30/11/2018 Bernie Torme @ The Black Heart

Friday night finds me heading down to The Black Heart in Camden to see a guitar legend, but first I have an appointment at the bar - yes, Brewdog! Rapidly refreshed I get to the venue in time to see Smoking Martha.

This mob are all the way from Australia and have been hard at work touring the UK. Their sound is raw dirtyrock 'n' roll. They look and sound like they mean business! Like their compatriots AC/DC they are tight and hard, but without sounding too similar.

I don't know when Smoking Martha will be back in the UK, but this is definitely a band I'd be interested in seeing again.

Next up is a band who have been treading the boards on London's toilet circuit for a while - Katalina Kicks. They are grungy and very intense - with a powerful and manic drummer!

By the time the headliner takes to the stage the room is packed. Due to the crowded room and previous experience of Bernie Torme playing very loud I decide to enjoy the show from a safe (for my ears) distance!

Bernie is promoting his new 'Shadowland' double alum and this gig is the last but one show of his 'Final Fling' tour. Don't worry - the guitar legend isn't planning to give up playing live - he's just not going to tour any more. From the look on his face during tonight's show he is still thoroughly enjoying playing live! As usual, Bernie has very good musicians backing him up. He is on fine form tonight and wrings his Stratocaster to within an inch of it's life! His trademark guitar pyrotechnics litter the set and we are treated to a wide cross-section of his musical career. Obviously his solo work is heavily featured as he has a large back catalogue - so of course we get 'Turn Out The Lights', as well as the classic Gary U.S. Bonds cover 'New Orleans' from his days in the Gillan band and their appearance on Top Of The Pops.  There is also a surprise in the set when Bernie introduces a couple of songs with some emotion in his voice - saying "I haven't played these songs for over thirty years" before launching into Ozzy Osbourne's 'Suicide Solution' and 'Crazy Train'. Older rock fans will be aware of the poignancy and significance of Ozzy songs from this era and the connection Bernie has with them even though he didn't play on the albums they appeared on... Tonight was certainly a bit special.

23/11/2018 JoanOvArc @ The Amersham Arms

Friday night finds me heading south of the river. It's rare that I head down this far - on my old map it says 'Here be Dragons!'. Improved transport links make it more viable these days, but even though I only need two trains to get to New Cross it still takes well over an hour. However, I know JoanOvArc will make it worthwhile. I am also interested in checking out a venue that's new to me and looks like having quite a few events I'll like coming up.

The Amersham Arms in New Cross is a pub venue with a surprisingly large room out back where the bands play, but the ales are expensive for what seems a fairly run down working class area. As a music venue it seems well set up though. - a large stage and a decent PA.

JoanOvArc are on good form tonight, although I don't think they have any other form - I've seen them countless times and they've never been less than excellent. In fact I've seen them so many times that I'm running out of things to say about them without constantly repeating myself. I'm glad to see they seem to be getting out and playing live more often again, after been rarely seen on the live scene for a couple of years or so - possibly due to their previous management, but their current mob seem to be much more enthusiastic and on the ball!

There is a change of lineup in the band tonight - the band's usual drummer the amazing Debbie Wildish is absent tonight due to other commitments, and her place is taken by Charlotte from Haxan - who does a pretty good job standing in for one night. Don't worry Debbie fans - she'll be back for the next gig! 

As this is a headline show JoanOvArc get to play a long set. We get the band's usual powerful and passionate performance, with a mixture of the old favorourites like 'Live Rock N Roll', 'White Trash', 'Dragon In The Sky', and 'Seeds Of Summer', along with newer songs like from their latest album Ride Of Your Life like 'Running Away', 'Work', and also new single 'Girls Wanna Rock'.

As the set draws to a close the band are joined by a guest - Sam from Haxan joins drumming sister Charlotte on guitar/vox for a cover - I can't remember which song as I'm writing this months later....  Shelley Walker hands over her guitar to Sam for the song and takes a spare guitar and amp instead - which then refuses to work!

As JoanOvArc's set comes to an end the crowd are still demmanding more. With no one from the venue trying to stop them, the band launch into a load of classic rock covers - including a spectacular 'Whole Lotta Love', and songs by AC/DC and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Stand-in drummer Charlotte really steps up to the plate on these cover songs - probably because she's far more familiar with them than playing JoanOvArc songs - she seems particularly good on the AC/DC song. The show ends with JoanOvArc doing an outstanding 'Freebird' that would leave most other bands for dead!

After the end of the show the venue security quickly hustle everybody into the front bar - annoying as I would have liked to have had a chance to talk to the band. By this stage the front of the pub seems to have turned into some sort of club night - playing utterly shite music and with an irritating crowd of trendies. This doesn't encourage me to hang around and buy any overpriced beer so I head for the station - and then things start to go wrong.... My efforts to find out train times before leaving the pub were a waste of time - the train I was planning to catch has been delayed, and is eventually cancelled. The same fate befalls the next two trains as well.. After an hour I'm cold and bursting for a piss, and of course there is nowhere to go and there are loads of people on the platform also waiting for a train. There is NO information provided about the train service - everyone is left in the dark. Eventually a train arrives - on the opposite side of the station and everyone has to rush over to the farthest of the four platforms is case it leaves without us! Just when things seem to be looking up I find this train won't be going as far and Highbury & Islington. A while later I find myself stuck at Dalston Junction as the train company have decided to terminate it there. By now I am desperate for a piss. Guess what? Dalston Junction has no toilets. The next train isn't due for some time. I am eventually forced to leave the station and go for a piss outside in some undergrowth before the next train arrives. My journey home which should have taken not much over an hour eventually takes over three cold and miserable hours thanks to the shit late night train service! This doesn't encourage me to go to any more gigs in New Cross....

16/11/2018 Supersuckers @ Oslo

Tonight finds me off to Oslo to see a band. "Wow - that sounds a bit far" you say? Not really - it's a new venue in Hackney - no planes required to get there - just a couple of trains. In fact the venue is in the old Hackney Central station building. This means the station, venue, and nearest Wetherspoons are all very close by - which is handy. The venue itself is actually in a very attractive (from the outside) old building. Suspecting that the oddly named Oslo will feature an overpriced and not to my taste selection of beers I head for the nearby Baxters Court after getting off the train - which turns out to be a good move as I manage to time my arrival at the venue just before the band hit the stage, although actually getting in and past security seems to take an unnecessarily long time considering I already have a ticket - this place needs to get it's shit together. Also, when I went for a piss later the building/door layout meant anyone on the corridor outside had view of people actually pissing in the toilet when the door was open - well fucking dodgy! How can this be allowed to happen in 2019?

Once I get in I find the band playing in a surprisingly small upstairs room - not tiny, but smaller than The Garage or other London venues I have seen them in in the past.. The room is pretty full, but not packed so maybe it didn't sell out? Last time I saw the band was at the much larger Islington Academy. Bar issues aside I think I prefer this place though - it's more intimate and less corporate.

It's a few years since I've seen Supersuckers - who apparently think the Rolling Stones don't hold the copyright to the title 'The Greatest rock 'n' roll Band in The World'. Cross country music with punk, rock & roll, and mix in Motörhead, The Ramones, and ACD/DC then you might get some idea of what Supersuckers are like - country music was never this fast and LOUD!

Supersuckers used to be one of my favourite live bands, but like Backyard Babies and Danko Jones I thought they lost their edge a few years ago. Something else has changed with the band that I didn't know about - they have now slimmed down to a three piece. Guitarists Dan 'Thunder' Bolton and Rontrose Heathman have both gone since I last saw the band, with 'new' guy 'Metal' Marty Chandler now the sole 6 stringer. He is pretty good though! There has been a bit of a 'revolving door' for Supersuckers drummers for years and Chris Von Streicher is now occupying the drum stool - he's pretty good too. Frontman/bassist Eddie Spaghetti is now the only original member, and he has been out of action for a while due to throat cancer - bad news at the best of times, but even worse if you are a singer. His voice doesn't sound like it used to, but to be honest he was always more of a shouter and screamer than a singer - 'hollerin' as he describes it. Eddie is an excellent frontman all the same, and you can definitely detect Lemmy as an influence - not so surprising as this band have always been fans of Motörhead, and Lemmy liked Supersuckers too.

I'm missed this band on their last one or two visits to the UK, but I think one of them was touring to promote one of their new 'country' albums so I wasn't so bothered. Now they are back as a full-on rock 'n' roll band though, and when I found out they were going to play their 'Evil Powers Of Rock 'N' Roll' album in full I knew I had to get a ticket! I love that album - it is such a terrific collection of really great songs! As advertised, they duly played the whole album, and I loved every minute. Just hearing that alone I would have gone home happy, but there was more...

I have to say that this certainly wasn't the best lineup of the band I've seen, but even in their slimmed down form Supersuckers are still a great rock 'n' roll band. The rest of the setlist spanned the band's 30 year career - including the crowd pleaser 'Pretty Fucked Up'.  To be honest I found the lead song 'The History Of Rock 'N' Roll' from the new album 'Suck It' rather disappointing, but after hearing 'The Evil Powers Of Rock 'N' Roll' album in full almost anything would be an anti-climax.  However, the band redeemed themselves by finishing their set with the brilliant 'Born With A Tail' from their excellent 'Sacrilicious' record - I reckon that is still their best song and sums their whole attitude up perfectly. That's enough to send me home happy!