Gig Review: Truffle/Siege/Kodiak Jack/Toledo Steel - The Glasshouse 21/03/15

  Much to my shame, I don't go to as many gigs as I'd like.  As a general thing, I tend to see bands that I know reasonably well - or know the Greatest Hits, anyway.

 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? 

https://www.facebook.com/toledosteelband

http://www.kodiakjackofficial.com/

http://www.siegemetal.co.uk/

http://trufflerockband.blogspot.co.uk/

That's all folks. 

Book Review: Mark Gregory - No Sleep Till Saltburn

Stockton 1982
 Mark Gregory has just lost his job as a milkman. But that's OK because Mark has a plan to produce his very own Rock magazine.
 Over the next 18 months or so, young Mr Gregory will try his hand at radio presenting, accidentally double-book two heavy metal bands with a girl's 18th birthday party, become manager to the Northeast's unruly answer to Journey, write for Kerrang and yes, put together his very own rock magazine.
 If he could just work out how to get people to buy it...

  During the early 80s the industrial towns of the Northeast pumped out a small horde of loud, lairy and enthusiastic Heavy Metal bands  - the rather cumbersomely titled North East New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NENWOBHM) - and this book is from somebody who was there when it was all kicking off.

 Rock and Roll memoirs can have the unfortunate effect of making the writer look like an utter wanker. I lost all respect for a certain ex-Kerrang writer when he admitted faking it just to earn some heroin money. And did anybody come away from "The Dirt" thinking that Motley Crue were people you'd want next door? I doubt it.

  Luckily Mark Gregory comes across as likeable throughout. I don't know if he's deliberately downplaying his talents but there's a definite sense that in true British fashion, he's getting by on luck and enthusiasm.
  There's also something very Northern and British about a heavy metal band being announced with a reminder that there's pie and peas on sale at the back of the venue.

 Not to say that there isn't Rock n Roll behaviour happening but it tends to be fuelled by Bitter rather than Peruvian marching Powder. 

 Strippers and Groupies? Not happening either. 

 You do get some trout-poaching though. 

 There's plenty of entertaining moments scattered throughout. The one that immediately springs to mind is a Dutch promoter playing Mark a tape from a new US band called Metallica...

 I've been a big fan of the NWOBHM for years and I've always enjoyed books from the underbelly of the music industry. The whole thing is told with warm humour, charm and a cast of fascinating characters. So I enjoyed this one a lot. I read the whole thing in pretty much one hit, which happens rarely these days. 

  If I have a criticism, it might be that "No Sleep Till Saltburn" doesn't end with a bang. It's more of a snapshot of a period in a young man's life that closes with the hero in a better place than he was and hopefully going towards somewhere better still.

 If any of the following mean something to you - Battleaxe, Geddes Axe, Satan, Black Rose, Arizona - or if you just fancy a trip back to a long-gone era, then I think you might enjoy this book.

Screw it. I feel like listening to some Battleaxe

   

UPDATE: Mark Gregory is hoping to bring out a sequel sometime next year.
Pop over to his site for details and sundry NWOBHM goings-on.

http://www.nosleeptillsaltburn.blogspot.co.uk/ 

 That's all folks. 

My Top Ten...N.W.O.B.H.M

 My last top ten was devoted to a genre synonymous with being polished and radio friendly. This time around...not so much.
 If you already know what NWOBHM stands for,  skip ahead to the songs. We'll catch up in a bit.
  The NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) was, simply put, Heavy Metal's reaction to Punk.  A new generation of bands took Punk's DIY ethos to heart and began cranking out independent singles and EPs at an astonishing rate. If a town had enough long-haired herberts so support a biker pub then they probably had at least one band dreaming of a Friday Rock Show session.  Many never got further than flogging a 7" out of the back of a transit van after playing yet another toilet but a few went on to do very nicely indeed and it's fair to say that today's metal scene owes a lot to the NWOBHM in all sorts of ways. Just ask Lars Ulrich.

 As with the AOR post, I've deliberately omitted the NWOBHM's Big Three. Joe Elliott gets very cross if you call Def Leppard NWOBHM while if you don't know who Iron Maiden and Saxon are, you probably stopped reading once the words "Heavy Metal" cropped up. So here's ten of my favourite tracks from an era that changed Heavy Metal forever.

 Trespass - Stormchild (1980)

A classy band that really should have gone further .

Here's a majestic track off the semi-legendary Metal For Muthas II sampler .

Dammit, I love that intro.

Honour to: IvanFinestreNWOBHM

Baseline - Suspended Animation (1981)

A band I'd never even heard of until 6 months ago and I've been cranking

this song ever since. Youtube really does throw up some treasures sometimes.

Honour to: Rostere

Jameson Raid - Catcher In The Rye (1979)

The production isn't exactly state of the art but these Brummies still manage to 

pull off this quirky, driving ode to quiet desperation. Recently reformed.

Honour to: psychotron9 

Hammer - Caution To The Wind (1985)

A Cleveland band with an album cover that  suggests a much darker band than in reality.

You can't help noticing that Heavy Metal started playing a lot more fast songs after

Punk changed the rules. Like this powerful little number that sees the keyboard 

player trading licks with the guitarist for the solo. Marvellous.

Honour to; paradisebeyond1982

Talking of fast...

Tysondog - Taste The Hate (1986)

I have no idea what they were putting in the water in the North East but not only did

the ridiculously fertile local scene spawn a small army of bands, the likes of Venom, Raven, 

Warfare and the curiously named Tysondog came up with a sound that was fast, nasty and

 right up in yer face, ready to deliver a headbutt. You could argue that Geordies created Thrash Metal.

Incidentally you might want to track down another Tysondog  track - the one minute, ten seconds of lunacy that is "T.W.A.T"

Honour to: inmoderate

Fist - The Watcher (1980)

More Tynesiders but much more melodic this time around. IMHO an underrated

outfit with a pair of underrated guitarists, seen here to good effect on this track.

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Honour to: FoggySpruce

Bitches Sin - Ain't Life a Bitch? (1985)

A Cumbrian band with a name that probably did them no favours
(Although there were worse - Ethel The Frog? Really?)
On this track they put their heads down and go for it, culminating in one of those frenzied solos
where the guitarist is always on the verge of losing control and quite possibly a finger.

Honour to; montooken

Black Axe - Edge Of The World (1981)

How often do you get to hear two bands from Cumbria?  Especially good ones?
A catchy track from the Friday Rock Show sampler.

Honour to: IvanStryper 

Taurus - Paper Chaser (1980)

A band that only managed a single outing on vinyl and that was another Friday Rock Show sampler. 
I'm always a sucker for a good guitar duel and on this tasty bit of Quo-fistfighting-Skynyrd
guitar boogie  the boys are going toe to toe, sneering "Is that all you got."

Honour to; RekifuneRiver

And finally

Tygers Of Pan Tang - Love Don't Stay (1981)

You can neatly divide the Tygers' career into three sections.
Pre-John Sykes
John Sykes
Post-John Sykes.
Others may quibble but I love the two albums Sykes did with TOPT before he went on
to bigger and better things with  Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake. Here's why:

Honour to: BarbaricBulldog

 For this list I sat down and listed the first ten songs that came to mind and it says a lot about how much great music came out of this era that there's at least a dozen songs I could have posted instead.
So, honourable mentions to: Demon, Raven, Wolf, Marseille, White Spirit, Quartz, Triarchy, Samson, Slender Thread, Dark Star, Praying Mantis, Rock Goddess, Girlschool, Oxym and anyboy else that's almost certainly going to pop back into my memory going "Hey. I'm an awesome song. Why didn't you post me, numbnuts?"

Edit: I came back and played with this post, reinstalling some vids that had fallen off.

That's all folks.