30/1/2020 Girlschool @ The Underworld

First gig of the year, and it's a good one! The Underworld isn't the best venue when it's packed, but a Girlschool gig is always great fun - if sometimes a little chaotic!

With many albums under their studded belts this band have a large back catalogue of great songs to draw from when putting a setlist together. The first couple of albums probably have the most well known 'crowd pleasers', but their most recent albums have plenty of quality material as well - even though today's 'rock' radio stations refuse to ever play anything from them, but that's another story...

There has been a lineup change since I last saw the band - original bassist Enid has gone (again) and Tracey Lamb from Rock Goddess is back in Girlschool. Again. There seems to have been quite a game of musical chairs with bass players in female hard rock bands recently with bassists from Syteria (guitarist Jackie from Girlschool's other band), JoanOvArc, Rock Goddess, and Girlschool all moving - often between the same four bands! Tracey fits in perfectly though - as she was in the band for a while before she already knows most the songs, and she obviously gets on well with the rest of the band.

There are newer songs in tonight's set, but mostly it's the 'hits' that get played and not much from the middle period of the band's career. Probably the best choice. The band still play really well and are obviously really enjoying themselves - not just 'going through the motions' like some bands from the NWOBHM era do.

4/1/2020 A night at the Dublin Castle: The storm before the calm...

Pretending to be a bass player on this occasion - I think I got away with it. We were worried not many people would come out for a gig so early in the New Year, but actually between all the bands we got a really good crowd in. Not sold out, but the venue was surprisingly full - we thought we'd only be playing to a handful of people, but in the event we got quite a few people in specifically to see us. It was great to play this legendary Camden venue - and on a Saturday night too!

The promoter was pleased and had since talked about getting us back for another gig in the summer, but little did we know what the future held. Covid-19 ensured that by March there would be no gigs for anyone - for the rest of the year. So that was my last gig with any band for the next 18 months or so...

23/11/2019 The Hip Priests @ The Black Heart

Out at a gig in a typical 'rock 'n roll toilet' for the second night running - actually this place has some of the worst toilets of any London music venue. However, The Black Heart seems to have become the most likely venue in London to find 'The most prolific band you've never heard of' AKA The Hip Priests when they make a raid down south from their native Nottingham.

To be honest I can't remember much about this gig over two years after it actually happened - apart from that it was very crowded and very LOUD.

Also, that The Hip Priests still sound like a mixture of The Stooges, Motörhead, and MC5. All of which obviously makes them really great.

And that they played 'Zero Fucks Given' and 'Shit Island' - a song which seems to be ever more apt for our times.

22/11/2019 The Spangles @ The Hope & Anchor

I've been trying to catch this lot for a while, but they don't often get down to London from Leeds and when they do it usually seems to clash with something else. There are only three people in the band, but they are all known on the scene from other outfits. When bassist Danny McCormack rejoined The Wildhearts the Main Grains were effectively over, but now part of that band has resurfaced with guitarist Ben Marsden and drummer Ginna forming The Spangles. I'm getting quite used to seeing Ben playing at this venue now as I've also seen him playing here a couple of times with the Warner E. Hodges Band - more about that in other posts on here...

Joining on vocals is Ginna's ex-Phluid bandmate Polly Phluid, who can also be seen singing with The Idol Dead. I didn't know he could play bass as well as sing but he's actually rather good at it.

The Spangles sound rather like you might expect them to if you were familiar with the members other current and past bands - it's punky rock 'n' roll and it's fun. They are all musicians who have 'paid their dues' over the years, and if you put the three of them together you get a pretty good band. I will definitely be looking out for them in the future.

16/11/2019 Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons @ The Dublin Castle

Back to one of London's best music venues to see Basingstoke's best band. Well probably anyway - I haven't actually seen every band in Basingstoke. Or any of them to be honest apart from this one, but I'd be very surprised if any of them are as good as Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons.

This band are a unique mixture of influences - from a singer mixing up Tank Girl with Catwoman, to a rockabilly guitarist who also likes Motörhead, and a drummer who puts disco beats into rock & roll songs. But put them all together and it works. Really well.

Oddly, they don't have a bass player - although they did the first few times I saw them. I don't know exactly what happened, but they have decided since that they can do without a bass player. They certainly seem to be managing OK without one.

Although there are some more modern influences this band are very firmly influenced by the classic rock & roll and rockabilly of the 1950's, albeit with a punk and very in your face attitude.

If you want to be highly entertained by some vintage sounding rock 'n' roll I can highly recommend catching Pussycat and The Dirty Johnsons if they head your way. And buy their albums - I picked up their latest one 'Ain't No Pussy' at the merch stall and wasn't disappointed.

30/10/2019 Michael Monroe Band & Electric Eel Shock @ Islington Academy

I didn't think I'd ever get to see tonight's opening act again as I thought they'd packed it in a few years ago - it's Japanese mentalist metallers Electric Eel Shock.

I am pleased to say these guys are still crazy! Their huge love of 1980's heavy metal seems a bit tongue-in-cheek - or is it? A bit like Anvil or The Darkness you are not sure if you should take them seriously or not but you can't help but be drawn in by their sheer enthusiasm and obvious love of what they are doing.

I saw this band a few times back in the day and they were always amazing! They are still enormous fun.

They look like they aren't taking it seriously, but they are actually very good musicians. Like Judas Priest or The Darkness they know what they are doing is ridiculous - but it is ridiculous fun. Sometimes it's good just to be entertained, and lets face it - a lot of heavy metal is rather silly isn't it? But it's fun - and who doesn't like fun? OK - some people don't, but that's their problem. Electric Eel shock are a celebration of all that's ridiculous and all that's fun in heavy metal. Deal with it. Or go to the bar and be miserable and moan to your mates about how some people don't take heavy metal seriously enough. The thing is, this band do take heavy metal seriously - but that doesn't mean you can't have fun while you are doing it!

However seriously (or not) you choose to take Electric Eel Shock they are enormously entertaining as long as you want to come along for the ride. I very much enjoyed seeing them again and was thoroughly entertained.

Now in the best Monty Python style "And now for something completely different".

It's only Dogs D'Amour innit? Well actually it's 'Tyla's Dogs D'Amour' - probably for legal reasons. It's actually Tyla and whoever he can rope in to play a set of classic Dogs songs. But through various lineup changes over the years and completely changing every member of the band more than once it's all those great songs that keep people coming back to see them. Tyla is maybe the last great rock 'n' roll poet and the sleazy debauched tales he tells in his songs draw you into his dark rock 'n' roll world. This is a band with a loyal following who will sing along to every song - and they really do have some great songs.

And so onto the headliners. Ex-Hanoi Rocks singer Michael Monroe has been doing this a long time now, and he's got pretty good at it. In fact he was pretty good at it back in the early 1980s with Hanoi Rocks, and then with his own solo career after Hanoi folded - and reformed years later. He's still sticking to the same formula now - but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Michael has a really great band, including his former Hanoi bandmate Sami Yaffa on bass, latter day New York Dolls guitarist Steve Conte, and Black Halos/Amen guitarist Rich Jones.

The setlist contains some Hanoi Rocks classics as well as a load of stuff from Michael's other bands like Demolition 23 as well as his solo stuff. Naturally his current band's latest album 'One Man Gang' is featured as well. This guy is still one of the best frontmen out there and puts a huge amount of energy into the show - including jumping off the stage and taking it out to the people singing while standing on the bar. See how far he is from the stage!

A top night of rock action from some 'blast from the past' acts who can still cut it today.

25/10/2019 The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing @ The Macbeth

Yes, the Scottish pub - it's a while since I've been and the place hasn't got any better. Quite the opposite in fact. Well I say 'pub', but what sort of pub sells no other beer other than Red Stripe. In tins. To call the place a dive would be an insult to divers. The place is maybe half full - unlike most shows by this band which normally sell out. However, they did also play at the Black Heart recently so... Unfortunately I couldn't get to that gig so here I am in Hipsterland. In spite of the trendy location beards are in short supply - apart from centre stage where Andy the singer manages to look far cooler than any hipster. Which isn't difficult to be honest

This gig see's this band playing in their spiritual East End heartland - appropriate as the have a song about ghosts - and how they don't actually exist.

Steampunk is alive and well - well at least it is in Hoxton tonight. The music is good and the songs are fun - even if most of the subject matter is pretty grim. And that's without even going into what the band's name actually means - something with a strong but grisly historical East End connection....

Musically, the band cross between extremely heavy death metal riffing and those lovable mockneys Chas & Dave - enhanced tonight by the band actually playing a Chas & Dave cover 'That's What I like'.

I think there is more comedy and banter in the set tonight than usual, but the band do have a professional comedian as their guitarist and a lot of the between songs banter is very funny! This is a highly entertaining band.

The band's original material is funny and inventive, but we also get another cover tonight - The Kinks 'Victoria' (also covered by The Fall) which is a terrific sing-a-long.

The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing are a very English band, but like Chas & Dave and The Kinks they are also a very London band - with a strong sense of history (especially the Victorian era) - both good and bad.

I spend some beer money on a CD from the band's merch stall instead of at the bar on overpriced tinned lager. As the beer selection at this place is so utterly shite I decide to go without and slake my thirst at another pub on my way back to the station instead....