Travelling North is the debut album from this Edinburgh-based folk trio. Curmudgeon is made up of Donald Gorman, Laurie Brett, Donald Gorman and Andrew Macintyre
Donald Gorman is a highly rated Edinburgh-based fiddle player specialising in traditional Scottish music. He also plays mandola and adds accompanying vocals on the album.
Laurie Brett, meanwhile, is the band’s lead singer and guitarist and although originally from Essex, he’s spent the last four decades based in Scotland.
The third member of the trio, Andrew Macintyre, is a familiar figure on the Edinburgh folk session scene and a teacher of small pipes and highland pipes. In the band he plays Scottish small pipes and various whistles as well as providing vocals.
Photo: Caitlynn Neil
The ten-track album features five songs interspersed with five tune-sets. The songs are drawn from the trad. arr. canon with a couple of contemporary folk-scene favourites thrown in, including a reworking of the Richard Thompson classic ‘Beeswing’. Meanwhile the tune-sets feature a charming array of traditional jigs, airs, reels and hornpipes originating from Scotland and the north of England.
There’s a quiet, gentle dignity about the trio’s music but no shortage of creativity. The arrangements are built around the wonderful musical interplay between the three musicians. The warm, engaging vocals of both Brett and Macintyre bring empathy and sincerity to the storytelling in each of the songs and informative liner-notes provide insightful background information on the origins of each of the compositions.
Regardless of the name, it’s clear the trio have been anything but curmudgeonly in the way they’ve approached the making of Travelling North. A lovely debut.
Following a triumphant sold-out Cropredy festival this summer (see my review here), folk rock legends Fairport Convention embark on an Autumn 2025 UK tour.
Playing as a stripped back four-piece, Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Ric Sanders and Chris Leslie will take to the road in October with 23 dates across England, Scotland and Wales, rounding things off in Liverpool on November 2nd.
Interviewing Dave Pegg earlier in the year, he emphasised how important playing live still was to the band:
“We still enjoy touring enormously and treading the boards has always been what Fairport is good at. We’ve had more success playing live than we’ve had making albums.”
You can read my full interview with Dave Pegg here.
Dave Pegg at Cropredy- Photo: Simon Putman
2025 marks 40 years since the Gladys’ Leap album – the first of the reunited Fairport Convention, featuring Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg and the first contributions from Ric Sanders.
Interviewing Ric Sanders ahead of this summer’s Cropredy, we discussed the Gladys’ Leap album, and how Sanders thought he was merely being asked to contribute to a Dave Pegg side project when he first got the call:
“Peggy had this offshoot group – a fun outfit it was – and they were called Dave Pegg’s Cocktail Cowboys, of which Chris was a member as well. At this time, around about ‘85, I was just doing jazz gigs around the Midlands. Just going out, playing with different rhythm sections, like jazz musicians used to. And it wasn’t hugely lucrative, but I got by. Peggy sent me this tape and I thought he was asking me to play on a Cocktail Cowboys record because I had no idea that Swarb had decided that he didn’t want to carry on with Fairport. And so when the tape arrived and I listened to it, I thought, hello? Well, that’s Peggy playing the bass, obviously. That’s Dave Mattacks on drums. And that guitar I could tell straight away. And yeah, it turned out to be Gladys’ Leap. And I went along and my first day was just recording those three tracks that I did on the album. The standout track for me, and the one that stayed in the repertoire, is ‘The Hiring Fair’.”
You can read my full interview with Ric Sanders here.
Ric Sanders – Photo Kevin Smith
Fairport Convention’s Autumn Tour runs from 8th October to 2nd November, with some shows already sold out. Tickets are available to purchase now on the links below.
Fairport Convention – Autumn 2025 UK Tour
Wed, 8th Oct 2025 The Green Hotel, Kinross – TICKETS
Thu, 9th Oct 2025 The Green Hotel, Kinross – TICKETS
Fri, 10th Oct 2025 Byre Theatre, St Andrews – SOLD OUT
Formed in Blackwood, South Wales in 2019 the deliciously-named Revolution Rabbit Deluxe are Ant Gingell (vocals/guitar), Max Perera (vocals/guitar), Tim Lawley (bass) and Lee Titterrell (drums). The band-name was inspired by Gingell’s lifelong love of said furry friends with the random thought of one of them appearing on an iconic Che Guevara-style poster coming to him during a car journey discussing potential names one day. The ‘Deluxe’ part was then added to give a bit of extra sparkle.
The Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins and Feeder are all cited as influences, alongside the Beatles and XTC.
As the name might imply, Revolution Rabbit Deluxe are a band that certainly don’t shy away from strident political commentary in their music. The new album Rise addresses such themes as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezoz blowing money on their pet space projects while children die of hunger (‘Chapter 9’); the fashion for cheap, easy virtue-signalling while failing to address fundamental issues of corporate power and economic inequality (‘We’re So Woke – We Haven’t Slept in Years’); and standing up and being counted (‘Rise’).
While there’s certainly anger and angst (and why shouldn’t there be!), there’s also plenty of joy, optimism and bags and bags of catchy melodies to be found on this album. The shared male/female vocals also work extremely well and while Gingell takes the lead vocal on the songs already mentioned, Max Perera provides some light and shade on the album with her lead vocal contributions on tracks like the anthemic ‘Starlight’ and the more mellow, acoustically-driven ‘The Night The Stars Fell’ which closes the album.
With it’s catchy tunes, spiky lyrics and punky attitude, Rise is well worth a listen.
Growing up in Glasgow, Frances Morton is a much celebrated flute-player with familial roots in both Scotland and Ireland. Learning piano at a young age, she later took up whistle and flute, winning several All-Ireland medals and becoming immersed in the session scenes in both Scotland and Ireland.
Since then, Morton has performed at festivals and concerts across Europe and the USA and has appeared in programmes for the BBC and TG4. Now living in Ireland, she has been active in the session scenes in Belfast, Galway and Donegal, playing alongside local musicians.
Sliocht is Morton’s debut solo album. Meaning ‘trace’ or ‘lineage’, it celebrates Morton’s Scottish and Irish musical heritage where, from her extensive repertoire, she has curated a selection of jigs, reels, strathspeys and marches that have held a particular meaning for her throughout her life, all accompanied by an extensive set of liner notes, tracing the origins of the traditional tunes and explaining where she first learned them.
Produced by guitarist, Eamon McElholm, the album features a number of the top-flight traditional musicians Morton has collaborated with over the years, including fiddle-player, Ciarán Tourish; singer, Doimnic Mac Giolla Bhríde, on the one vocal track; Mark Maguire and Seamus O’Kane playing bodhrán on several tracks; and Ryan O’Donnell and Malcolm Stitt on bouzouki. Julie Langan, fiddle player from Mayo, also plays on one track.
From lively jigs to mighty reels to graceful airs, this album is packed full of majestic tunes and equally majestic playing, immediately transporting the listener from wherever they may be to the bars, community halls and timeless rugged landscapes of Scotland and Ireland. Dedicated to the memory of her late father, Sliocht celebrates Frances Morton’s musical heritage in style and does her forebears proud.
Singer-songwriter, John Jenkins, was once part of Liverpool’s ‘80s post-punk scene as a member of The Persuaders and Come in Tokio but as the decades rolled on it was as a solo performer and on the Americana scene where he began to really make his mark.
I reviewed his third album, the extremely promising Growing Old (Songs From My Front Porch) back in 2020, noting “Jenkins’ lyrics have a nice turn of phrase to them and he can clearly turn out some really, strong memorable melodies, too.”
A further album, If You Can’t Forgive You Can’t Love followed in 2021. However, it was his next album Tuebrook, that appeared to be something of a gamechanger and cemented his reputation as a critically-acclaimed figure on the UK’s Americana scene. Following a well-received EP, Weary, in 2024, Jenkins is back with a new full-length album.
John Jenkins: “My previous album, Tuebrook, was deeply personal, with most tracks drawing inspiration from significant moments in my own life. For this new album, I aimed to return to storytelling, crafting narratives that were less autobiographical yet still rich in character and emotion. Even while consciously creating fictional personas, I found that elements from my own experiences and the lives of those around me naturally wove their way into the fabric of the songs. The result is a blend of truth and fiction, where distinguishing one from the other is often challenging.”
Drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding album and Nanci Griffiths’ Last of the True Believers, Restless Hearts explores the theme of restlessness with songs about those who, in one way or another, are searching for more in their lives.
Restless Hearts demonstrates just what a gifted storyteller John Jenkins is. Its twelve tracks hit the sweet spot in capturing that enigmatic blend of sadness, longing and hope, set to some instantly appealing melodies and with a crack squad of A-list musicians, bringing depth, emotion and sheer class to this gorgeous collection songs. Highly recommended.
Psychedelic indie alt-rock band, Innocents Abroad, were formed in Liverpool by four students in the 1980s: Martin Malone (guitar), Peter Mills (vocals), Stuart Hilton (drums) and Steve Goodrich (keyboards). After recording two albums (Quaker City in 1986 and Eleven in 1988) the band went their separate ways and, like many other bands of that era that was seemingly the end of the story.
But improbably, they released their third album back in March of this year. Three of the four original members (Hilton, Malone and Mills) are back in the fold, each bringing their different musical perspectives and life experiences. These days, Hilton occupies the drum-stool for the band, Cult Figures, alongside running a degree course in animation; while Malone has pursued a solo career as well as recording with both Eskimo Chains and The Scaremongers and is also an award-winning poet. After spending time in Eastern Europe, meanwhile, Mills returned to the UK to teach music at English universities. Around ten years ago, they started occasionally playing together once again, with Malone and Mills eventually writing songs with one another and the bones of an album beginning to take shape.
With the addition of Jane Breed (bass/vocals) Late Spring weaves together the band’s love of jangly Rickenbacker rock with strands of European pop and folk music, Bossa Nova and cult movie soundtracks. Once memorably hailed by the Guardian as a “home-grown answer to REM”, the new album has picked up plenty of plaudits, with comparisons being made to the US Paisley Underground scene and bands like Hüsker Dü and 10,000 Maniacs. Listening to Late Spring there’s no shortage of home-grown comparisons to make either – and devotees of Merseyside legends like The Las and The Coral will find lots to love here.
With jangling Rickenbacker, soaring melodies and joy-infused, trippy vibes, Innocents Abroad have created a polished and confident album bursting with exquisitely-crafted indie-pop anthems.
When tickets for Cropredy 2025 went on sale, it was announced that there would be some changes to the festival this year, with far fewer tickets available. Interviewing Fairport’s Dave Pegg back in January, he explained the thinking behind the new approach as follows:
“Gareth Williams our CEO came up with several formulas for trying to make it pay. It’s always been such a gamble, the last couple of years especially. Because when you don’t know how many tickets you are going to sell, you can’t budget. You’re guessing about the number of people who are going to turn up. Gareth’s idea – we’re only going to sell 6,500 tickets and we’re only selling three-day tickets. Because we know we’ve got that lump of income and we can budget accordingly without the risk of going bankrupt.“
As well as fewer tickets, the festival line-up was to look somewhat different, too. The era of big-name headline acts like Chic and Madness and Alice Cooper, who had previously graced the Cropredy stage in a bid to widen the festival’s appeal and get more bums on (folding) seats, was over. Instead, there would be far more focus on acts that the festival organisers knew and had worked alongside.
The big question, therefore, is did this new formula work? Clearly, there was no problem shifting tickets, with the vast majority being snapped up by February and with the festival selling out well in advance. Arriving at the campsite on the Thursday afternoon, it didn’t feel much different, although a couple of fields previously used for camping had apparently been taken out of use.
The Cropredy crowd (Photo: Simon Putman)
I was also wondering whether the slimmed-down attendance would leave us all rattling around in the main arena field but it didn’t feel like that at all. Walkways had been rejigged, the big screens at either side of the stage had been replaced by a single screen at the back of the stage but overall it very much felt like the same old Cropredy I’d been going to for the past fifteen years.
Richard Digance up on the big screen (Photo: Simon Putman)
So, enough of the festival arrangements, what of the music? I must admit that one of the real attractions for me when I first started going to Cropredy in 2010 was the mix of folk, acoustic and classic rock acts. I loved having Status Quo and Rick Wakeman and Little Feat alongside Thea Gilmore and Breabach and Bellowhead. Unlike some of the diehard Cropredy goers, I was perhaps more worried about the potential for the new ‘Friends of Fairport’ formula to squeeze out some of the rockier elements. That didn’t happen at all though. I got my fix of both folk and classic rock, in some respects more than I could possibly have hoped for.
Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble join Fairport Acoustic on stage (Photo: Simon Putman)
On the folky side, obvious highlights for me included Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble, whose massed ranks begun their set by joining Fairport Acoustic on stage, for an epic rendition of ‘The Lark In The Morning’ instrumental medley from the Liege & Lief album. Scottish folk band Skipinnish were another highlight for me, with a thrillingly energetic set, my second time seeing them this summer as they also performed at the New Forest Folk Festival. A special mention, too, should go to the kids of Cropredy Primary School Folk Class who kicked things off at the festival. We only made it in time to hear their last couple of songs but what a wonderful idea to link the village and the festival this way and how lovely it was seeing the huge cheer for them as they made their way from the backstage area afterwards to a waiting gaggle of proud parents.
The traditional hanky waving during Richard Digance’s set (Photo: Simon Putman)
On the rock side, the festival organisers demonstrated that you didn’t need to be in the megabucks league to attract some decent classic rock acts. My many years of going to music weekends at Butlins showed me that it’s perfectly possible to line up some talented rock names without bankrupting yourself.
Trevor Horn (Photo: Simon Putman)
The Trevor Horn Band, making their third appearance at Cropredy, were hugely entertaining as ever, blasting out a deluge of hits that Horn had had a hand in, from Frankie Goes To Hollywood, to Buggles to Yes – with the added bonus of Lol Creme of 10CC on guitar and some Godley & Crème/10CC hits thrown in, too! They were originally booked under the old formula for the previous year, however, and had to reschedule because of illness so the situation was slightly different.
Martin Barre (Photo: Simon Pitman)
The same cannot be said for Martin Barre (ex-Jethro Tull) and Deborah Bonham (sister of Led Zep drummer, John) whose sets were clear highlights of the weekend, none more so than the latter whose special guest almost certainly provided the highlight of the weekend for many, with none other than Robert Plant stepping on to the stage to perform sizzling versions of ‘Ramble On’ and ‘Thank You’ from Led Zeppelin’s second album. It doesn’t get much better than that at Cropredy.
Robert Plant joins the Deborah Bonham Band on stage (Photo: Darren Johnson)
I didn’t get to see everyone who performed and there were acts (like Bob Fox & Billy Mitchell) I would have liked to have seen but didn’t. However, I’ve never spent the entire day in the field from mid-day to midnight. For me, time spent at the campsite, catching up with friends early in the evening and relaxing ahead of a late night finish, is as much part of the Cropredy experience for me as the music. Plus, in the last few years, our camping group has also chosen to spend a little bit of time at the Cream of the Crop festival in the adjoining field and this time we got there just in time for an explosive set by the excellent Burnt Out Wreck, the band fronted by former Heavy Pettin’ drummer, Gary Moat. No-one can say I didn’t get my fill of hard rock at Cropredy this year!
Burnt Out Wreck at Cream of the Crop next door (Photo: Simon Putman)
Fairport Convention, of course, rounded things off on the Saturday night with their usual mammoth set featuring a mix of familiar old favourites, revisited deep cuts, covers with guest artists (this time Ralph McTell and Danny Bradley) and more recent material penned by the band’s own Chris Leslie. While a couple of our camping group head back to the campsite before the end, missing ‘Matty Groves’ and ‘Meet On The Ledge’ is not something I could ever contemplate so we make our way to the front in time for a rousing ‘Matty’ (with accompanying animated video hilariously interpreting the storyline through the medium of Lego) and an always emotional ‘Meet on the Ledge’.
Ralph McTell is a guest during Fairport’s set (Photo: Simon Putman)
While it was the end of Cropredy for another year, it wasn’t quite the end of our camping trip as we had booked for several days at a lovely campsite ten miles away, just outside Barford St. Michael. The spirit of Cropredy was never far away though. The village of Barford St Michael, itself, was once home to Dave Pegg and the studio he established, Woodworm Studios, where Fairport recorded numerous albums. The studio is still in operation, although no longer owned by Peggy these days.
The Hook Norton Brewery (Photo: Simon Putman)
While camping, we also took a trip to the village of Hook Norton for a tour of the Hook Norton Brewery, who in recent years became the official suppliers for the Cropredy festival bar, taking over from Wadworth. It’s an absolutely fascinating tour of this historic nineteenth century site and our engaging tour-guide was himself a Cropredy regular who had spent many years working at the festival. If you are extending your stay in the Oxfordshire countryside and want to find out how the beer at the Cropredy bar is brewed and learn more about the history of the brewery, it’s well worth a visit!
The Rock and Roll Almanac is a bumper compendium of facts, insights and snapshots in time covering events from the early days of rock and roll in the mid-1950s right up to the present day. Compiled by musician and music writer, Andrew Craneman, the book devotes a page to each day of the year, with every page containing a selection of historical rock snippets drawn from the past seventy years, along with notable births, notable deaths and a recommended single and album released on that same date.
It’s something you’ll dip into, rather than read in a single sitting but choosing a random selection of dates, I certainly got a feel for what the book has to offer.
Firstly, for my birthday (20th May) I’m interested to learn that on this day Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around the Clock’ was first released in 1954, the Rolling Stones unveiled their forthcoming new single ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ on a US TV show in 1966, Joe Strummer of the Clash is arrested but later cleared following an altercation with an audience member in 1980 and Finish rock band Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006.
Turning to today’s date (4th August) I find that the Kinks released ‘You Really Got Me’ on this day in 1964, Pink Floyd released the Piper at the Gates of Dawn album in 1967, Jim Morrisson got arrested for public drunkenness in LA in 1970 and Eagle, Don Henley, reached an out of court settlement with a US Republican candidate after the latter used parody versions of two of his songs without permission in 2010.
Craneman provides just enough background to each historical entry to keep you engaged and informed but the events detailed in the book will often encourage you to explore further, particularly if its something that you were completely unaware of before.
Keep it on your coffee table to look at each day on the relevant day in question. I’m sure I’ll be dipping in and out of it throughout the year.
I’ve read so many books over the years documenting the early days of British rock, it’s impossible to ignore what a pivotal role the Eel Pie Island Hotel played in the formative years of the careers of many important UK artists. In the mid-1960s, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Rod Stewart and David Bowie were all regular performers there. Prior to the rhythm and blues boom, it had also played host to many jazz bands, when the run-down nineteenth century hotel and ballroom became a hugely-influential venue during the 1950s trad jazz boom.
The nineteenth-century Eel Pie Island Hotel
The hotel itself has long been demolished but the Eel Pie Island Museum opened its doors in 2018, celebrating the fascinating musical and boating history of this tiny 8.9 acre island in the River Thames. The museum, itself, isn’t actually on the island but just a short walk away from the banks of the Thames at Twickenham.
Eel Pie Island today
As I was staying in London overnight for a recent trip to the O2, I thought I would pay a visit to this small museum for the first time. Staffed by volunteers and costing just £5 to enter, it’s well worth a visit for any rock or jazz fan or indeed local history enthusiast.
Display on the venue’s past as a jazz clubAcker Bilk’s iconic bowler hat and waistcoat in the jazz displayTrad Jazz gave way to rhythm & blues and rockDisplay of rock instruments and memorabilia at the museumThe Eel Pie Island roll call
There’s fascinating display of musical memorabilia and historical archives, as well as a roll call of all the celebrated artists who played there. It’s not just music either and there are also displays dedicated to the island’s boatyard history and its role as a place for artistic creativity and technical innovation, including being the birthplace of the clockwork radio, invented by the late Trevor Bayliss who had a home on the island.
Keith Richards touts for donations for the volunteer-run museum
Given the seismic roll that London has played in the history of popular music, the capital has been behind the curve somewhat in celebrating its world-class musical legacy – particularly in comparison to cities like Liverpool or Memphis. But I’m pleased to say that this is gradually being rectified and the Eel Pie Island Museum is an important addition to the capital’s music tourism scene.
For the second of my O2 gigs this summer it was back ton London for a night of Alice Cooper and Judas Priest. Normally, if I’m heading off to the capital for a big arena gig these days it’s usually for a ‘bucket-list’ artist who I’ve never seen before (like Santana last month, Eagles in 2022 or Iggy Pop in 2023). I’ve seen both Alice and Priest previously so it’s not exactly bucket-list in the strictest sense but a double-headliner bill featuring these two legends proved impossible to resist.
At previous O2 gigs I’ve tended to find myself seated high up in the vertigo-inducing upper tiers right at the very back. Even though I didn’t fork out for a premium-price ticket, tonight I was delighted to find myself right at the front, just five rows from the middle of the stage with a magnificent view of the main action.
First up was a short but incendiary set from Phil Campbell & the Bastard Sons, the band formed by the former Motorhead guitarist following Lemmy’s 2015 death which brought to an end Campbell’s three-decade stint with Motorhead. Not owning any of the Bastard Sons albums I’m not massively familiar with the material, apart from the inclusion of two Motorhead covers. These were ‘Going To Brazil’ from the 1916 album which appeared early on the set and ‘Ace of Spades’ towards the end. The latter inevitably put a big smile on everyone’s faces in anticipation of what was to come. These guys certainly know how to pull off a great warm-up set.
Kicking off with ‘Lock Me Up’, Alice Cooper’s set is as over-the-top and theatrical as ever. An exhilarating combination of blistering hard rock, glam-meets-horror showmanship and that unmistakeable, menacing vocal drawl, the hits come thick and fast – with the likes of ‘No More Mr Nice Guy’, ‘I’m Eighteen’, ‘Hey Stoopid’ and ‘Poison’ fired out one after another.
He may be doing this as a double headliner tour but just like the previous time I saw him (when he was a wonderfully incongruous addition to the line-up at Fairport Convention’s Cropredy festival back in 2013), there’s no skimping on the theatricals. A giant-sized Alice puppet dominates the stage with mock-horror excess during ‘Feed My Frankenstein’, the guillotine comes out for the traditional ritual execution during ‘Killer’ and there’s whippings and slashings galore. It was all huge fun and exactly what you expect from an Alice Cooper gig. But what came later on made everyone gasp.
Lemmy’s legacy may have been very apparent during Phil Campbell’s opening set but for the two headliners, it was very much the spirit of the much more-recently departed Ozzy Osbourne that stole the show. Both would pay tribute to Birmingham’s finest tonight.
Reappearing on stage wearing an Ozzy T-shirt, Alice roared out the lyrics to ‘Paranoid’ as the band blasted out that unmistakeable riff, joined by none other than Hollywood’s Johnny Depp. It was all genuinely surprising, touching and thrilling in equal measure.
There was just time for one more hit after that. And one more set of special guests, as original Alice Coopers members Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith joined the band on stage for ‘Schools Out’. The horror show theatricals give way to a gloriously OTT end-of-term party as giant coloured balloons are hurled across the stage and stabbed by Alice to release explosions of confetti. What a blast!
Alice Cooper setlist:
Lock Me Up Welcome to the Show No More Mr. Nice Guy I’m Eighteen Hey Stoopid He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask) Feed My Frankenstein Go to Hell Poison Black Widow Jam Ballad of Dwight Fry Killer I Love the Dead Paranoid School’s Out
Coming on stage to the strains of Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’, Judas Priest launched straight into ‘All Guns Blazing’ from the Painkiller album. Released 35 years ago, songs from that much-celebrated album feature heavily in tonight’s set. Given it’s one of Priest’s most unrelentingly heavy albums, it gave tonight’s show an unrelentingly heavy edge, with songs like ‘Hell Patrol’, ‘Night Crawler’ and, of course, the title track blasted out at breakneck speed in a demonic-sounding wall of twin guitars, a thunderous rhythm section and Rob Halford’s unmistakeable roar.
The Painkiller album is rightly held in huge affection by many metal fans. My favourite era, however, will always be the Killing Machine/British Steel days because that was my entry point into the band’s music as a young teenager. It was great, therefore, to get a blast of ‘Breaking The Law’ fairly early on – a true shake-your-fists-shout-along-at-the-top-of-your-voices all-time metal classic.
The continuing high quality of Priest albums in more recent years has also been a real cause for celebration. So it was also a treat hearing ‘Gates of Hell’ and ‘Giants in the Sky’ from the excellent 2024 album, Invincible Shield. The latter song, celebrating the continuing legacy of fallen rock legends, is given added poignancy with the death of Ozzy Osbourne earlier in the week and we get a touching video on the big screen – now including images of Osbourne. It’s also provides incontrovertible proof that, over five decades on, this is still a band that can turn out bona fide rock classics.
This is followed by a blistering version of the aforementioned ‘Painkiller’ – a sign that things are beginning to draw to a close. Having such a clear front-section view, I catch a glimpse of polished chrome in the wings and know exactly what’s coming next. Sure enough, Halford rides out on that glistening Harley Davidson to deliver a raucous ‘Hell Bent for Leather’.
Following Alice Cooper welcoming the original surviving band members on stage for ‘Schools Out’, it was an even lovelier moment seeing veteran Priest guitarist, Glenn Tipton, being welcomed on stage for the final song of the evening. Although Parkinson’s has left him visibly frail, Tipton’s delight at being up there rocking with the band for ‘Living After Midnight’ was plain for all to see. A marvellous finale to a brilliant evening of rock and metal.
Judas Priest setlist:
All Guns Blazing Hell Patrol You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ Freewheel Burning Breaking the Law A Touch of Evil Night Crawler Solar Angels Gates of Hell Between the Hammer and the Anvil Giants in the Sky Painkiller Hell Bent for Leather Living After Midnight
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