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Live review: British Lion at Blackbox, Hastings 23/1/24

Hastings music scene, Live reviews, Rock music, , , , , , , , ,

Well it’s not every day you get to the chance to see Steve Harris from Iron Maiden performing in a small upstairs venue above a bar on a wet Tuesday night in Hastings. But it seemed like an extremely promising choice for my first gig of 2024. Strictly speaking, it was actually my first ticketed gig of the year because I did see the impressive Lost Asylum in the Carlisle (Hastings’ main rock pub) a few nights back.

Blackbox is a great small venue but it can sometimes take quite a while to fill up. Not tonight though, as the place is completely packed-out as I walk in and the support act has already just taken the stage. Multi-instrumentalist and singer-song-writer, Tony Moore, was very briefly in an early line-up of the fledgling Iron Maiden but remained friends with Steve Harris over the years which landed him the support slot. He tells the crowd that as a kid he got to see Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Ziggy Stardust. And he ended up wanting to be all of them. His multi-media one-man show ‘Awake’ is a flamboyantly bombastic mix of prog-meets-glam-meets-rock-opera. It’s slightly bonkers and absolutely glorious. Hugely entertaining, moving and packed full of great songs, it was not what I was expecting at all as the opener tonight but I’ve definitely added Tony Moore to my list of people worth seeing again.

I’d long been aware of British Lion, Steve Harris’s side-project which originally started out as a solo album and then evolved into a fully-fledged touring band . But in terms of actually seeing them live or hearing either of their two albums they had completely escaped me. I turned up, therefore, without any familiarity with the material and with a completely open mind about what to expect.

It is said that Harris formed the band as both an opportunity to pursue different writing styles, away from the Maiden-esque long epics, and also to get up close and personal with audiences playing the small, sweaty clubs. I’m completely won over a few seconds into the first song and although British Lion is obviously a very different beast to Iron Maiden, they do come across as being very much a Steve Harris vision of what a successful rock band should be about. And that is meant as a compliment. There’s some real power-house rhythm, front and centre of the band’s sound, a great collection of songs with some shit-hot memorable melodies and while it’s all done on a miniscule scale compared to Maiden, the whole thing just oozes energy and charisma.

The band themselves (Richard Taylor – lead vocals, David Hawkins and Grahame Leslie – guitars and Simon Dawson – drums, alongside Harris on bass) work great together. This looks and feels like a proper band not just an occasional side project and the crowd clearly contains many dedicated British Lion fans, not simply Iron Maiden fans wanting to get a glimpse of Harris in the flesh. Every song from across the band’s two albums (plus a couple of newbies) is greeted like an old friend and I came away thinking I had some catching up to do. The merch desk didn’t seem to have any CDs for sale and Amazon drew a complete blank as well but I’ve just ordered their first album off ebay. I have got some serious catching up to do. British Lion are superb!

britishlionuk.com

Set-list:

This Is My God

Judas

Father Lucifer

2000 Years

The Burning

Legend

These Are the Hands

A World Without Heaven

Spit Fire

The Chosen Ones

Land of the Perfect People

Us Against the World

Wasteland

Lightning

Last Chance

Eyes of the Young

Live review: Tytan / Praying Mantis at Blackbox, Hastings 22/11/23

Hastings music scene, Live reviews, Rock music, , , , , , , ,

Blackbox on the main thoroughfare in the heart of Hastings Old Town is proving to be a superb small music venue for the town. It is pretty much what the name suggests, a 200+ capacity oblong room with the stage across the front, the bar across the back and, unlike many small venues inhabiting reconfigured old buildings, there are no awkwardly-placed pillars or over-congested bars getting in the way of sightlines. Black Box is fast-developing a reputation for pulling in some pretty big-name acts, too. They’ve recently welcomed both Mike Peters from the Alarm and Mark Chadwick from the Levellers and in January they are due to host British Lion, the side-project of Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris. Tonight it’s the turn of New Wave Of British Heavy Metal legends, Praying Mantis, who are supported by another veteran name of the era, Tytan.

Tytan were the band put together by Angelwitch bassist, Kevin Ruddles, on the demise of the original Angelwitch in the early ’80s. That band also fell apart after a couple of years, although their debut album was eventually released in 1985. Then in 2016 Ruddles reformed Tytan – now fronted by the impressive Tony Coldham who possesses a fantastic rock voice with a great vocal range. Providing top-notch support, Tytan deliver a superb slice of powerful but melodic early 80s heavy metal, performing songs from both their original 1985 album, Rough Justice, and its Iong-awaited 2017 follow-up, Justice Served. I was impressed enough to pick up a copy of the former from the merch desk and would certainly enjoy seeing this band again.

Unlike Tytan, Praying Mantis are a band I have seen live on several occasions in recent years, courtesy of numerous retro-themed hard rock and heavy metal weekends. Although not quite as chequered as the aforementioned Tytan, like many still-touring bands of the original NWOBHM era, Praying Mantis have still have something of a chequered past with various changes in personnel and a long hiatus throughout most of the ‘80s. For the past decade, however, the band’s line-up has been entirely stable with Dutch lead vocalist, John Cuijpers, fronting the band; alongside guitarist Andy Burgess, drummer Hans in’t Zandt and the ever-present Troy brothers, Tino on guitar and Chris on bass. As he alluded to on stage, Tino Troy has recently moved to Hastings which definitely assured him an extra warm welcome tonight. Not exactly a home-coming gig it was more of a housewarming party.

Few bands of the NWOBHM era are able to combine machine-gun heaviness with finely-polished melodiousness quite like Praying Mantis and tonight was no exception. It’s a superb set and the quality of material the band continues to release these days means that they are not simply reliant on old stage favourites – with the eponymously named ‘Praying Mantis’ and the ecologically-themed ‘Children Of The Earth’ from the band’s early days, appearing alongside the excellent ‘Cry For The Nations’ from the band’s 2022 album and other newer material.

An excellent night of old-school heavy metal in a superb local venue.

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