buzzcocksfan

21.3.18

Gary Numan + Nightmare Air. The Empire, Middlesbrough. 17.03.18.

Sliding up the A19 to Middlesbrough in a blizzard wasn’t exactly fun. Nor was queuing outside The Empire in sub—zero temperatures, especially when the doors had opened half an hour earlier. Once inside however spirits lifted.

Opening proceedings Los Angeles shoegazers Nightmare Air prove, once again, that it’s always worth watching support bands. Amongst clouds of smoke and lights switching between neon blue and sensor defying red they deliver a superb blend of loud, swirling guitar sounds from Dave Dupuis, heavy drum beats from Jimmy Lucido and Swaan Miller’s driving bass rhythms all overlaid with Miller’s softly piercing ethereal vocals. Plenty of distortion, plenty of effects, the majority of their set is taken from new album Fade Out – a more mainstream, commercial, almost poppy album than predecessor High In The Lasers that certainly delivers some big, catchy tunes. ‘Who’s Your Lover’, ‘Fade Out’, ‘Strange Things’ hook you in as they build from quiet openings to sudden thumping beats, rumbling bass lines and goth tinged guitar riffs. Miller shares vocal duties with Dupuis on the sublime ‘Sweet Arrows’ and again on set closer ‘Icy Daggers’, one of only two songs from High In The Lasers and a full on, thrashing guitar finale.

Nightmare Air

Gary Numan seems to be on a career high at the moment with latest album Savage (Songs From A Broken World) charting at no.2 in 2017. Tonight’s stage set has a spectacular light show. Dazzling, piercing colours so bright your eyes hurt before everything plunges into a wash of red or near complete darkness. It matches his stage presence and music perfectly. With a well-known dislike of dwelling on the past tonight’s set consists of just four songs from his early days of electronica stardom. Even these - ‘Down In The Park’, ‘Cars’, ‘Me, I Disconnect From You’ and ‘Are Friends Electric’ - are delivered with an dark edge and harder more industrial sound. Savage makes up the bulk of the evening – focusing on a barren, post-apocalyptic world resulting from climate change – these are dark, muscular, guitar heavy yet still synth driven songs that see Numan throw himself completely into each and every one. ‘Ghost Nation’, ‘My Name Is Ruin’ and ‘When The World Comes Apart’ drive straight into you with thumping beats and layers of synths. ‘Halo’, ‘Here In The Black’, ‘Haunted’, ‘Love Hurt Bleed’, ‘The Fall’ span a number of previous albums but all slot perfectly into the set. Hard, soaring, potentially stadium filling songs. Anyone expecting a greatest hits package may have been sorely disappointed with tonight’s song choice. I doubt there were many. Numan has a huge number of devoted followers, a significant number of whom are here, hanging on every word of every song, singing along with eyes full of nothing but adoration. No one could have been disappointed with the show Gary Numan and band put on. Visually spectacular, energetic, tight and note perfect together with that so distinctive voice (also note perfect). Not a minute wasted, absolutely no talking between songs except a quiet “Thank you” before returning for a two song encore. ‘Prayer For The Unborn’ and ‘My Last Day’ slow things right down yet, in their own way, are no less emotionally powerful.

Well worth the slow drive home in the continuing blizzard.

Gary Numan

7.3.18

The BellRays, Fuzzy Vox, Johnny Seven. Westgarth Social Club, Middlesbrough. 03.03.18.

Johnny Seven never disappoint. Formed in Teesside in ’78, disbanded in ’80, reformed in 2011. Tonight there’s a decent crowd in to see them and they treat us to some top punk rock ‘n’ roll. Johnny Seven play punk you can dance to. Proper, tuneful punk that deserves the response it gets with people singing along to ‘Shot Down’, ‘Can’t Escape Rock N Roll’ and ‘LSD’. Johnny Seven are not a tired old punk band. They ooze energy. Dominic Green, unable to stand still, bouncing round the small Westgarth stage, eyeballing the punters whist delivering a class set of tunes. Johnny Baines and Pete Wilson deliver slashing guitar riffs whilst Paul Ford & Paddy Muldowney hold it together with driving rhythms. There’s simply no let up as they hammer out ‘LSD’, ‘Pumpin’ The Pomp’, the classic ‘Skinheads’ and more. Catchy, ska tinged punk. Ending with a manic version of the Pistols ‘Bodies’ I am, once again, glad I’ve seen this band.

Johnny Seven

Garage, punk, blues, rock? Blend them all together and you pretty much get Fuzzy Vox, noise merchants from France who tonight did their best to take the roof off the Westgarth. Energetic, passionate, animated. It’s a matter of seconds before the rapidly swelling crowd are irresistibly drawn nearer the stage by some fine infectiously raucous beats. Frontman/vocalist/guitarist Hugo Fabri is all over the place. Leaping around, on his knees, on top of the speakers, screaming out his vocals as he hammers his guitar. Bassist Greg Dessons a master of the punk funk stance whilst drummer Jeremy Norris is the only topic of conversation in the gents afterwards –“How the fuck did he play like that with just 4 drums?” It’s exhausting watching them. Sonically contagious, their set passes with the speed at which they play and it’s over all too quickly. Look them up – ‘Told You Before’, ‘I Want Drums’, ‘Explosion Of Love’ are all good places to start. Then go and see them. You won’t be disappointed.

Fuzzy Vox

The BellRays two recent releases are titled Punk Funk Rock Soul – Vol 1 and Vol 2. Add in a bit of ‘Blues’ and you’ve got a perfect description of this powerhouse of a band. Opening with ‘Bad Reaction’ – a full on, rocking number that showcases perfectly Lisa Kekaula’s furiously powerful vocals. The BellRays are a hard hitting, kick-ass band who command your attention. Loud, powerful, in your face, rockin’ tunes that, although the tempo occasionally slows and calms a little – ‘I Can’t Hide’ - the energy and presence never let’s go. Kekaula, together with Bob Vennum on guitar dominate the stage. Huge riffs with some mean solo’s thrown in whilst Kekaula prowls the stage and, at one point, strolls amongst the audience making sure that no one forgets they’re witnessing something special. Despite their extensive back catalogue tonight’s main set, with the exception of one song – ‘Infection’ – is drawn entirely from just three releases. The previously mentioned Punk Funk Rock Soul Vols 1 and 2 and 2010’s Black Lightning. This is by no means a criticism. PFRS are both superb. Full of slashing punk rock guitars (‘Mine All Mine’), heavy soul (‘I Don’t Wanna Cry’), garage rock (‘Soul Girl’) to name just three from the ep that is Vol 1. Both are played in full whilst ‘Power To Burn’, ‘Living A Lie’, ‘Everybody Get Up’ and ‘Black Lightning’ from Black Lightning are raw, hard, aggressive, gritty, catchy numbers that make it impossible not to shake your body. 19 high octane songs dominated by that voice. A voice that is nothing less than wonderful. BellRays reviews consistently say things like ‘Aretha Franklin fronts The Stooges’, ‘Tina Turner meets MC5’ and it’s impossible to disagree. After leaving the stage for a short breather they return to rip through a cover of ‘Johnny Be Good’ and that’s it. It’s only March and I reckon this will be another gig in my top five of 2018.

THE BELLRAYS

27.2.18

Ratty and The Watchers, King Mojo, The Godfathers. Westgarth Social Club, Middlesbrough. 25.02.18.

Early Sunday evening and outside the Westgarth it’s freezing. Inside it’s hot and busy and there’s a real atmosphere of anticipation building for The Godfathers.

First up are Ratty and The Watchers who deliver a superb set of fast, punchy, pop-punk rock n roll. The addition of Neale Floyd, once of Penetration and tonight making his first public appearance for 38 years, on extra guitar duties makes this set of songs special. Powering through ‘Firefly’, ‘Bury My Heart’, ‘Tsantsa’ and more there’s plenty of buzzsaw guitar as well as nods to the Hot Rods, Chameleons and even Bowie with riffs aplenty to keep your hips swinging. Well worth arriving early to catch this lot.

Ratty and The Watchers

King Mojo never disappoint and it’s a good job really as they seem to pop up at a lot of gigs I go to. Indie new wave mod. A big Jam/Weller/60’s garage sound they deliver a set packed with guitar driven energy, great keyboards and tight rhythms. Powerful songs, appreciated by the swelling crowd, that continue to build the pervading mood developing before the headliners take their place.

King Mojo

It’s hard to describe just how good The Godfathers are. Opening with ‘This Is War’, a superb, snarling anti-establishment rant driven along with relentless bass and piercing guitars. From this opening number The Godfathers don’t let up for one second of this 22 song set. Career spanning pure, heavy, blues tinged, punk tinged full on rock n roll. ‘This Damn Nation’, ‘I Want You’, ‘I Want Everything’ and ‘I’m Unsatisfied’ drag us back to ‘85/’86 and classic debut album Hit By Hit. Six from the raw, storming rock of Birth School, Work, Death via classic cuts from Unreal World, Jukebox Fury and the masterpiece that is 2017’s Big Bad Beautiful Noise – huge tunes that bring The Godfathers smack bang into the 21^st Century with the non-stop beat of ‘Til My Heart Stops Beating’, the relentless pulse of it’s title track and the driving sonic assault that is ‘Defibrillator’.

Tonight The Godfathers can do no wrong. Twin guitar sounds from the never still Steve Crittall and Alex McBain, thumping rhythms from Tim James and Darren Birch together with the growling vocals, superb lyrics and piercing stare of Peter Coyne. Add in a blistering cover of Blitzkrieg Bop and once again this band leave us with a night that will live in gig memories for a hell of a long time.

The Godfathers

26.2.18

Toyah. Princess Alexandra Auditorium, Yarm. 17.02.18.

Toyah walks on stage to an enthusiastically warm welcome from the crowd in this rather plush venue. It’s a full electric show which means we’re treated to all those hits from the 80’s in all their original glory. Toyah is a master at playing to her audience. Tonight they’re seated, listening carefully and hanging on every word she says so we hear a little story about every song, we’re asked how many of us were punks ‘back then’ and we’re told about her role in Jubilee (then and now). Thankfully it’s not all anecdotes and those big, crowd pleasing, sing-a-long tunes that fill you with nostalgia are delivered with real passion and clear enjoyment. ‘Good Morning Universe’, ‘Rebel Run’, ‘Thunder In The Mountains’, ‘Brave New World’. These were huge songs back in the day and the crowd tonight love them. ‘Neon Womb’ – still full of anger and punk rock attitude, ‘Race Through Space’ and the superb ‘Danced’ all from 1979’s Sheep Farming In Barnet. Add in ‘It’s A Mystery’, ‘I Want To Be Free’, some decent album tracks and everyone’s going home happy. A pounding, full on, brilliant version of Billy Idol’s ‘Rebel Yell’ should have had the whole place standing and leaping around but, sadly, it isn’t until the promise of selfies at the front of the stage that the dedicated few leave their seats, loosen up and really start to enjoy themselves. Even then it’s only about 50 people but Toyah milks it making sure she’s immortalised on as many mobile phones as possible while I begin to wonder what’s more important to these people - the songs, the music, the nostalgia or that treasured selfie with a rock star. But does it really matter so long as they’re having a great time? And they are, as is Toyah who still delivers every song with that unique voice, who owns the stage with as much energy now as she had nearly 40 years ago and who delivers exactly what people want. A dreadful version of ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’ (but the original is just as awful) is thankfully forgotten about once ‘Ieya’ erupts, thunders along and closes the night on a real high.

17.2.18

Evil Blizzard + Nasty Little Lonely. Camden Underworld. 10.02.18.

Review and some superb photos by Paul Grace here.

A few pics by me below.

Evil Blizzard

Nasty Little Lonely