28/7/2019 Powerpop Weekender @ The Lexington Day 2

 Back to The Lexington for the second day of this year's Powerpop Weekender. Unfortunately I missed Autogramn and Music City, but managed to catch The Speedways.

They played very energetic and tuneful guitar driven pop punk. You might recognise the Les Paul toting guitarist on the left - it's Mauro Venegas, who you might have in the past seen playing with Duncan Reid & The Big Heads and also The Godfathers. This is a good band who I'd definitely be interested in seeing again.

Next up was Lucy & The Rats. They struck me as more punk and rock 'n' roll than powerpop but were entertaining.

Again, one or two guitarists in this band looked rather familiar. That's because Lucy herself might be from Australia, but her current guitarists used to be in another great band from London's underground rock 'n' roll scene - Johnny Throttle.

Next up are The Pencils - another band who managed to slip under my radar first time round. They seem to have a bit of a following though and are rather good.

The Pencils fit well into the powerpop/new wave and have decent songs so I'm surprised they passed me by back in the day.

The next band are rather more familiar. I have seen The Priscillas quite a few times with varying lineups over the years. Denizens of North London's infamous 'Holloway Strip' they are always great fun! Singer Jenny Drag is a natural at fronting a band and is very much the centre of attention no matter how glamorous the other members of the band may appear.

Their music is punky sleazy rock 'n' roll - think The Cramps, Shangri-Las, and New York Dolls down a dark ally and you're pretty much in the right ball park. Sticking to their roots they even have a song about Holloway Road!

Headlining tonight is Nikki Corvette - former singer of The Corvettes. An American powerpop/new wave band who also managed to evade my radar back in the day. Tonight Nikki is appearing as a solo artist playing Corvettes songs - hence being backed by The Speedways. The songs seem more pure pop than punk or rock & roll, but Nikki is a good performer and carries them off well.

And so ends the 2019 Powerpop Weekender. It's been great value for money with an excellent mix of familiar and new (to me) bands, and the quality of the acts has been very high! I'm amazed I've never heard of some of them before. Same time next year then?

27/7/2019 Powerpop Weekender @ The Lexington Day 1

The Powerpop Weekender is a two day event organised by the guys from the excellent Some Weird Sin Club who put on bands at their regular club nights. Formerly at Buffalo Bar on Highbury Corner and then The Finsbury at Manor House but more recently at a variety of other venues. For the time being they seem to have settled at The Lexington (formerly Clockwork) on Pentonville Road.

I'm writing this over two years after the event and to be honest although I saw a load of bands who I thought were really good most of them were new to me and I can't remember them. Alcohol was possibly involved as well, but probably not very much of it at The Lexington's prices...

The show was an 'all-dayer' and for reasons lost in the mists of time I arrived late and missed opening act Randy Savages, as well as Thee Dagger Debs who I wanted to see and was told I would have liked. I did catch part of the set from Rich Ragany & The Digressions. I've seen Rich a few times with his band The Role Models and liked them as they are more of a rock 'n' roll band, but The Digressions although obviously good with well written songs are far more of a pop group rather than rock and I'm afraid I couldn't really get into them.

The first band I arrived in time to see were Fast Cars. Fitting in with the theme of the event they are a punk/new wave influenced powerpop band. With loud guitar and catchy pop tunes they are very good, but like many of the bands at this event they seem to have passed me by back in the day and I don't remember ever hearing of them until now. 

They are one of countless bands who formed back in the late 1970's and 1980's and were good but never 'made it' for a variety of reasons. Some of those bands have reformed in more recent times just for fun and their own personal nostalgia. I think some of the bands at this weekend's mini-festival have reformed just for this event. I'm glad they did as there don't seem to be any duff acts from all the bands I witness over the weekend.

The evening's fun does involve a couple of really good bands who I already knew - the first being Last Great Dreamers. They are another band who somehow slipped under my radar when they first appeared back in the early 1990's and have only come to my attention in the last couple of years or so - largely thanks to hearing some of their songs on Dave Renegade's excellent weekly 'Dark Heart of Camden' radio show on Hard Rock Hell Radio. I have since managed to see them a few times and found that as well as having some really great songs they are also a particularly good live band.

Last Great Dreamers have a sound based in the 1970's and 1980's and are sometimes compared with the Quireboys, although possibly more because of their image than their music. But one thing both bands have in common is great songs. With really catchy tuneful pop/rock songs like 'Oblivion Kids', 'White Light Black Heart', 'Ashtray Eyes', 'Dope School', 'New Situation', and '13th Floor Renegades' from their albums past and present they have plenty of great material to choose from.

Then there was Duncan Reid and The Big Heads. This is very much a band of today, although with roots in the past.

Duncan Reid was the original bass player in 1970's London punk band The Boys. Not for nothing were they known as 'the Beatles of punk' with their catchy well written pop tunes powered by loud and distorted guitars. Since leaving The Boys Duncan has forged a solo career based on his own songwriting, but with a nod to his old band as at least a couple of their songs such as 'Soda Pressing', and the singalong classic 'First Time', usually find their way into his current band's live set - along with the Hollywood Brats earlier proto-punk 'Sick On You' later covered by The Boys on their first album in 1977.

However, Duncan is a pretty good songwriter in his own right, and quite prolific as he has four albums under his belt with his current band The Big Heads. On record his songs have a more polished poppy and commercial sound, but when this band plays live they take no prisoners! Nick Hughes is on lead guitar these days, with Duncan on bass/vocals, with the dynamic powerhouse that is Sophie K. Powers also on guitar and Karen Jones pounding the drums at the back and driving everything along.

Self proclaimed as "The World's Best Looking Heavy Melody Power Pop Punk Band" you'll have to make your own mind up, but as well as having a load of cracking songs they are a very good live act - the amount of energy they put out is phenomenal!

Last band on the Saturday were The Number Ones and sadly I can't remember them and can't find any pictures to jog my memory. I'm sure they were good though. So, back on Sunday for more of the same...

11/7/2019 KISS @ The O2

What a performance it was! What a performance it was actually getting my hands on the ticket I'd bought many months before from Stargreen. Who then announced that they were closing down. I'd planned to pick my ticket up from their place at Oxford Circus next time I was in the area, but by the time I had found out they were closing it it was too late and all uncollected tickets had been moved to another office and had to be picked up from there instead! Which meant a trip all the way to Elephant & Castle just to get my ticket - leaving me wishing I'd paid the extra to have it posted to me when I booked it - which would have saved me money as well as time in the long run. It took me ages to get down there, then find the well hidden office, then have a refreshing pint in a nearby pub the appropriately named Rockingham Arms before the long journey home. And all this just to get my ticket a week before the actual gig! Still, it looked like being my last ever chance to see KISS and I really didn't want to miss it.

So after one long trip into town, I have to make another one to get to the O2 in Greenwich for the actual show. It was all worth it though!

After delays on the tube I struggle to reach the venue in time, but manage to get into the venue as KISS are playing their first song of the night - 'Detroit Rock City'.

The only previous time I have ever seen KISS was at Wembley Arena. That was the most spectacular show I had ever seen by any band.

Well the O2 Arena makes Wembley look small - so I'm expecting and even bigger and better show from KISS this time...

...and I'm not disappointed - this time we get flying saucers!

Smoke! Flames! Explosions! Pyro - the full works! The sound is great too.

And all the hits! I won't bother listing them, but everything you would expect them to play - they played. They even played a song from their last but one album 'Sonic Boom' - which partly made up for my disappointment at them not playing a single song from it when I saw them at Wembley on the 'Sonic Boom Tour'.

Naturally, Gene has to do his shtick on 'God Of Thunder'

And of course, we have to go to the Psycho Circus!

Then, it's pantomime time! Paul gives us his spiel about how pleased he is that we have all come to see the show, and how he'd like to come out to us - but only if we really want him too? So of course we have to tell him we do. And then louder. And then even louder! Until he eventually does come out to see us - by leaving the stage and flying through the air onto a platform that just happens to be towards the back of the floor of the arena.

It's pure panto, but this is 'show business' - and we have paid to be entertained.

And entertained we are. Paul camps it up like it's panto season!

Then it's back to business on the main stage as different members of the band get their cameo spots.

Gene seems to love being the one everyone loves to hate and plays up to it at every opportunity!

 Balloons!

Confetti cannons!

Ego platforms?

I've never seen anything like this before!

When the band's intro says "You wanted the best - you've got the best!" they ain't kidding.

We get the usual ritual guitar smashing towards the end of the show...

...it seems a waste - but they aren't going to smash the good ones are they?

Now that's what I call a BIG ROCK SHOW!

Well it looks like that was my last ever chance to see KISS - and I'm SO glad I saw them on their last ever tour. Well they say it's the 'last ever', but I take everything that comes out of Gene Simmons mouth with a very large pinch of salt... 

Was it the best rock show I have ever seen? Yes. Alice Cooper and Mötley Crüe (mainly for the pyro) were fantastic, as were Iron Maiden and AC/DC also at the O2, but I think KISS at Wembley were even better. And tonight they topped even that. Just. The ticket price had gone up a bit since last time, but as it's a bigger venue and several years later that's only to be expected - but I thought it was still very reasonably priced compared to other big acts. And it was worth every penny!

I don't think we will ever see the like of this again.

East Barnet Festival 2019

The East Barnet Festival is always one of the highlights of the year for me. It's only a few minutes walk from home, it's free and has a wide variety of bands playing - and there is a beer tent! However, I found the bill on Saturday this year somewhat underwhelming compared to usual. Some lacklustre cover and tribute bands, plus some 'Americana' - a word that tells me boredom is imminent....  Rock & roll is in short supply. However, Country Joe Renegade livens things up with some less than politically correct songs and ramblings - probably the most entertaining act of the day as far as I'm concerned.

Things pick up a bit with the final couple of bands of the day: Ray C. and The Game - more soul/pop and not really my cup of tea but with some stage presence and polished performance. Saturday's headliners are Vigilante who rock things up a bit and are worth seeing.

Back for more on Sunday I arrive in time to see The Barnet Stormers. This is a band made up from musicians from the jam nights at various local pubs and features many well known local musos. Lead guitarist Keith Haggis gets a chance to really shine and rock out far more than he normally does in the local cover band he regularly plays in - it's great to see him cutting loose and playing the music he really wants to play. Radio Rising are next - female fronted with a competently played set of familiar rock covers and a drummer who thinks he's on stage at Donington. The Runner Brothers and Cactus take things down in intensity with more of an Americana feel, although Cactus throw in some UK indie classics as well - including a particularly good (and suiting the surroundings) 'Parklife'!

The next act is billed simply as 'A surprise act' - which is a new band fronted by well known local musician Astra - who has very probably also served you a pint in one or more of Barnet's pubs over the years.... Next up is From The Outside, who turn out to be the excellent rock act called Band Of King who have played here once or twice in past years.

Marina and The Fraud Squad are next - a very polished but more middle of the road pop cover band - Marina herself is quite entertaining. The Familly Dogg follow - a rocking band of brothers leaning a a funk and soul direction but very good at what they do. However, they don't manage to hold my attention for the whole hour they are booked to play and I find myself wandering off in the direction of the pub... Sunday's headliners are Spirit of Springsteen - a tribute act. I don't doubt they will be good at what they do, but even if they play all of the handful of Bruce Springsteen songs I actually like I suspect I will spend most of the one and a half hours they are booked to play standing about being bored waiting for them to play a song I like. And the beer tent is shutting - so the pub it is then....

The second day of this year's festival is noticeably better than the first, but even then it won't go down in history as one of the best or most memorable East Barnet Festivals. Maybe next year then?

PS: I'm not sure why I don't seem to have any more pictures - if I didn't take any more I can't remember why. Maybe I've managed to lose them somewhere on my hard drive....