until the cows came home, but the songs weren’t quite right and they never really pulled it off.

Finally, Uniting The Elements. This was a 3 piece heavy outfit fronted by a feisty red-haired vixen. There was Sarah on drums, more manic than Animal from the Muppets. Ola the classic, stocky, bald, tattooed guitarist with a bank of FX pedals that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Star Trek set. And Dawn, the scrawny red-head looking a like Shirley Manson (Garbage) or Siouxsie Sioux. If you can imagine a white Tina Turner fronting a metal band, that’s what it was like. Hailing from Germany, they delivered an explosive blend of contemporary rock tinged with Punk and tenacity. The drum was frenetic, the guitar soloing superb, and Dawn had such stage presence, she was mesmerising. Well recommended.

Grump of the night. Hmm, haven’t got one.

This week I ‘ave mostly bin listening to ... Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park. What an absolutely top album. Yes, there’s still some tracks that are very shouty and with swearing. That’s OK, I quite like a bit of shouty/sweary. But there are also some more melodic, thoughtful tracks. Ballads?!? Mike Shinoda's rapping on Hands Held High is fantastic. And I don’t like rap!