Although their first album seemed to pass me by at the time I instantly became a fan of the Faversham-based folk rock band, Green Diesel, when I was asked to review their second album, Wayfarers All, back in 2014. They are currently promoting their fifth album,Onward The Sun, which came out in April and which was recently described by Shindig! magazine as “folk rock at its finest.” I couldn’t agree more which is why I headed over to Brighton to catch the band live.
Performing at the charmingly elegant Folklore Rooms above the Quadrant pub, the band were supported first by Bity Booker, a London-based alt-folk singer-songwriter with beautiful songs, a sweet voice and some hilariously deadpan introductions. And by Brighton’s own The Witchcraft & Vagrancy Act, who delve into the macabre side of folk to come up with their own fabulous folk horror interpretations of traditional songs – think Cecil Sharp had he spent his time hanging around with Bauhaus and Alice Cooper.
Bity Booker
For Green Diesel, the evening provides a welcome opportunity to showcase material from the new album alongside some older favourites. There’s well-received renditions of ‘Onward the Sun!’ the album’s title track, and ‘Ring The Hill’ another superb song from the album. Ellen Care’s vocals are utterly perfect for material of this type, combining just the right amount of sweetness and menace as she lets these folklore-inspired stories unfold, backed by some psych-folk guitar-wizardry, a powerful rhythm section and her own stunning fiddle playing.
Green Diesel have never been averse to a bit of folk horror themselves, of course, and tonight’s set includes the band’s cover of ‘Maypole’ from The Wicker Man soundtrack, sung by lead guitarist, Matt Dear, and given a suitably-ominous sounding Green Diesel makeover. The band even throw in a couple of Morris tunes which comprise the instrumental segment of the new album, again given the Green Diesel treatment: heavied up and performed in minor key. Superb stuff!
Green Diesel
Green Diesel just seem to get better and better with each year that passes. And with two impressive support acts it made the trip to Brighton and the never-knowingly-reliable late train back to Hastings well worthwhile.
Given I spent the battle of Britpop firmly in the Blur camp, I passed up on the chance to buy tickets for the Oasis reunion when it was announced last summer. A couple of weeks later, however, when Supergrass announced that they would also be reforming to celebrate the 30th anniversary of I Should Co-Co, I was in the online queue as soon as tickets went on sale. Always my favourite band of the Britpop era, a chance to hear Supergrass’s debut album performed in full promised to be something rather special.
The Roundhouse is absolutely packed and although my gig companions for the evening have tickets for the main standing area, given that I sprained my ankle a few days before and thus hobbling around with a walking stick, I’m actually quite relieved that in the initial mad scramble for tickets I ended up with a seat right up in the gods.
After support from Rizzy & the Gents and Rialto, Supergrass took the stage to the siren blast and opening riff from The Sweet’s ‘Blockbuster’ before launching into ‘I’d Like To Know’ – track one from their debut album. Then, and now, the songs on I Should Co-Co fizz with youthful exuberance and pop-punk energy. “Like a nude Noddy Holder starting a fight,” is how Mojo described the album at the time. And it’s incredible to think how young the band were when they made it, especially given many of the songs had been written and demoed at least a couple of years earlier.
None more so than ‘Caught By The Fuzz’, the band’s first single and a gloriously relatable account of Gaz Coombes’ heart-pounding, stream-of-consciousness panic as he’s arrested for cannabis possession at the tender age of fifteen. Then it’s straight into ‘Mansize Rooster’, a song about a very young man with a very large appendage, followed by the ubiquitous teen summer anthem, ‘Alright’. These are a songs that have been a regular highlight of their set over many tours, of course, but there’s others from that first album getting a rare airing on this anniversary tour. Songs like the raunchy blues-rocker ‘We’re Not Supposed To’ or the swirling, psychedelic-tinged ‘Sofa (of My Lethargy)’ have barely been performed since the ‘90s.
The band’s precocious youthfulness when they wrote these songs is encapsulated in the on-stage banter when ‘She’s So Loose’ is introduced. Drummer Danny Goffey explains that it’s “about underage sex with older women.” “We might not have written this in 2025,” Gaz Coombes quickly reassures us. “We were like fucking sixteen!”
No matter. All are played to perfection tonight, the band summoning up hitherto untapped reserves of teen energy as they rip through this furiously-paced album at break-neck speed. The Roundhouse audience responds with waves of affection and impromptu crowd sing-alongs throughout the set.
After Coombes grabs his acoustic guitar and the audience sings along to the whimsical album epilogue ‘Time to Go’, there’s a still some time for a quick canter through some of the highlights from the rest of Supergrass’s back catalogue. Given the time constraints they choose well given the time constraints. The second and third albums are well-represented with three songs apiece, while there’s just one additional song – from 2002’s Life On Other Planets album. This is about celebrating the ‘90s after all!
After the monster riffing of ‘Richard III’ there’s time for the more reflective, melancholic side of Supergrass in the shape of ‘Late In The Day’, ‘Mary’ and the ever-gorgeous ‘Moving’. Then it’s another full-energy romp with a truly life-affirming rendition of early noughties single, ‘Grace’. They depart the stage to well-deserved applause.
Of course, there still two songs that we’re all still waiting for. It’s long before they are back on stage for an encore of ‘Sun Hits The Sky’ which then segues straight into a glamtastic ‘Pumping On Your Stereo’.
Supergrass absolutely nailed it. This will be the best Britpop reunion of 2025 bar none.
I’d Like to Know Caught by the Fuzz Mansize Rooster Alright Lose It Lenny Strange Ones Sitting Up Straight She’s So Loose We’re Not Supposed To Time Sofa (of My Lethargy) Time To Go Richard III Late in the Day Mary Moving Grace Sun Hits the Sky Pumping on Your Stereo
Although, regrettably, I never got to witness the classic Sweet line-up on stage, after Andy Scott revived the band in the mid-1980s I’ve been lucky enough to see them many, many times. And in spite of his well-publicised battles with cancer, he has kept the Sweet flag flying and nothing seemed to stop him getting up on stage and blasting out a slew of classic Sweet riffs on that iconic red guitar. However, when he had to pull out of an Australian tour last year and then a subsequent UK tour, after a health condition left him in excruciating pain and unable to walk, there were times when I wondered whether I’d ever get to see Andy Scott on stage with the Sweet again. Such fears were finally banished as Sweet began their tour schedule for 2025 with Scott firmly back on stage where he belongs. Rarely then, have I looked forward to a gig quite so much as this one.
First there’s support from T.Rextasy. I’ve seen plenty of tribute acts over the years and had a fair few fun evenings watching them but only a handful have really qualified as world-class tributes. Australian Pink Floyd I’d put in that category and, rightly, T.Rextasy, too. As a celebration of Marc Bolan’s era-defining glam classics tonight’s performance is pure class, with Danielz and his bandmates doing the Bolan legacy proud.
The venue is already packed solid and in those final few minutes waiting for the Sweet to come on the atmosphere is palpable. We are definitely ready, as Brian Connolly once memorably enquired. Kicking off with a high-octane ‘Action’, this first part of the set is a hardcore Sweet fan’s dream. As well as ‘Hellraiser’ and ‘The Six Teens’ from the Chinn-Chapman-penned hits, there’s some revered album tracks in the shape of ‘Windy City’ and ‘Set Me Free’, as well as a couple of songs from the band’s recently-released and extremely well-received album, Full Circle. For me an absolute highlight of this early part of the set was a stunning version of ‘Lost Angels’ from the band’s 1977 album, Off The Record. Tracks such as these – from the more album-oriented, melodic-hard-rocking side of the band’s back catalogue really give the current Sweet line-up (Scott, with Paul Manzi, Lee Small, Tom Cory, Adam Booth and guest guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick) a chance to showcase their musical prowess.
FM guitarist, Kirkpatrick, (who had admirably filled in for Scott on last December’s UK tour) has continued to perform with the band on this current tour, too. This is not because Scott has any difficulties playing – far from it – but, wisely, it clearly takes some of the pressure off the still-recovering Scott. It also allows him to take a short break while the band deliver an entertaining but not-exactly essential medley of the band’s early bubblegum, pre-glam hits. Given Scott didn’t play on the original recordings of these songs anyway, it all seems rather fitting. The next song, however, gives Kirkpatrick the chance to really work his magic – with a blistering version of ‘Burn On The Flame’.
Scott is not away for long though and to the familiar audience chants of “We want Sweet!” he’s back to give us all a sing-along-at-the-top-of-our-voices rendition of ‘Teenage Rampage’. I’m not sure if we were noisier than the usually raucous juveniles who made up the typical Crackerjack audience but in January 1974 the band performed a fully live version of that same song for the popular kids’ TV show in this very theatre. Scott gleefully recollects their time performing here for Crackerjack. I was a little too young for that still but I was at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire twenty-odd years later when Sweet performed here in January 1997.
In this latter part of the set, there’s plenty room for a few more Chinn-Chapman hits. And while I’m still not completely convinced about the need for ‘Co-Co’, ‘Funny Funny’ and ‘Poppa Joe’ in the set, I will absolutely defend the inclusion of ‘Wig-Wam Bam’, and ‘Little Willy’ – the latter marked a tentative move away from pure bubblegum pop towards a more guitar-based sound, while the former is a bona fide early ‘70s glam rock classic.
Coincidentally, the band’s days of scooping up silver and gold discs don’t seem to be quite over yet as, in a surprise moment for Scott, a US record company executive takes to the stage to present him with an award for sales of Platinum Rare Vol. 2.
After the glam sing-alongs of ‘Teenage Rampage’, Wig-Wam Bam’ and ‘Little Willy’, the mood changes completely with Tom Cory on keyboards bringing some prog-inspired grandiloquence to the proceedings as the band launch into a masterful ‘Love Is Like Oxygen’ followed by an equally magnificent ‘Fox On The Run’. An emotional Scott thanks the audience but we know there’s more to come and we’re not quite done yet. Soon enough those familiar sirens start to blast out and the band are back on stage to give this wildly-appreciative Shepherd’s Bush audience a much-demanded encore in the form of a storming ‘Blockbuster’ and a thunderous ‘Ballroom Blitz’.
In the months and years to come, who knows how many more Sweet gigs there’ll be. Andy Scott shows every sign of wanting to continue for as long as he is physically able to walk on stage, pick up his guitar and perform. I hope there’ll be plenty more nights like this for the band and I hope I get to see a few more of them myself but I savoured every precious moment of this concert as if it were my last.
Setlist:
Action Hell Raiser Circus The Six Teens Don’t Bring Me Water Lost Angels Windy City Set Me Free Coco / Funny Funny / Poppa Joe Burn on the Flame Teenage Rampage Wig-Wam Bam / Little Willy Love Is Like Oxygen Fox on the Run Blockbuster The Ballroom Blitz
My book ‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ is available to buy here and here
Bristol-based Sons of Liberty have teamed up with Sunderland-based Thieves of Liberty for the unsurprisingly-named 12-date UK tour: The Tour of Liberty.
Thieves of Liberty opened proceedings with a set of high-energy hard-rock encompassing a spectacular twin-guitar assault from guitarists Kieran Wilson and Liam Lindsley, powerful vocals from frontman, James Boak, and delivering a slew of memorable songs off their debut album, Shangri-La. This young rock band have been garnering some rave reviews of late, with comparisons to mega-league rock institutions like Bon Jovi, Van Halen and Queen no less. That’s not all just hyperbole either. Though I haven’t seen them before they are well worth keeping an eye on.
Thieves of Liberty – photo: Darren Johnson
I first became familiar with the Southern Rock-inspired Sons of Liberty when they were Introducing Stage winners at Minehead Butlins back in 2019, returning to the main stage for a well-received performance the following year. Back then, they were fronted by Rob Cooksley (AKA Greyfox Growl), whose eccentrically charismatic stage persona was very much part of the overall SoL package. For me, however, the arrival of vocalist Russ Grimmett and the subsequent release of the band’s third album, The Detail Is in The Devil, marked a significant turning point. Grimmett is such a great singer with such a fantastic vocal range that Sons of Liberty have followed Deep Purple and Iron Maiden in being one of that select number of rock bands who go from strength to strength after replacing the frontman who helped give them their initial breakthrough. Never an easy feat to pull off, Grimmett is a superb fit for the band giving them greater depth and a more polished presentation, with the whole band creating some incredible music together. They are now in a whole different league.
Indeed, while there’s a small clutch of songs from the band’s first two albums, it’s material from the band’s third album and their first with Grimmett that heavily dominates the set. Whether it’s because I’ve been playing it so much these past few months or simply that it’s a great album just rammed full of catchy, memorable tunes (probably a mixture of both to be fair!) these feel like songs that have been around for decades, not months. ‘Time To Fly’, ‘Light the Fuse’ and ‘Tertulia Time’ the three songs which open tonight’s set are all bonafide classics, the latter with a chorus like some long-lost ‘80s stadium rocker.
Photo: Darren Johnson
Huge riffs, unforgettable choruses, a monster rhythm section, stunning guitar solos and powerful vocals – all the ingredients are there for what I want from a truly great hard rock band.
This is a band that does light and shade though and one that draws from a wide palette of musical influences. There’s a change of mood and a change of pace, for example, with the semi-acoustic ‘Hawk Men Come’, the band’s powerful and moving hymn to the people of Ukraine.
As well as a smattering of earlier material like ‘Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief’ from the band’s debut album (which provides an opportunity for a crowd sing-along), there’s also an airing for a couple of new songs that didn’t originally make it to last year’s album. The unremitting wall of sound that is ‘Full Force Five’ and the defiant swagger of ‘My Town’ are ample evidence that these guys don’t look like they’ll be giving up on hitting us with plenty of great new tunes any time soon.
Photo: Darren Johnson
As proceedings start drawing to a close (and clearly demonstrating that Southern Rock was never just about whiskey-soaked hellraisin’ and over-confident displays of machismo) Grimmett introduces the very Skynyrd-ish and really rather lovely ‘Walk With You’, a touching anthem of solidarity for anyone struggling with their mental health. Then there’s just time for a blast of ‘Ruby Starr’, the band’s tribute to the female Southern Rock vocalist of that name, marking the end of another triumphant set from Sons of Liberty.
Prior to this tour, the existence of New York-based band, Tyketto, had completely passed me by. This is despite lead singer, Danny Vaughn, once fronting Pete Way’s post-UFO outfit, Waysted, for a period. I’m impressed. Accessible, melodic, AOR-tinged hard rock with a nice line in instantly-appealing riffs and catchy choruses, by the end of the set I feel I’ve known them for years. They deservedly go down extremely well.
The next band, of course, I do know. Britain might have had Last of the Summer Wine but Canada has April Wine. Formed in Halifax in Nova Scotia in 1969, the band enjoyed huge success in Canada but began finding favour with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal crowd in the early 80s. Certainly, as a young teenager I remember taping a few of my dad’s April Wine albums. With the death of lead vocalist/guitarist, Myles Goodwin, in 1969 there are now no original members left in the modern-day line-up but guitarist/vocalist, Brian Greenway, has been with them since 1977, providing a clear link back to the classic era. When my tape collection evolved into a CD collection, the April Wine albums somehow never made the transition but there’s several songs that I instantly recognise tonight and I make a mental note to rectify the lack of April Wine CDs in my collection and see what I can hunt down.
I suspect that for many in the audience, the band have remained a distant memory, albeit a warmly-regarded one. We are told that the last time the band toured the UK was back in the early 80s but they have clearly encountered an enthusiastic response on this tour. New lead vocalist/guitarist, Marc Parent, is an excellent frontman and the band work well together. Songs from the band’s 1981 album, The Nature of The Beast, which make up a sizeable chunk of the set, together with perennial crowd-pleasers like ‘I Like To Rock’, which the band open with, all go down extremely well. Indeed, I’m sure April Wine would find an enthusiastic audience should they decide to tour the UK a little more frequently – and not leave it for another forty years next time.
Regardless of whether your idea of the classic Uriah Heep line-up is Box/Byron/Hensley/Kerslake/Thain orBox/Bolder/Hensley/ Kerslake/Lawton, only one of those musicians is now still with us – the guitar legend and that ever-present force of nature, Mick Box. Since the late 1980s, albeit that circumstances have forced them to gradually evolve, Heep’s line-up has been blessed by a remarkable degree of stability, however. What’s more, the current configuration of Mick Box, Phil Lanzon, Bernie Shaw, Russell Gilbrook and Dave Rimmer have been together for well over a decade now. And not only do they treat Uriah Heep’s esteemed musical legacy with integrity and panache, they’ve also served up some excellent new music in the process, too.
It’s right, therefore, that the early part of the set is devoted to some of the band’s more recent material: ‘Grazed by Heaven’ from 2018’s Living The Dream, ‘Save Me Tonight’ from 2023’s Chaos and Colour and ‘Overload’ from 2008’s Wake The Sleeper. Sadly, there’s nothing from Outsider, my favourite of the ‘recent’ albums, but that’s a small niggle. As Bernie Shaw points out before the band move on to some of the older material, the big challenge has been to condense “fifty-five fucking years of Uriah Heep into ninety minutes”.
Then, with Phil Lanzon pounding the keys for the distinctive, grandiose intro of ‘Shadows of Grief’ from the Look AtYourself album, we are into the classic era. Gems like ‘Stealin’, ‘The Wizard’ and ‘Free ‘n’ Easy’ all follow. This tour has been dubbed The Magician’s Farewell and so, unsurprisingly, the 1972 Magician’s Birthday album is well-represented. This includes ‘Sweet Lorraine’ (about the band’s partying days back in the early 70s, according to Box, when an enthusiastic female fan called Lorraine coined the phrase that became the band’s chorus: ‘let the party carry on’), together with the title track itself and, later on in the proceedings, the epic ‘Sunrise’.
Shaw also does his best to reassure us that, in spite of the ‘Farewell’ bit in the tour’s title, this is not the end of Heep. The mammoth world tours may be coming to an end, but Uriah Heep are not quitting performing altogether and they still have plenty of new music in them, he tells us.
The pomp of those pounding keyboards, Box’s trademark wah-wah guitar, the sweet-sounding vocals, the immensely-powerful rhythm section, and of course, all those classic songs, I’m given everything that I want from a Uriah Heep gig and it’s an incredible celebration of the band’s career. Soon, however, things start drawing to a close. After a thunderous ‘Gypsy’ from the band’s debut album, we are on to the familiar opening strains of ‘July Morning’ and a stunning rendition of the band’s most celebrated song.
Curfew time is fast approaching so there’s just time for an encore with a majestic treatment of the aforementioned ‘Sunrise’ and, of course, the pure unalloyed joy that is ‘Easy Livin’’
I was still a pre-schooler when Uriah Heep released their debut album in 1970, although this year does mark 40 years since I first saw the band at Manchester Apollo back in 1985. Tonight’s performance proves beyond doubt that my enthusiasm for the band remains undimmed. I’m relieved to hear this is not quite the finale just yet.
Setlist:
Grazed by Heaven Save Me Tonight Overload Shadows of Grief Stealin’ Hurricane The Wizard Sweet Lorraine Free ‘n’ Easy The Magician’s Birthday Gypsy July Morning Sunrise Easy Livin’
Both at their summer Cropredy Festival and on many of their winter tours, Fairport Convention have long striven to provide a platform for newly-emerging artists. This current tour is no exception. Support, this time, is the Liverpool-based singer-songwriter and finger-style acoustic guitarist, Danny Bradley, whose debut album Small Talk Songs has just been released. With a fine voice, some mesmerising finger-work, a great set of songs and some wryly, self-effacing stage patter (“This is the first time I’ve been on the bill with anyone that my dad’s heard of”) and he opens proceedings very nicely indeed. As is traditional on their winter tours, the Fairport guys join Bradley on stage to act as his backing band for the final song of his set, before launching into their own.
Fairport themselves then kick things off with a rousing rendition of ‘Come All Ye’ from their genre-defining 1969 folk-rock masterpiece Liege & Lief. “An opening song that’s had a few decades off” is how Simon Nicol put it. They then stick with the Sandy Denny era for a version of Denny’s ‘Fothingay’, with beautiful twin fiddles courtesy of Ric Sanders and Chris Leslie. In fact, with the band revisiting a couple of band-composed tracks from the post-85 Fairport, we are almost coming to the end of the first set before we hear anything that can be properly considered a folk song but an equally rousing ‘Claudy Banks’ finally inserts a bit of trad. arr. into the setlist.
That’s followed by Chris Leslie’s own ‘Banbury Fair’ before the band delve back into the early days once more and round off the first half with a magnificently sprawling, brooding version of ‘Sloth’ from the much-celebrated Full House album. As I was soaking up Dave Mattacks’ wonderfully-atmospheric drumming, such an integral part of that song’s epic status on the original album, I’m reminded that with the return of Mattacks (following the retirement and subsequent untimely death of long-time drummer Gerry Conway), we now have three of the five players from that classic 1970 album performing as part of the band’s regular touring line-up. There aren’t many bands who made an album fifty-five years ago who can still claim that sort of on-stage quota!
After a short interval, the second set kicks off with another trad. arr. offering in the form of ‘The Hexhamshire Lass’. When I interviewed Dave Pegg last month ahead of this tour, he told me that the band were prompted to include the song in the set-list for this tour as they would be playing Hexham on Valentine’s night – even though “it’s quite a complicated arrangement”! No matter, even without the legend that was Dave Swarbrick, they do have the incredible musical talents of Sanders and Leslie to draw on for a superb rendition.
Photo credit Kevin Smith
Indeed, as he shares with us when introducing the next tune, it’s now 40 years since Sanders played on his first Fairport album – Gladys’ Leap. Sanders tells the audience that he was phoned up by Pegg who had asked him if he was interested in contributing fiddle to three tracks but initially he had no idea he was being asked to contribute to a Fairport Convention album. Until he heard the tracks, and the distinctive drumming of Dave Mattacks, he assumed he was merely being asked to contribute to one of Pegg’s side projects. Sanders added his fiddle sounds, of course, and the rest is history. So to mark the anniversary of that significant moment in the Fairport chronicles, the band revisit the instrumental medley from Gladys’ Leap, along with a beautifully-evocative version of ‘Hiring Fair’ with some gorgeous keyboard flourishes from Mattacks. Written for them by Ralph McTell, it’s a song that has rightly become a fan favourite over the past four decades.
Back in 2011, the band revisited the whole of their 1971 concept album, Babbacombe Lee, the tale of the convicted murderer who was condemned to death but given a reprieve after the gallows failed three times in succession. Unlike other past albums it’s not usually one where odd tracks are performed live but here we get two, the contemplative ‘Cell Song’ and the exhilarating, death-defying ‘Wake Up John (Hanging Song)’. Just as he did back in 2011 when the band performed the full album live, Leslie does a fine job singing Swarbrick’s original lyrics.
The second set is beginning to draw to a close at this stage but there’s still time for a couple more numbers before the band finish proceedings with the inevitable show-closers. There’s a joyous rendition of ‘Rising For The Moon’, Sandy Denny’s celebration of the simple pleasures of touring and performing. And, after marking Sanders’ induction to the Fairport ranks earlier in the set, we are then reminded that it’s coming up to almost three decades since Chris Leslie joined. It was his second album with the band where he really started coming into his own as the band’s principal contemporary songwriter and they revisit the title track of that album, ‘The Wood and the Wire’, Leslie’s impassioned paean to coveting, cherishing and learning to play a stringed instrument.
As we come up to curfew time there’s normally three things that happen around this point. Firstly, a sales pitch from Simon Nicol about the band’s Cropredy festival in August, followed by two perennial crowd-pleasers ‘Matty Groves’ and ‘Meet On The Ledge’. This year, there’s less of a need for the sales pitch as the now reduced-capacity festival (a financial necessity in the current climate) is very close to selling out. So, after a brief exhortation to check the website in the coming days for the final few tickets, it’s banjo-at-the-ready and time for all nineteen verses of ‘Matty Groves’, some heartfelt applause from an appreciative audience and the inevitable ‘Meet On The Ledge’. Me and my group of camping friends got in nice and early with our Cropredy ticket purchases for this year so I’ll be looking forward to singing along to it once more, as midnight approaches on 9th August. It all comes round again.
Photo credit: Kevin Smith
Setlist:
First set:
Come All Ye Fotheringay I’m Already There The Rose Hip Claudy Banks Banbury Fair Sloth
Second set:
The Hexhamshire Lass Instrumental Medley ’85 The Hiring Fair Cell Song Wake Up John (Hanging Song) Rising for the Moon The Wood and the Wire Matty Groves Meet on the Ledge
My introduction to Mott the Hoople was via the band’s final two studio albums, Mott and The Hoople, discovered while hunting through the second-hand record racks of Preston’s Action Records as a teenager in the early ‘80s. I was rebelling against the synth-heavy, over-produced music of the era and was on my very own retro-fuelled journey of discovery. Mott I absolutely adored, particularly Ian Hunter’s old-school rock and roll piano, and a few weeks later I also bought The Hoople, with Ariel Bender now on guitar and the one and only Morgan Fisher on keyboards. To me those last two albums, with all of that irresistible keyboard-playing, was the sound of Mott The Hoople and at the time I was completely oblivious to the earlier material featuring Verden Allen’s distinctive Hammond – although I soon came to love that as well.
Late-period Mott The Hoople was, therefore, very much my entry-point into what would be a life-long love affair with the band. So when I saw Morgan Fisher announce he was doing a one-off solo gig while he was over from Japan I booked my ticket straight away. I’ve witnessed each of the Mott The Hoople reunions and I’ve seen Ian Hunter perform solo many times but this was going to be unique: Morgan Fisher performing The Hoople album in full in a small sweaty music pub in Camden.
Dapperly dressed, as always, in keyboard-lapelled jacket and glass of red wine in hand, Morgan introduced ‘The Golden Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (track one, side one of the original album) by saying that Ian Hunter had originally planned to play the keyboards himself, but after nailing the keyboards on the first take, Morgan’s Jerry Lee Lewis-inspired pounding is what you hear on the album. And on it goes from there. All of those unforgettable classic tracks, played and sung exclusively for a gloriously-enthusiastic 120-strong audience.
Morgan told us that the backing tape he was playing along to was actually the sound of Dale Griffin’s drums, isolated from the original album. He explained that while AI was a terrible way of creating music it was a great way of separating out certain sounds from music that had already been created. As well as the sound of Buffin’s drums (and a chance to really hear what a superb drummer he was) there were other embellishments along the way: the odd bass-line, certain guitar riffs and some of the album’s most memorable sound effects. For the ‘I’ve got my invite’ line in ‘Roll Away the Stone’, however, Kristy Benjamin (daughter of post-Hunter Mott singer, Nigel Benjamin) stepped up to the mic to do the honours, to huge applause when Morgan introduced her.
That last song, of course, ended both the original album and the first set of the afternoon in spectacular fashion. Then, after a short break, we were back with a mix of other Mott the Hoople classics (‘Foxy Foxy’, ‘Saturday Gigs’, ‘Dudes’) together with a Nigel Benjamin-era Mott song (‘Career’ dedicated, touchingly, to his daughter) as well as some highlights from Morgan’s solo career and other collaborations – plus a bit of Bach! As the second set moved to a close, Morgan reminded us that there was one song from The Hoople that he had not yet played, pointing out that the epic, classically-influenced ‘Through The Looking Glass’ had never been attempted on stage. Until now that is…
Morgan is, deservedly, clearly still proud of his time in Mott The Hoople and praised the quality of Ian Hunter’s sharp, observational song-writing. “He should have been recognised as Britain’s Bob Dylan,” he told us before launching into a poignant, spirited and triumphant rendition of Through The Looking Glass’.
Then it was time for an encore. I’d spotted John Fiddler in the audience at the start and hoped he’d be jumping up on the stage for a couple of numbers. Sure enough, as a special encore treat, he joined Morgan on stage to deliver rousing renditions of two songs the pair had performed together as part of the post-Mott outfit, British Lions, ‘Wild in the Streets’ and ‘One More Chance To Run’. What was equally touching was seeing the very obvious five decades of friendship playing out on stage between the two.
If you’d have told me in my mid-teens that one of the ways I’d be spending my late 50s would be a Saturday afternoon in a packed north London boozer listening to Morgan Fisher pounding out old Mott The Hoople classics, I’d have been very happy with that indeed. A perfect afternoon.
Hawklords was originally a late 1970s spin-off project from the space rock legends, Hawkwind, during a time the main band was on a brief hiatus. Fast-forward to 2008 and the name was resurrected as the name for a new band featuring a handful (of the many!) former members of Hawkwind. Just like Hawkwind itself, there have been numerous changes in personnel since then but former Hawkwind members have always been a strong presence in each iteration.
Currently, Hawklords is composed of Jerry Richards on guitar and vocals, who was part of Hawkwind in the late 90s-early 00s; Mr Dibs on bass, who did an 11-year stint in Hawkwind until 2018; and Dave Pearce on drums, who was never part of Hawkwind but was a member of psychedelic-rockers, The Bevis Frond.
While most spin-off projects from veteran rock acts tend to make very liberal use of their parent band’s back catalogue, with set-lists composed mostly or entirely of a compendium of classic cuts, this is very much not the case with Hawklords. They certainly capture the sound, spirit and ethos of classic-era Hawkwind but the focus these days is very much on performing new, original material.
The band are currently promoting a brand-new album, Relativity, and there is a heavy focus on material from that on this current tour. But, as the publicity blurb aptly spells out:
“Sounding, at times, as if the music has fallen through a worm-hole from the classic 1970s era of space-rock and psychedelia, the new release explores themes including Artificial Intelligence, ‘machine learning’ and how Humanity can, in part, come to terms with all that entails.”
This is manna from heaven for any space rock devotee and fans of 70s era Hawkwind will find the key ingredients all present and correct at a Hawklords gig: the light show, the sound effects, the spoken word interludes, the hypnotic riffs, the whole shebang – but, crucially, all with captivating new songs, addressing contemporary themes relevant to the modern age.
The vintage material isn’t neglected entirely and the band give us a blast of ‘Brainstorm’ from the Space ritual album. Nick Saloman of The Bevis Frond is also invited up on stage as tonight’s guest to give us an additional blast of guitar, serving to make it an even more memorable evening. I was completely transfixed from start to finish. I also picked up a copy of the new album, Relativity, at the gig. Really well-produced it’s already had repeated plays since the weekend.
I’ve found the way I choose which gigs to go to has really changed during the time I’ve been living in Hastings. When I lived in London, my approach was very must based on keeping an eye on what all my favourite bands were up to, checking out their UK tour schedules and working out which was the best venue to get to.
My approach has now changed completely. I tend to look at what’s coming up in the two main venues closest to me (Hasting White Rock Theatre and Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion) as well as a selection of nearby smaller venues and choose accordingly. Because we are so well catered for in terms of live music on this small section of the East Sussex coast, it means I rarely travel further than a three-mile radius to get to gigs these days. However, it’s also meant I’ve tended to see a broader selection of artists, bands for whom I might be completely unfamiliar with but just fancy seeing or bands where I own just a single best-of compilation rather than their entire back catalogue. The Blockheads very much fit into that latter category. Although I ‘d seen and enjoyed them before, back when I first moved down here in 2016, I’ve still not progressed beyond that one compilation CD but I was hugely impressed with what I saw last time and keen to see them again.
There have been some changes since then, however. Derek ‘The Draw’ Hussey, the Blockheads’ frontman following the death of Ian Dury back in 2000, sadly passed away himself in 2022 and has been replaced by Mike Bennett. Veteran bass-player Norman Watt-Roy also stepped away in 2022 and Nathan King (brother of Level 42’s Mark) now does the honours. The first I knew about, the second came as something of a surprise. However, Chaz Jankel (keyboards, guitar and co-songwriter) is very much still part of the band, as is John Turnbull (guitar) and Mick Gallagher (keyboards) from the Dury-led glory years.
As Turnbull told the audience at one point the band’s main job, nay only job these days, is keeping these songs alive. And a great job they do, too. New frontman, Mike Bennett, adopts a somewhat more conventional interpretation of Dury’s songs (if anything Dury-related can ever be termed conventional) than the eccentric, larger-than-life persona of his predecessor, Derek the Draw, but his approach works well and he has an engaging stage presence. Musically, the band are as strong as ever. While I missed the charismatic presence of Norman Watt-Ray, his replacement ably delivers those funky bass licks and Chaz Jankel, John Turnbull and Mick Gallagher are clearly in their element. You can see how much joy it’s giving them still performing these songs.
As for the songs, those classics come thick and fast: ‘What a Waste’, ‘There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards’, ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll’, ‘I Want to Be Straight’, ‘Billericay Dickie’, ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’, ‘Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3’ and, of course, ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’. There’s a few I’m less familiar with and Turnbull even tells us they’ve been in the studio recording a couple of new tracks in time for Christmas. They encore with a riotous ‘Blockheads’ and a poignant ‘Lullaby for Franci/es’ with each member of the band exiting the stage one by one on the final number. A stand-out performance that celebrates the Blockheads’ back-catalogue in style and does Dury’s legacy proud.
Sadly, I never got to see the Moody Blues live. But thanks to the near-constant stream of top-class visiting legends we seem get down here in Hastings and Bexhill, this is the third time I’ve been lucky enough to see Justin Hayward performing solo in recent years.
Rather than try and replicate every aspect of the full Moody’s set-up, Hayward has devised his own unique approach with an established touring band that comprises Mike Dawes (guitars), Julie Ragins (keyboards) and Karmen Gould (flute).
Dawes is an absolute guitar genius and is hailed as one of the world’s most creative modern fingerstyle guitar performers – so before the main event we are entertained with a solo acoustic set packed full of guitar wizardry and some hilariously deadpan introductions.
After a short break, Hayward and the band hit the stage with a stunning rendition of ‘Tuesday Afternoon’. These Moody Blues classics are so well-written that you can do pretty much what you want with them arrangements-wise but as long as you have the unmistakable sound of Hayward’s vocal and those equally unforgettable flute melodies, you are immediately transported right to the heart of what the Moody Blues were about.
And the band are insanely talented. We’re soon on fabulous journey through a succession of Moodies’ masterpieces (‘Blue World’, Voices in the Sky’, ‘Nights in White Satin’ and many more), along with some well-chosen highlights from Hayward’s solo back catalogue, together with a mesmerising version of ‘Blue Guitar’ (the hit he had with Moody Blues bandmate, John Lodge) and, of course, not forgetting the Jeff Wayne / War of the Worlds classic, ‘Forever Autumn.
Along the way Hayward tells a few nicely self-effacing anecdotes, about growing up with Buddy Holly as his musical hero and finally getting to visit his birthplace, about rehearsing in the presbytery of his local Catholic church and once feeling a presence behind him in the room – but it was just someone wanting to know where the kitchen was…
As we reach the final encore with a stunning rendition of ‘I Know You’re Out There Somewhere’ I can’t help feeling a tinge of sadness that so many chapters on the Moody Blues story have closed in recent years. With the death of Mike Pinder earlier this year, none of the original ‘Go Now’ line-up of the Moody Blues are still with us. And only Justin Hayward and John Lodge now remain from the classic ‘prog-era’ post-1967 line-up. But the music they leave remains with us and Justin Hayward does a hugely impressive job in celebrating the band’s legacy with affection, panache and good humour, along with some incredible musicianship on stage beside him.
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