By comparison to the previous couple of months, July was going to be pretty quiet on the gig front. FOREVER NEVER were back in town and played a good set, special mention to ECHOVIRUS and the ever wonderful SCUMFACE who played brilliant support slots.
Living in Manchester, when MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA are in town, well you’ve got to go, haven’t you?? I wasn’t too familiar with their back catalogue but enjoyed their performance so much I left with their latest album in my pocket. A really nice surprise was support act KEVIN DIVINE. I knew precisely nothing about him, and when I saw it was going to be a one-man acoustic set I thought about heading to the bar (I don’t normally ‘Do’ acoustic stuff!!)- thank heavens I didn’t.Kevin proved to be a captivating performer who played the most sublime 30 minutes of acoustic songs I can remember- the highlight being the title track off his ‘Brothers Blood’ album, which I ordered the moment I got home. I’d love to see this guy do a full band set.
To round out the month, BRITROCK down at JB’s in Dudley looked interesting. DEMON were the real stars of the evening, even though they did only get a crazy 45 minute slot. I’d really enjoyed HANGING DOLL’s debut album but they didn't really have good enough sound to do their performance justice. HOSTILE were really disappointing- I’d enjoyed their show at Download 2008, but this looked – and sounded – like a completely different band to me. By the time OLIVER/DAWSON SAXON came on, the whole thing was running over an hour behind. As I’d be seeing a fair bit of the ‘other’ Saxon (Biff Byford’s band) in the next few weeks, it was a good chance to compare the two.ODS were pretty good, playing most of the old 80’s classics with some of their own more recent material thrown in for good measure. The singer in this band doesn’t try to ‘be’ Biff Byford at all- his style is much more Velvet Revolver than 80’s Saxon, so it adds an interesting slant to the performance.
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