On Saturday night I made a definite exception to this rule.
Yes, the bill featured two bands I'd never heard of and yes, with the other two I'd only heard the odd song here and there.
But how often do you get proper, old-school heavy metal bands in Portsmouth? NWOBHM bands at that.
" This..." I thought "This , I have to see."
I've never been to The Glasshouse before and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Bigger than I was expecting, nicely done up and the toilets were clean. A few more signs wouldn't hurt though...
The next surprise was the crowd. I had this mental image of a relative handful of grizzled 80s rock veterans and while there were plenty in my age bracket or older, there was also a good solid contingent of younger metalheads. In fact the age range ran from grannies to primary school, which gave the whole thing a nice family affair. Quite a sizeable turnout too.
I indulged myself with a bit of t-shirt spotting and got to witness several rarities I never expected to see in the wild: Tygers Of Pan Tang. Praying Mantis. Mythra(!) and one I didn't get a clear look at but may well have been a Vow Wow t-shirt. Nice.
Long-maned youngsters Toledo Steel were the perfect openers. Clearly big fans of early 80s metal and with a strong tint of Iron Maiden in their twin-guitar runs. Their energetic frontman was definitely a big fan of Bruce Dickinson's stage moves and it would be nice to see him on a bigger stage.
I was trying to work out who his vocals reminded me of. (Helloween's Michael Kiske maybe? I'll work it out eventually.) Regardless, he hit some impressive high notes.
Meanwhile the guitar team traded solos and even snuck in a classic Maiden-esque instrumental passage.
I suspect if Toledo Steel were German or Swedish they'd have attracted a lot of attention by now.
Great fun.
Best song: Toledo Steel - where they go out-and-out Power Metal on yer ass.
Kodiak Jack are a little bit older, a little bit rougher around the edges and don't have anywhere near as much hair. Their lead singer didn't show off his vocal range, opting to demonstrate his ability to go from smooth to throat-shredding grit instead. It's probably a crap comparison but the band that came to mind was The Almighty - gritty, no-prisoners Rock with a touch of Punk, a touch of groove and enough melody to catch the ear.
Perfect music for a dingy Biker pub and an evening that hurts the next morning.
Up until this point the crowd had been reluctant to get too close to the stage. Well, the semi-circle of wooden tiles before the stage looked like somebody spent ages polishing them and nobody wanted to be the heathen that got them dirty.
Toldeo Steel got the punters to shuffle forward. With an appeal from the stage Kodiak Jack drew them a little closer. Since that was still too far the frontman closed the distance himself, hopping off stage for the last song.
I looked them up and they're local boys, so with a bit of luck I'll see them again.
Best song - Waves
Next up were the first of the veterans. Siege gigged a fair bit in the mid-80s but only released one privately pressed 7" before fading away again. Unusually they had a female vocalist so I was a bit non-plussed when the reformed band trooped onstage and began blasting away. Not only were they a lot heavier than I was expecting but the three members were all indisputably male.
(Afterwards a little bit of research revealed that after the untimely death of singer Sharon Thompson, three of her bandmates decided to reform for a tribute gig, before recording new material and gigging again)
With the exception of the singer's rather snazzy bass (LEDs down the fret and a laser-pointer in the headstock. I wants one!) Siege are a no-frills, heads-down, Brit metal outfit. Think the sort of thing that was coming out of the NorthEast in the early 80s. No instrumental flashiness, just solid headbanging stuff .
I should mention that while the vocalist didn't show off his range or his lungpower, he got the job done in fine style. Sometimes all you need to do is sing.
And once again the crowd got just that little bit closer to the stage...
Best Song - opener Razorwing
Headliners Truffle, like so many NWOBHM acts, never quite managed to make the jump from local heroes to national stardom. And like many others, they may have done themselves no favours with their choice of name. (Still not the worst offenders though. I'm looking at you, Ethel The Frog. And you can stop sniggering Split Beaver.)
Despite well-received gigs, some favourable mentions in Kerrang and releasing one of the best-named cassettes ever ("The Bacon Slicer Strikes Back") Truffle threw in the towel by the end of the 80s with some members moving on to covers outfit The Mafia. - a band that soundtracked some particularly good nights out I've had over the years.
Anyway, now they were back and I was really looking forward to seeing them in action. So was the rest of the crowd as they finally set foot on the sacred Wooden Bit before the stage.
I have to say, I was really impressed.
I could probably have spent the entire set watching the drummer -possibly moonlighting from his day job as mad scientist - setting about his kit with sticks a-twirling.
The lead singer mentioned a couple of times that he wasn't well, eliciting sympathetic cries of "Aww" that he milked shamlessly. From where I was standing, it didn't seem to slow him down any. In fact the rest of the boys had their working shoes on that night with plenty of effort all round. One guitarist soloed like he had 12 fingers, the other one threw shapes that would dislocate my hips.
What I did find interesting was how varied their material was. ( Please don't ask me to tell you the song titles. I knew a couple of them from Youtube and that's it.) There was the long rock epic with equally epic soloing. There was the ones that were out and out Heavy Metal. There was the song I actually knew - the synth-enhanced and rather catchy "Starlight". You get the picture, yes?
Not 101 variations on the same basic template which seems to be the norm these days.
Enough fanboying.
I enjoyed them a lot, basically, and rather hope to see them again.
Best Song - Starlight (obviously)
To sum up, two young bands that show a lot of promise. Two veteran outfits still ready to roll. And one happy Big D.
Let's give them all a plug shall we?
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