Inglorious Live at the Islington Assembly Hall

I am a latecomer to the Inglorious camp. The first album failed to make any significant impact on my listening habits but then I heard a new song and then another and slowly slowly I started to fall for this classic English rock band fronted by the amazing vocalist Nathan James. When I saw that they would be playing IAH and launching their new album, the safely titled "II", I thought I better grab a ticket for this. Good job too as the gig was more or less sold out with what must be not far from 800 in attendance.

I had seen the support band listed as Mason Hill and Gypsy Heart and I actually checked both out on youtube beforehand to get a handle on their music. GH sounded a bit soft and countryish whilst MH sounded really, heavy groovy and cool.

Gypsy Heart it turns out only played as a duo as two other members of the band were absent. That left a young gal with a nice earthy voice and a guy on acoustic guitar. Pleasant and nice on the ear overall with heartfelt emotional songs but people were here for ROCK and GH didn't quite provide that this time but nice vocals anyway from the young lady.

Scots Mason Hill were up next and were a whole different kettle of fish. These guys know how to rock and then some. Big old grooving riffs and emotional classic vocals was the order of the day. Part modern and part old school but never dull at all. The singer held the tunes together wonderfully well whilst the two guitarists churned out classic bendy riffs and solos galore. This band really deserves to get much bigger and I think most of the Inglorious crowd were well chuffed with their performance. The singer may lack some of Nathan's charm and melodic swagger but they have so much power and attitude that it easily makes up for any shortcomings they may have vocally speaking. They dedicated one song to Chris Cornell and soon enough their short but excellent set came to a close and was received with a great response from a packed floor.

At 9.30 precisely the intro music started out over the PA and strangely enough it was the theme tune to Grandstand! UK sports fans will know that tune inside out haha. The band took to their positions and finally the larger than life big man with the huge voice Nathan James took his spot and started belting out opener Read All About It which is from the debut I believe. Not being a fan of the debut I didn't know these songs well or even at all but I was still blown away by the delivery and poise within the band.

Inglorious are one of those bands were the live vibe far super cedes the recorded output. They just seem to come "alive" so to speak. On CD they can tend to sound a bit weak or lacking in bite or energy but no such issue exists in the live arena. The two guitarists are ace in the holes as is the rhythm section who bolster the riffing with a solid heavy backing.

In the end it's all down to Mr James who has the crowd eating out of his hand from the first note till the last. To say the guy is a confident front man would be an understatement. The guy has a booming and commanding soulful voice though some of his dance moves are a bit "dad dancy" but I'll forgive him!

The voice is just too good for words. The guy oozes class and brings so much power and soul into his lyrics and with a fantastic set of new tunes you couldn't go wrong with this gig. More than half the new album was played including some of the more rocking tunes which I love like Hell Or High Water and the rollicking great High Class Woman which closed the main set. In between we had a rather poignant and glorious two song acoustic interlude including a beautifully heartfelt tribute to Chris Cornell with Black Hole Sun and then a great cover of Purple's Burn as well. Both were majestic and the crowd really loved them.

Inglorious is definitely a band going places that's for sure and Nathan says that their manager told them that if they sold out tonight they would be in a bigger venue still for their next date in London at the larger Electric Ballroom and of course the IAH gig was pretty rammed.

The encore started with the super catchy I Don't Need Your Loving which was actually sang back at Nathan by most people in the crowd as loud as ppossible. Nathan even ended up in the crowd for one song singing with everyone as he was serenaded by everyone close by. Like I said before Inglorious is a new and upcoming classic rock band to be reckoned with. I'll be at their show at the Ballroom in a heartbeat after this awesome album launch. Anyone who enjoys soulful vocals halfway between Coverdale/Hughes seriously needs to give Inglorious a listen and catch them live too as they fully come into their own in that environment. Inglorious? Simply glorious!


Read All About It
Breakaway
High Flying Gypsy
Black Magic
(Live Debut)
Making Me Pay
(Live Debut)
Change Is Coming
(Live Debut)
Hell or High Water
(Live Debut)
Warning
Inglorious
Black Hole Sun
(Soundgarden cover) (Acoustic, tribute to Chris Cornell)
Burn
(Deep Purple cover) (Acoustic)
Taking the Blame
Girl Got a Gun
Faraway
(Live Debut)
High Class Woman
(Live Debut)

Encore:
I Don't Need Your Loving
Holy Water
Until I Die

UDO - Live at the Islington Academy

A special night at O2 Academy in Islington with the grand daddy of German metal Herr Dirkschneider playing Accept songs for the final time. Now I must admit I am no huge Accept fan but I was so impressed with the normal Udo gig last year that I gave his the time of day again. Thankfully, so did 400 and more punters as well!

The first support band was called Icon and they are a local band. They play heavy British sounding modern metal. Not really my cuppa. They were bloody heavy though.

Next up were Anvil. To be honest I'm not actually a fan although I've seen them before. Oddly enough they were actually rather good. Lips sounded ok for someone who can't really sing and the band sounded tight. Their songs are just not that interesting to me but they played excellently and got a great response from the crowd.

Soon it was the turn of the German metal warrior Udo and his band of merry men to t metal machine for one last time. Udo looks a bit more rotund and older than last year but he still has the perfect snarl for the classic Accept material. I don't even know all the Accept tunes but every single song had a great riff pretty much and the crowd was loving every second of it.

A very enjoyable night to reminisce over old tunes from the teutonic legends for one last time.

Graham Bonnet Band Live Report

I'm sure this gig was billed at the main Islington Academy although I could be wrong, however when I got to the queue I saw lots of non hairy, non ugly, girls in the queue. Not GB fan material at all unless Graham has suddenly become teeny bopper fodder! It turns out the the GB Band were playing the smaller room Islington Academy 2. Either Graham didn't sell enough or he was due there anyway. The smaller Academy is a 250 capacity room at the side of the main Academy. I've been there a few times before for death and thrash gigs and it's not a bad little place although they tend to have an overly loud PA there.

As I walked in the crowd was already fairly decent at around 100 and would probably fill out to close to 200 by the time Graham came on so pretty full for such a cosy place. 200 would've been sparse in the big room next door though.

The first band was already playing what I guess was either the opening or second number. They were a hairy old mob by the name of Desolation Angels. I've heard of them before and heard them here and there but their NWOBHM doesn't really float my boat or so I thought. Well to be honest they actually got my head nodding on some of their songs. They sound like a mix between Motorhead and old Saxon. They have not a single atom of their being set outside of the early 80s UK heavy metal scene. The old rocker crowd seemed to enjoy DA a lot. They were OK indeed I must admit.

Next up were Evyltyde another UK band with a female singer. She didn't have grit in her voice like say Leather Leone or Doro. She sang much smoother. Their songs were ever so slightly doomy and always pretty mid paced. The root of the band is pure 80s UK heavy metal as with opening band DA, but their execution was a little bit more modern especially the guitars which didn't have a massive old school flavour. They were OK but I found the vocals to be a little monotonous from the young lady. The music in the band is quite cool trad metal though.

Finally at around 8pm or so (for a curfew of 10pm exists for Saturday nights), The GB band took to the stage minus the man himself until finally Graham strode on looking very lean and trim for a man who's close to 70. I didn't know this at the time but it turns out Graham has unfortunately been sick and had to cut short an earlier gig in the tour because he couldn't continue. However he did this full gig as it was the last of the night.

I must admit I don't know Graham's career very well at all. I know all the band's he's been in but I haven't heard all the songs he's done with his many bands apart from the really famous ones. His band consists of a Hispanic looking young American chap on guitars, His girlfriend Beth on bass and Mark Zonder on drums. I can't comment on her bass skills but she's quite a pretty lady and Graham has landed on his feet there for a man of his age! The guitarist was excellent and is a great find for Graham. The drumming was excellent too and I guess MZ is an amazing drummer that drum afficionados will was lyrical about. I'm not into drums personally.

Graham strode on to a loud and very cheery reception and I think he sound like a very humble guy indeed with his in between song banter hinting at his amiable style and personality. He's basically a typical, chirpy Northerner although he's lost his accent over the years. He's still got that charm and wit about him. He actually gave some good insight into some of the many amazing guitarists he's worked with over the years and he played not far off 2 hours. For a sick man we should be thankful for that. I must admit I had no idea about some of the songs he played having not followed his career but I still enjoyed them, although it's the hits that made the biggest impression on me and I guess most of the crowd. By the hits I mean songs like Night Games, All Night Long, Since You've Been Gone basically. The rest of the set contained classics for sure but I've personally never heard them before or at least not often enough to recognise them, though many of this old man crowd did and were singing along.

Unfortunately there's no two ways of saying this but either Graham's illness was too bad or he just can't hit the high notes any more in any of the songs. He's never really been a high pitched crooner anyway but when a song does call for a high he opens his mouth really wide but the sound coming out is totally strained. Call it age or sickness but he just can't really hit the heights of old so to speak. The thing is his normal register is still good and Graham should stick to that and sing for a few more years yet before he finally calls it a day although I think that day is sadly not far away for Graham. He still sang very well up to a point but in no way was he as good as his hey day and who can be at 68 or however old he is. That he's still up on stage and rocking for a room full old diehards is a miracle in itself. I know this would've been a huge long shot but I would've loved for him to play a couple of Impellitteri tunes especially of course Stand in Line, but I guess his tenure there is just not famous enough and people only know him from Rainbow and Alcatrazz. My triple whammy of three gigs in three days is finally complete. Mental note - try not to do this again!

Eyes of the World
(Rainbow song)
All Night Long
(Rainbow song)
S.O.S.
God Blessed Video
(Alcatrazz song)
Will You Be Home Tonight
(Alcatrazz song)
Night Games
Suffer Me
(Alcatrazz song)
Dancer
(Michael Schenker Group song)
Love's No Friend
(Rainbow song)
Desert Song
(Michael Schenker Group song)
Mirror Lies
The Witchwood
(Alcatrazz song)
Only One Woman
(The Marbles song)
Island in the Sun
(Alcatrazz song)
Since You Been Gone
(Russ Ballard cover)
Assault Attack
(Michael Schenker Group song)
Lost in Hollywood
(Rainbow song)

Symphony X - Islington Assembly Hall - Live Report

I could be wrong but I think it's my fourth time with Symphony X. I've always found them to be a pretty cool band but they never gained my fanboy status like a few other bands I could mention. I still like to check them out whenever they release a CD and Underworld is a great effort by the guys. When I saw that Tunisians Myrath would be the main support I quickly nabbed a ticket for this show as I love those guys too. There was a further support band of which I know little, called Melted Space.

Said band took to the stage at precisely 7.30 and played a 30 minute set of symphonic beauty and the beast metal with no less than 8 members on stage including no less than 4 singers. 1 growler, 1 male clean and 2 female clean one of which was slightly operatic and the other one more normal clean. They only had use of half the stage so it was a bit difficult for them to all fit on stage at the same time but thankfully they weren't all required for most of the songs! I wasn't too impressed with them actually especially the clean male singer whose voice was rather weak. Their songs were drenched with double bass drumming as well so if was hard to make out much in a blur of speed and a rather poor and typical "support band" sound mix. I enjoyed listening to the chicks though especially the very pretty thin as a rake one! Her vocals weren't all that though, the other girl actually had a better voice. Either way Melted Space didn't float my boat and they didn't play any longer than their allotted 30 minutes.

Myrath came on at 8.15 or so and immediately the sound mix was better and I had been looking forward to their set immensely and boy did they not disappoint! The sound mix was crystal clear especially Zaher's amazingly clean vocals. They played a short but pretty awesome set made of mainly new songs and a couple of their older songs. The highlights for me were Believer the amazing new song which sounds just as good live. They played it to perfection. Zaher's live vocals are superb as well as the guitarist whose riffs and solos are to die for. I loved Merciless Times from the previous album and the final song Duat was another huge highlight. I missed more songs from Tales of the and though but alas they've only got 40 minutes or so. I hope to see a headline set from them one day. they seemed to go down so well with the masses down on the Assembly Hall floor as well. Their mix of Kamelot and middle eastern melody is just a pure delight for the ears. Great stuff and a perfect support for the kings of power/prog Symphony X.

Storm of Lies
Get Your Freedom Back
Believer
Wide Shut
Nobody's Lives
Merciless Times
Duat

At just after 9 or a few minutes after the lights went down and the excitement from down below reached fever pitch as the Symphony X guys took their positions as the Overture intro played over the PA before the band tore into pounding opener Nevermore. I didn't know it at the time as the song was blaring it out but the band is touring Underworld and they would go on to play it in it's entirety but not in CD order as Russell explained later. Anyhow Underworld sounded bloody amazing from my vantage point, second row on the balcony. Russell's look is a bit hardman nu-metal with his wrap around shades and slicked back hair but it doesn't detract from his singing at all.

One thing I noticed about previous "X" gigs is that they play at colossal volume, especially Romeo's guitar. As the opener roared out of the PA it felt at least twice as loud as Myrath's set. And yet Russell's roar could still be heard over Romeo's gargantuan riffs and solos. The chorus of Nevermore saw the crowd takeover and it sent shivers up the spine the full participation and the huge roar that greeted the songs end. Symphony X\had just begun the ultimate demolition job on the Islington Assembly Hall!

They tore into the title track Underworld with ferocious abandon and Kiss of Fire, another venomous effort followed before they finally took it down a notch with the song Without You which Mr Allen sang brilliantly I might add. The guy is a serious and proper showman and has the front rows eating out of his hand whilst never one losing focus of the melody or losing track. Charon, one of my fave tracks from Underworld followed and was totally immense. More album songs followed and all were received and lapped up by the bay crowd down below.

One thing I will say about Romeo is that, that guy can fuckin' shred his ass off. His flurry of notes is unsurpassed but with the monstrous volume that he plays at, the solos can before a wall of sound and feeling or melody is lost. I guess that's just his style. He's an old school more is more style shredder and wants to tear you a new one all the time rather tha caress your ears with a gorgeous melody. They played all of the new album apart from Legend which they left until the final song of the night which was a fitting move. They played three "X" classics to close out the main and to please the crowd. Out of the Ashes never fails to bring up a sing along.

The encore saw the band return after huge cheers from the packed downstairs and play the very heavy Set the World on Fire and ending with the epic Legend. I am actually very glad that they played the whole of Underworld. It really is a classic in their discography and deserved to have every song played. Every member of Symphony X is at the top of their game but the band to me is just a one man led battle machine and that man is the one and only Russell Allen. The guy is just something else! His power on the mic is truly a sight to behold and leaves you in total awe at his performance. This is by far the best I have seen Symphony X play of all the times I've seen them. I think I like Myrath more on record than them but Sym X blew them out of the water live. A truly phenomenal and powerful performance that takes the Underworld record and makes it sound a much mightier and epic beast. If you are so so about Underworld, do yourself a favour and check it out live and prepare to have your ears and neck wrecked!

Overture
Nevermore
Underworld
Kiss of Fire
Without You
Charon
To Hell and Back
In My Darkest Hour
Swan Song
The Death of Balance/Lacrymosa
Out of the Ashes
Sea of Lies

Encore:
Set the World On Fire
Legend