GIG: Rage (Sheffield)

 

Five years ago, we went to the Corporation to see RAGE support Firewind, with Crimes of Passion opening. It was the middle of winter and Peavy and Lucky (drummer) were very ill and barely able to play. Fortunately the guitarist at the time was a pretty decent singer and so they managed to play a 20 minute set, which was better than nothing given we weren't interested in seeing Firewind! We also only caught the last song of Crimes of Passion's set (not that we knew who they were at the time).

Fast forward to 2023 and here we are again, downstairs in the big room this time, with Rage headlining over ... Crimes of Passion UK. We arrived part way through the C.O.P. UK set, but we still saw about 5 or 6 songs. They were surprisingly good actually, very professional and with an excellent singer. It's not really my kind of music, being a bit too melodic and not quite heavy enough, but it was enjoyable to watch and listen to and they did a spot on cover of Journey's 'Separate Ways' which I enjoyed a lot. For some reason Jean Bormann (Rage's guitarist) was playing guitar for them, though I don't think he's actually a member of the band as far as I can tell. To be honest I didn't actually realise (not being quite up to date on who is in Rage these days) so it was a bit of a surprise to see him strap on a more metallic guitar for the Rage set.

Oddly, I think his guitar playing is perhaps more suited to playing AOR since despite the change of guitar he still sounded rather 'hard rock' even on the thrashiest of Rage songs. To be honest, they probably need a second guitarist because a lot of the time Jean was playing the melodic jangly parts leaving a gap where there needed to be a beefy rhythm guitar to back it up. He should also stop hitting the wah pedal on every solo, nobody needs another Kirk Hammet. But anyway, overall Rage were great. Peavy commented on their disastrous last visit (though he said it was a couple of years ago) and his voice sounded excellent tonight. 

With 25 albums to choose from, compiling a setlist must be a nightmare but we got a good mixture tonight. Oldest song of the night was '(Don't You) Fear the Winter' from 1988's 'Perfect Man' album, alongside tracks from the 90s (End of All Days, Higher than the Sky, Black in Mind, Nevermore, Refuge and Solitary Man) and recent songs like 'A New Land' and 'Resurrection Day' from the new album. Nothing from the Victor Smolski era, which is perhaps no bad thing as I'm not to sure how Jean would have handled Victor's 'John Petrucciesque' solos.

It's a pity there weren't a few more people in attendance; in some ways perhaps it would have been better if the show had been in the smaller upstairs room, but both bands played like they were playing to a full house anyway. Unfortunately during the last song 'Higher than the Sky' the guitar cut out and after a valiant effort to continue by Peavy the song eventually ground to a halt. While the guitar techs struggled with the pedal board, Peavy led the crowd in an acapella refrain of 'Higher than the Sky' until, eventually Jean's guitar finally came back to life. 

So then we got another verse and chorus or so and that was that. A pretty good note to end a long year of gigs on, and a way better finale than the fairly rubbishy 'Dressed to Kill' gig of a few weeks ago. Thankfully the journey home was uneventful and we got home just after midnight, a far cry from the debacle that was coming home from Manchester after seeing Solar Fake a couple of months back!

VIDEO: A NEW LAND - Live at Corporation 2023

DAY OUT: London

 

Just two and half weeks on since our last visit to London we were back again, this time to visit the Banksy exhibition that we should have visited back in September. But first we had other plans, namely to visit 'Shiok!' a patisserie based in Liverpool St right next to the fancy looking Pan Pacific hotel.

We arrived just before 11am and were disappointed to notice the lack of cakes in the counter display. But we asked and were told that the cakes were on their way and would be there in about 10 minutes. I don't know why you would open your patisserie at 7am without any cakes on site, so maybe this was an aberration, or maybe they sold what they had when they opened, or maybe they don't think people want cakes before 11:15? 

I don't know. But I do know the service was pretty dismal. We bought a couple of Franklin & Sons drinks and waited for the cakes to arrive... when they turned up there was a predictable, but small, scrum at the counter but it seemed unclear who was serving and who was preparing, and it seemed to take an inordinate amount of time to serve the 5 or 6 people standing there.

Having perused the cakes on offer Rose decided to go with a yuzu coconut vegan loaf cake and I went with the clementine and chestnut croissant. As it happened, these were two of the cheaper items on offer, but really we had gone there prepared to pay good money but the options just didn't excite us enough to pay £14-15 per cake. As it happened the choices we made were very smart. My croissant cube was lovely, and the chestnut and clementine filling was delicious.

The yuzu and coconut loaf cake was nice too, but I definitely wouldn't have swapped. I also ordered two macarons (salted caramel - £2.80ea) which were underwhelming to say the least. The filling was nice and I think as macarons go these were probably as good as it gets, it's just that they are rather dull and I don't imagine we shall bother again.

Feeling surprisingly stuffed, we waddled off to Liverpool St tube and journeyed to Holborn. From there we waddled still further down Great Queen's Street and Long Acre to Covent Garden where we came across the new TAG Heuer boutique. Unfortunately it was quite small and unexciting in there and we only stayed about 5 minutes. 

During our walk we passed an art gallery (Castle Fine Art) with a rather cool painting in the window, which thanks to the Google Image search function I now know is called Metropolitan Observations by Paul Kenton. Apparently it costs £19,950 though so I don't think I shall be buying it.

And also an impressive window display of donuts including one called the David Hasselhoff. It's not immediately apparent why that is, but it was decorated with a Biscoff biscuit which has to be a positive in anyone's book.

Then we made for the Oakley vault where I agonized further over which shades I eventually want to buy, and while we were there we noticed some child-sized shades that fitted Rose's tiny head perfectly. They were very cool (green and yellow with green lenses) and unusually cheap at £82 (compared to £201 for the ones I wanted!) but then we were told that they could do them at 50% off today, which swung the decision - what a bargain! 

After that we popped in to APM Monaco where Rose tried on a couple of pairs of earrings and selected one as a Christmas present (making two Christmas presents in one day - killing it!). It's a very nice shop but Jesus Christ it was hot in there. They could probably knock a few quid off the prices if they turned the heating down a bit.

After this we headed back to Leicester Square and on to Piccadilly Circus and up Regent Street. Here we found the 'Art of Banksy' exhibition which is spread over two floors (basement and upper floor) with the ground floor being one huge 'gift shop'. The exhibition was quite good, though I had seen a lot of the pieces before in books etc. But still it was nice to see it all in one place. 

It would have been cool to see more of the 'actual' artworks, but as most of those tend to be attached to walls I suppose that's quite hard to achieve. It was enjoyable, but somehow it lacked something, like a 'hero piece', like maybe if they had got the wounded phonebox or something they could have put on its own in a room as a dramatic finale perhaps. 

By the time we'd looked round the Banksy exhibition we were ready for dinner, and so we began what turned out to be rather a long walk to the Cumberland Hotel. Perhaps next time we should make use of a tube or taxi or something. It was okay, but by the end of it our feet were really hurting and we were very ready for a sit down.

Last time we visited the Sound Cafe our chicken burgers were compromised by a rather over zealous application of mayonnaise, which resisted all efforts to shift. Thankfully this time the experience was much better thanks to our server Rachel who was very attentive, got our order spot on and brought Pepsi refills without being prompted. 

As it was 3:45pm we decided it was time to make our way back to the station, and just as well that we did since the train we wanted to catch (the 4:46pm to Rugby) was reduced from eight carriages to four meaning there were a lot of people having to stand. Thankfully we got there early and bagged our seats. The journey home still seemed endless, but at least once we got back to Rugby the last part of the journey was trouble free and we got home about 6:30, which is pretty much normal for me on a work day.

All in all it was a good day, and the Oakley shades were an absolute bargain. Don't think we'll be going back to London this side of Christmas though, I think we've seen enough of the capital for this year. 

GIG: Dressed to Kill / Not Guns N' Roses (Nuneaton)

Our first encounter with Kiss tribute act 'Dressed to Kill' was way back in 1996 at the Woughton Centre in Milton Keynes. Kiss re-union mania was at its peak then and they were doing brisk business with the Woughton Centre stuffed to the gunnels with people. We saw them again at the same venue in 2008 (a few months after my back operation - I remember having a bad back and my foot hurting like mad) and they instantly won me over by opening with 'Creatures of the Night'. We saw them the following year at JB's in Dudley and I seem to remember them being pretty good then too.

We only found out the day before that there was a support band (Not Guns N' Roses - what a super imaginative name) and ummed and aahed about whether to arrive in time to see them or not. We decided we might as well, but due to leaving slightly later than expected, another shitty rain-soaked journey, and an unplanned garage stop to get a snack, by the time we walked in they were already on stage playing 'Welcome to the Jungle'.

By the time we'd visited the facilities and made our way into the main room, 'Axl' was sitting down at his keyboard (what, no grand piano?) and the band were plodding through 'November Rain'. Following this came one of my favourite GNR tracks 'You Could Be Mine' from the Terminator 2 soundtrack, but it all sounded a bit slapdash and 'Axl' wasn't really convincing me with his vocals.

A tedious rendition of Bob Dylan's 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' followed and it was only then I noticed the poor drummer stuck in the corner behind 'Izzy Stradlin' or whoever it was that replaced him (I have no idea, never really been a fan). To be honest he was the only one who seemed to be holding the whole thing together and it was something of a relief to hear the opening refrain of 'Sweet Child O' Mine' if only because it signalled the end of the perpetual tedium.

After a half hour break 'Dressed to Kill' took the stage for an impromptu soundcheck. Unfortunately it rather undermined their 'entrance' and made one pine for the old days of stage curtains. But that wasn't all that was undermining them, as they launched into 'Detroit Rock City' it was quite obvious that at least one of the guitars was out of tune. Despite some frantic fiddling from both guitarists, it continued for the first four songs or so. It sounded to me like one of 'Paul Stanley's' pickups had been adjusted too high and it was choking the E string, but that seems like an odd mistake to make and not something that could have been accidentally moved.

Anyway, the band continued, with 'Paul' well into his stage persona and once the guitar problems improved (I wouldn't say resolved) the band got into their stride a bit more. Even so, considering they've been doing this for over 30 years and are the 'official' Kiss tribute band, like the support act they seemed incredibly slap-dash and under rehearsed. Maybe this was their first gig in a while and they haven't been able to rehearse for it or something?

No 'Creatures of the Night' tonight, nor any pyro come to that (although given the relatively low turnout that probably wasn't financially viable), but we did get to see Gene breathing fire at the end of 'God of Thunder' - which, if I'd thought about it I would have been ready to photograph! It's funny though, because while the performance was pretty lax, it did remind you how great Kiss really were in the first ten or so years of their career (nothing played was later than 1985's 'Tears Are Falling' - which one young lad at the front was bizarrely excited to hear, hardly a classic!).

And while yes, they were sloppy and amateurish, you couldn't help but enjoy 'Paul's' mincing, pouting and general all round 'Paul Stanleyness'.

Songs played included Strutter, Cold Gin, Firehouse, Do You Love Me?, Detroit Rock City, Lick it Up, I Love it Loud, Shout it Out Loud, Tears are Falling, God of Thunder, the dismal Crazy Nights, I Was Made for Lovin' You and Beth (which we heard starting up as we were leaving). I don't know if they played anything else, but it seemed a strange choice to end on and we had sausages on a timer so we had to make a move.