I've not had a musical interlude for a while. So let's have one.
It's not all death metal round here, you know. Every now and again I like to wig out to a bit of 1970s prog rock. Check this one out. Uriah Heep, performing their classic 'The Wizard' on some television show.
Bad lipsynching! Flowery jeans! Dancers in hotpants! Mick Box giving it some axe attack! An audience that looks like it doesn't know what it's doing there! Ah, those were the days...
Showing posts with label heavy metal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heavy metal. Show all posts
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Mud & Metal
I spent last weekend in a field in Derbyshire with several thousand other people. We were all there for one reason.
Metal.
The Bloodstock Open Air music festival takes place at Catton Hall in Derbyshire each year. It's considerably smaller than European ones such as Germany's Wacken or France's Hellfest. I don't know what the actual attendance at Bloodstock Open Air 2008 was, but I'd guess around 8,000 - 10,000 people. It was certainly higher than last year.
Much as I'd enjoyed Bloodstock Open Air 2007, I'd only planned to attend in 2008 if bands I liked were playing. So when Opeth signed up, it was hard to resist. Add in Swallow the Sun and Akercocke, and resistance was futile. I also quite fancied seeing the likes of Eluveitie, Týr, Moonsorrow, Soilwork (again), Napalm Death and At the Gates. The headlining acts on the Saturday and Sunday night - Dimmu Borgir and Nightwish - I was not so keen on.
Calin also wanted to do Bloodstock again. And this year, we were joined by Craig, another work colleague. So the three of us bought tickets, booked the days off work, and made our plans...
Friday 15 August at 10:30 a.m., and Craig turned up in his car. We headed off to pick up Calin (and his camping gear). The plan was to arrive at Catton Hall around midday - in time to get the tent pitched before the first performance.
Except this year, Bloodstock actually started at 10:00 a.m., not 4:00 p.m. Still, the first band I really wanted to see, Akercocke, weren't on until 2:55 p.m., so there was plenty of time...
Once Calin and his gear was aboard, we stopped off at Asda for beer, water, baby wipes and assorted other items. And then onto the M1.
Which is where it all started to go horribly wrong.
Craig had googled for Bloodstock's venue, and taken the postcode from Catton Hall's website to use in his GPS. The route it gave him struck us as odd, but it was the right distance so we didn't question it too much. We should have done. There are apparently two Catton Halls. One in Derbyshire - the location of Bloodstock. And one in Cheshire. Which is where we ended up.
So we didn't arrive at the Bloodstock until much later than planned. After Akercocke's set, in fact. Damn.
It didn't get better. There were a few other changes instituted this year. Such as, no parking the car near the tents. All vehicles had to stay in the designated car park, which was allegedly a "short distance" from the camping field. Lies. It was a good ten minute walk. Another new rule was a limit of one case of beer per person in the camping area over the entire weekend.
We arrived, carried the gear through two fields until we found somewhere to pitch the tent, put it up, had a can of beer, and then made our way to the arena. The increase in size was immediately obvious. Not only were there more clothing stalls and more food vendors, but also a funfair, with bumper cars and a couple of rides - the ones that are guaranteed to make you lose your lunch. Especially when you're drunk. There were also lots more people.
And lots more security. They were checking the bags and pockets of everyone entering the arena. Not for weapons. For beer. No cans or bottles were allowed in the arena. Fair enough - that could be a safety issue. But when the bouncers were turning back people who were carrying paper cups of beer purchased inside the arena earlier, it was clear it was really about forcing festival-goers to buy their drinks from the arena bars.
At £3.50 a pint.
And there was a 10p surcharge on the paper cups. But you could get this back at another stall. I thought this was quite a good idea - less litter, more environmentally friendly. Until I discovered the surcharge only applied to alcoholic drinks. There was no 10p refund on cups which had held soft drinks. Which made the whole thing mostly pointless.
Still, music festivals are about the, well, the music. We were there to see bands perform. I didn't get to see everyone but - with the exception of Akercocke and Týr (who had actually been on before Akercocke) - I did get to see everyone I had wanted to:
Friday. I caught the opening of Soulfly's set, but I'm not a fan so I left after a couple of songs. Helloween none of us bothered with. Power metal. Ugh. But, of course, we were back in front of the stage for Opeth. They're a favourite band, but that night they were disappointing. I've seen them twice before and both times they were excellent. However, the sound wasn't good at Bloodstock, and the set was too laid back.
Saturday. Eluveitie were entertaining. It's not every day you see a metal band with a member who plays a hurdy gurdy. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people carrying around flags at the festival, and they often got in the way and blocked the view of the stage. Swallow the Sun, who followed Eluveitie, were good. The sound could have been better, but I plan to buy their new album (released later this month). I saw the start of Napalm Death's set, but they're a bit too frantic for me - I prefer some music with my noise. Craig and Calin stayed; and said afterwards that the set had been very good. With lots of insane moshing. I watched bits of Soilwork, and they sounded pretty much as they had done when I saw them at Rock City late last year. I was in the arena when Dimmu Borgir played, but I avoided the stage. I couldn't hear them, but I saw all the pyrotechnics. That suited me fine: I'd seen them the year before at Rock City - well, I'd caught one song of theirs there. It was enough to tell me I didn't like them. The audience looked to be the biggest yet, though. But then, they were one of the headliners. I also managed to catch a couple of bands in the Scuzz tent. One or two of them weren't bad.
Speaking of flags, Calin bought a Romanian flag (since he is, after all, Romanian), and carried it around all Saturday. Later that morning, he was approached by a bloke who was also Romanian. He was at Bloodstock with a group from Scruffy Murphy's, a well-known rock pub in Birmingham. We spent much of the weekend in the company of Cornell and Semina, the two Romanians in the group. Unhappily, the flag was stolen from outside our tent while we were asleep on Saturday night.
Throughout the weekend I saw flags from a number of countries, among them Sweden, Finland, Norway, Russia, Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Australia... and one I couldn't identify. I asked and learned it was Slovenia. Oh, and lots of Union Jacks, of course.
Sunday. The three of us plus Cornell and Semina went for lunch at the White Swan in Walton on Trent, and very nice it was too. There were two bands on at 1:00 p.m. we wanted to see - Alestorm on the main stage, and Serotonal in the Scuzz tent. We managed to make it back, albeit ten minutes late. Serotonal were excellent. They finished before Alestorm, so I also caught the end of the pirate metallers' set. The five of us then hung around the arena for a bit until the next band appeared...
It was bad enough the fairground rides pumping out Tina Turner and Bon Jovi, and drowning out the stage in some areas of the arena; but there was also a DJ blasting out commercial metal to advertise Monster energy drink. They had a couple of armoured cars - no, I've no idea why; and a "Ball of Steel". This last was some twelve or fifteen feet in diameter, and at regular intervals three blokes on small motorcycles would do a Wheel of Death-type act inside. And every time they did it, the announcer's patter was identical. Even the "ad lib" joshing during which the DJ "persuaded" the announcer to stand inside the ball while the motorbikes whizzed around him was word-for-word the same.
Then it was time for Kataklysm. They're not a band I know, even though they play the sort of no-frills death metal I will happily listen to. I don't know what it was, but everything seemed to come together right for them. The sun shone, and the wind dropped. The sound was excellent. The crowd were in the right mood, too. Before the band appeared, a group of moshers had been entertaining us - one of whom was in a kilt, and happy to demonstrate exactly what he was wearing underneath. Or wasn't. These moshers had also tried human pyramids, but kept on falling down. Then they did high-speed Ring a Ring o'Roses, which resulted in most of them being flung at speed into the surrounding crowd like bowling balls...
Kataklysm definitely gave the set of the weekend. Nothing afterwards came close. We missed As I Lay Dying and Overkill. And had fun on the bumper cars while we waited for At the Gates to appear on stage (they were good, but I'm not a big fan). Last act of the night, and clearly the most popular of the festival, was Nightwish. Another band I don't particularly like. The pyrotechnics were impressive; the music less so.
Of course, no music festival in the UK is complete without a downpour. Bloodstock Open Air 2008 was no exception. Friday was glorious, but torrential rain had been forecast for the Saturday. In the event, it didn't rain until late that day, and it wasn't as heavy as promised. It rained for most of Sunday. The camp site turned into a quagmire - although happily not where our tent was pitched. A lot of our stuff got wet, however; and we still ended up muddy.
And, of course, no report on a music festival in the UK is complete without mention of the chemical toilets. I'd been suffering from a bad stomach the week before, which had me worried. The combination of that and portaloos did not bear contemplating. But on the Thursday, I discovered that the Bovril I'd been eating each day was from a contaminated batch. I stopped eating the Bovril, and my stomach immediately recovered. And yet, the toilets at Bloodstock... were actually better than the previous year. They smelled, yes; and when they filled up they were stomach-churning. But they stayed clean, and they were emptied regularly. Of course, there weren't enough. There never is.
Bloodstock Open Air 2008 was bigger and more commercial than 2007. That was both good and bad. I didn't see as many bands I liked as last year, but the selection was better. And some I watched proved to be good. There was also more of a festival atmosphere. But the beer was expensive and the security was intrusive. If they want people to buy beer in the arena and not sneak in cans, they should sell it at a reasonable price - like £2 a pint. Mind you, it's not as if music festivals are about music. They're about money. Hence the expensive beer, the expensive burgers (£5!), the expensive jacket potatoes (£4!), and the annoying Monster energy drink marketing. Ironically, the CDs on sale were mostly cheaper than on the high street.
Will I go in 2009? Probably. And almost certainly if the line-up is good. A festival is pretty much the only chance I get to see bands which don't tour the UK, such as Swallow the Sun or Eluveitie. There are certainly plenty I'd like to see, but haven't done so yet. And just as many I'd happily see again.
Metal.
The Bloodstock Open Air music festival takes place at Catton Hall in Derbyshire each year. It's considerably smaller than European ones such as Germany's Wacken or France's Hellfest. I don't know what the actual attendance at Bloodstock Open Air 2008 was, but I'd guess around 8,000 - 10,000 people. It was certainly higher than last year.
Much as I'd enjoyed Bloodstock Open Air 2007, I'd only planned to attend in 2008 if bands I liked were playing. So when Opeth signed up, it was hard to resist. Add in Swallow the Sun and Akercocke, and resistance was futile. I also quite fancied seeing the likes of Eluveitie, Týr, Moonsorrow, Soilwork (again), Napalm Death and At the Gates. The headlining acts on the Saturday and Sunday night - Dimmu Borgir and Nightwish - I was not so keen on.
signed up, it was hard to resist. Add in Calin also wanted to do Bloodstock again. And this year, we were joined by Craig, another work colleague. So the three of us bought tickets, booked the days off work, and made our plans...
Friday 15 August at 10:30 a.m., and Craig turned up in his car. We headed off to pick up Calin (and his camping gear). The plan was to arrive at Catton Hall around midday - in time to get the tent pitched before the first performance.
Except this year, Bloodstock actually started at 10:00 a.m., not 4:00 p.m. Still, the first band I really wanted to see, Akercocke, weren't on until 2:55 p.m., so there was plenty of time...
Once Calin and his gear was aboard, we stopped off at Asda for beer, water, baby wipes and assorted other items. And then onto the M1.
Which is where it all started to go horribly wrong.
Craig had googled for Bloodstock's venue, and taken the postcode from Catton Hall's website to use in his GPS. The route it gave him struck us as odd, but it was the right distance so we didn't question it too much. We should have done. There are apparently two Catton Halls. One in Derbyshire - the location of Bloodstock. And one in Cheshire. Which is where we ended up.
So we didn't arrive at the Bloodstock until much later than planned. After Akercocke's set, in fact. Damn.
It didn't get better. There were a few other changes instituted this year. Such as, no parking the car near the tents. All vehicles had to stay in the designated car park, which was allegedly a "short distance" from the camping field. Lies. It was a good ten minute walk. Another new rule was a limit of one case of beer per person in the camping area over the entire weekend.
We arrived, carried the gear through two fields until we found somewhere to pitch the tent, put it up, had a can of beer, and then made our way to the arena. The increase in size was immediately obvious. Not only were there more clothing stalls and more food vendors, but also a funfair, with bumper cars and a couple of rides - the ones that are guaranteed to make you lose your lunch. Especially when you're drunk. There were also lots more people.
And lots more security. They were checking the bags and pockets of everyone entering the arena. Not for weapons. For beer. No cans or bottles were allowed in the arena. Fair enough - that could be a safety issue. But when the bouncers were turning back people who were carrying paper cups of beer purchased inside the arena earlier, it was clear it was really about forcing festival-goers to buy their drinks from the arena bars.
At £3.50 a pint.
And there was a 10p surcharge on the paper cups. But you could get this back at another stall. I thought this was quite a good idea - less litter, more environmentally friendly. Until I discovered the surcharge only applied to alcoholic drinks. There was no 10p refund on cups which had held soft drinks. Which made the whole thing mostly pointless.
Still, music festivals are about the, well, the music. We were there to see bands perform. I didn't get to see everyone but - with the exception of Akercocke and Týr (who had actually been on before Akercocke) - I did get to see everyone I had wanted to:
Friday. I caught the opening of Soulfly's set, but I'm not a fan so I left after a couple of songs. Helloween none of us bothered with. Power metal. Ugh. But, of course, we were back in front of the stage for Opeth. They're a favourite band, but that night they were disappointing. I've seen them twice before and both times they were excellent. However, the sound wasn't good at Bloodstock, and the set was too laid back.
Saturday. Eluveitie were entertaining. It's not every day you see a metal band with a member who plays a hurdy gurdy. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people carrying around flags at the festival, and they often got in the way and blocked the view of the stage. Swallow the Sun, who followed Eluveitie, were good. The sound could have been better, but I plan to buy their new album (released later this month). I saw the start of Napalm Death's set, but they're a bit too frantic for me - I prefer some music with my noise. Craig and Calin stayed; and said afterwards that the set had been very good. With lots of insane moshing. I watched bits of Soilwork, and they sounded pretty much as they had done when I saw them at Rock City late last year. I was in the arena when Dimmu Borgir played, but I avoided the stage. I couldn't hear them, but I saw all the pyrotechnics. That suited me fine: I'd seen them the year before at Rock City - well, I'd caught one song of theirs there. It was enough to tell me I didn't like them. The audience looked to be the biggest yet, though. But then, they were one of the headliners. I also managed to catch a couple of bands in the Scuzz tent. One or two of them weren't bad.
Speaking of flags, Calin bought a Romanian flag (since he is, after all, Romanian), and carried it around all Saturday. Later that morning, he was approached by a bloke who was also Romanian. He was at Bloodstock with a group from Scruffy Murphy's, a well-known rock pub in Birmingham. We spent much of the weekend in the company of Cornell and Semina, the two Romanians in the group. Unhappily, the flag was stolen from outside our tent while we were asleep on Saturday night.
Throughout the weekend I saw flags from a number of countries, among them Sweden, Finland, Norway, Russia, Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Australia... and one I couldn't identify. I asked and learned it was Slovenia. Oh, and lots of Union Jacks, of course.
Sunday. The three of us plus Cornell and Semina went for lunch at the White Swan in Walton on Trent, and very nice it was too. There were two bands on at 1:00 p.m. we wanted to see - Alestorm on the main stage, and Serotonal in the Scuzz tent. We managed to make it back, albeit ten minutes late. Serotonal were excellent. They finished before Alestorm, so I also caught the end of the pirate metallers' set. The five of us then hung around the arena for a bit until the next band appeared...
It was bad enough the fairground rides pumping out Tina Turner and Bon Jovi, and drowning out the stage in some areas of the arena; but there was also a DJ blasting out commercial metal to advertise Monster energy drink. They had a couple of armoured cars - no, I've no idea why; and a "Ball of Steel". This last was some twelve or fifteen feet in diameter, and at regular intervals three blokes on small motorcycles would do a Wheel of Death-type act inside. And every time they did it, the announcer's patter was identical. Even the "ad lib" joshing during which the DJ "persuaded" the announcer to stand inside the ball while the motorbikes whizzed around him was word-for-word the same.
Then it was time for Kataklysm. They're not a band I know, even though they play the sort of no-frills death metal I will happily listen to. I don't know what it was, but everything seemed to come together right for them. The sun shone, and the wind dropped. The sound was excellent. The crowd were in the right mood, too. Before the band appeared, a group of moshers had been entertaining us - one of whom was in a kilt, and happy to demonstrate exactly what he was wearing underneath. Or wasn't. These moshers had also tried human pyramids, but kept on falling down. Then they did high-speed Ring a Ring o'Roses, which resulted in most of them being flung at speed into the surrounding crowd like bowling balls...
Kataklysm definitely gave the set of the weekend. Nothing afterwards came close. We missed As I Lay Dying and Overkill. And had fun on the bumper cars while we waited for At the Gates to appear on stage (they were good, but I'm not a big fan). Last act of the night, and clearly the most popular of the festival, was Nightwish. Another band I don't particularly like. The pyrotechnics were impressive; the music less so.
Of course, no music festival in the UK is complete without a downpour. Bloodstock Open Air 2008 was no exception. Friday was glorious, but torrential rain had been forecast for the Saturday. In the event, it didn't rain until late that day, and it wasn't as heavy as promised. It rained for most of Sunday. The camp site turned into a quagmire - although happily not where our tent was pitched. A lot of our stuff got wet, however; and we still ended up muddy.
And, of course, no report on a music festival in the UK is complete without mention of the chemical toilets. I'd been suffering from a bad stomach the week before, which had me worried. The combination of that and portaloos did not bear contemplating. But on the Thursday, I discovered that the Bovril I'd been eating each day was from a contaminated batch. I stopped eating the Bovril, and my stomach immediately recovered. And yet, the toilets at Bloodstock... were actually better than the previous year. They smelled, yes; and when they filled up they were stomach-churning. But they stayed clean, and they were emptied regularly. Of course, there weren't enough. There never is.
Bloodstock Open Air 2008 was bigger and more commercial than 2007. That was both good and bad. I didn't see as many bands I liked as last year, but the selection was better. And some I watched proved to be good. There was also more of a festival atmosphere. But the beer was expensive and the security was intrusive. If they want people to buy beer in the arena and not sneak in cans, they should sell it at a reasonable price - like £2 a pint. Mind you, it's not as if music festivals are about music. They're about money. Hence the expensive beer, the expensive burgers (£5!), the expensive jacket potatoes (£4!), and the annoying Monster energy drink marketing. Ironically, the CDs on sale were mostly cheaper than on the high street.
Will I go in 2009? Probably. And almost certainly if the line-up is good. A festival is pretty much the only chance I get to see bands which don't tour the UK, such as Swallow the Sun or Eluveitie. There are certainly plenty I'd like to see, but haven't done so yet. And just as many I'd happily see again.
Friday, 13 June 2008
Old Rock Stars Never Die...
... they just end up playing gigs in Holmfirth. For those of you who don't know the place, Holmfirth is where they film Last of the Summer Wine, a sitcom about three wily old codgers which has been running on the BBC since 1973. And Holmfirth is where I saw a band from my youth, Blue Öyster Cult, perform live last night.
I was a big fan of BÖC during my teens, and last saw them live in 1988. Twenty years ago. Sadly, they haven't done much since then - they were dropped by their record label, released three albums a decade later on an independent label... with whom they subsequently fell out. And so are now without a recording contract once again. But they continued to tour. Or rather, some of the original members of the band continued to tour.
I forget how I discovered BÖC were playing the UK. I remembered being surprised they were appearing in Holmfirth - as well as the more usual venues in London, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow. But Holmfirth is an easy drive away, so I decided to go see them (and persuaded Craig to accompany me and provide transport). I didn't really know what to expect - this is a band that formed the year after I was born, and whose original members are now in their sixties.
But you know what? They were bloody great.
The evening didn't start well. Craig wanted to test his free GPS - and it soon proved it was worth every penny he'd paid. It randomly decided that we really wanted to visit a field somewhere near Hepworth, rather than Holmfirth. And then it would utter directions like "drive straight for a while," "drive some yards", and "turn slightly left". We actually took a wrong turn shortly after entering Holmfirth - which took us directly to the venue. The GPS had suggested some other roundabout route, which was a mile longer.
The venue was weird - a cinema built in 1912 and currently being refurbished. No seats, a fancy gold proscenium arch and balcony, scaffolding and bare brickwork. I'd ordered the tickets on-line, to be picked up at the "box office". Except they claimed I'd cancelled the payment. Which I hadn't. So I went to get more cash from the ATM so I could pay for them. Only to be told when I returned that they'd made a mistake. I hadn't cancelled my payment. Someone else, a Mr Hassal, had. And they'd got confused. As Craig pointed out, the hassle with the ticket sales had been caused by confusing Mr Sales with Mr Hassal...
Happily, BÖC were definitely on form. Only two of the original group remain: Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma. The set-list was a trip down memory lane. Pure rock nostalgia. The most recent song they played was 'Shooting Shark' from 1983's Revölution By Night.
When BÖC started out in 1967, technology couldn't deliver studio-quality sound on-stage. So bands would play extended "live" editions of songs - something to make the concert experience stand out. That was certainly the case last night. The highlight of the gig had to be 'Then Came the Last Days of May' from Blue Oyster Cult. It's a classic song, but last night it was even better. When it came to the solo, Richie Castellano took the lead. I wondered if Buck Dharma no longer had the chops to play it. But no, after five minutes of scorching guitar-work from Castellano, Buck Dharma took over. And delivered another five minutes of superb soloing.
Other fan favourites - '(Don't Fear) The Reaper' and 'Godzilla' - were also greatly extended. In fact, during 'Godzilla' the band left the stage, giving Danny Miranda five minutes to solo on his bass. Which was then followed by the obligatory drum solo from Jules Radino. (Danny Miranda, incidentally, also plays bass for Queen + Paul Rogers, so we were treated to a quick instrumental Queen medley.)
Other tracks performed included 'Harvester of Eyes', 'This Ain't the Summer of Love', 'Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll', 'Career of Evil', 'Black Blade', 'Unknown Tongue' and 'Burnin' For You'. It was all bloody good. (Even Craig admitted as much, and he was born nearly 10 years after BÖC released their first album.)
Best gig of the year? Too soon to say yet. But it was certainly the best one of the year so far. I don't care how old they are - if BÖC are back touring in the UK next year, I'll go and see them. Again.
I was a big fan of BÖC during my teens, and last saw them live in 1988. Twenty years ago. Sadly, they haven't done much since then - they were dropped by their record label, released three albums a decade later on an independent label... with whom they subsequently fell out. And so are now without a recording contract once again. But they continued to tour. Or rather, some of the original members of the band continued to tour.
I forget how I discovered BÖC were playing the UK. I remembered being surprised they were appearing in Holmfirth - as well as the more usual venues in London, Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow. But Holmfirth is an easy drive away, so I decided to go see them (and persuaded Craig to accompany me and provide transport). I didn't really know what to expect - this is a band that formed the year after I was born, and whose original members are now in their sixties.
But you know what? They were bloody great.
The evening didn't start well. Craig wanted to test his free GPS - and it soon proved it was worth every penny he'd paid. It randomly decided that we really wanted to visit a field somewhere near Hepworth, rather than Holmfirth. And then it would utter directions like "drive straight for a while," "drive some yards", and "turn slightly left". We actually took a wrong turn shortly after entering Holmfirth - which took us directly to the venue. The GPS had suggested some other roundabout route, which was a mile longer.
The venue was weird - a cinema built in 1912 and currently being refurbished. No seats, a fancy gold proscenium arch and balcony, scaffolding and bare brickwork. I'd ordered the tickets on-line, to be picked up at the "box office". Except they claimed I'd cancelled the payment. Which I hadn't. So I went to get more cash from the ATM so I could pay for them. Only to be told when I returned that they'd made a mistake. I hadn't cancelled my payment. Someone else, a Mr Hassal, had. And they'd got confused. As Craig pointed out, the hassle with the ticket sales had been caused by confusing Mr Sales with Mr Hassal...
Happily, BÖC were definitely on form. Only two of the original group remain: Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma. The set-list was a trip down memory lane. Pure rock nostalgia. The most recent song they played was 'Shooting Shark' from 1983's Revölution By Night.
When BÖC started out in 1967, technology couldn't deliver studio-quality sound on-stage. So bands would play extended "live" editions of songs - something to make the concert experience stand out. That was certainly the case last night. The highlight of the gig had to be 'Then Came the Last Days of May' from Blue Oyster Cult. It's a classic song, but last night it was even better. When it came to the solo, Richie Castellano took the lead. I wondered if Buck Dharma no longer had the chops to play it. But no, after five minutes of scorching guitar-work from Castellano, Buck Dharma took over. And delivered another five minutes of superb soloing.
Other fan favourites - '(Don't Fear) The Reaper' and 'Godzilla' - were also greatly extended. In fact, during 'Godzilla' the band left the stage, giving Danny Miranda five minutes to solo on his bass. Which was then followed by the obligatory drum solo from Jules Radino. (Danny Miranda, incidentally, also plays bass for Queen + Paul Rogers, so we were treated to a quick instrumental Queen medley.)
Other tracks performed included 'Harvester of Eyes', 'This Ain't the Summer of Love', 'Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll', 'Career of Evil', 'Black Blade', 'Unknown Tongue' and 'Burnin' For You'. It was all bloody good. (Even Craig admitted as much, and he was born nearly 10 years after BÖC released their first album.)
Best gig of the year? Too soon to say yet. But it was certainly the best one of the year so far. I don't care how old they are - if BÖC are back touring in the UK next year, I'll go and see them. Again.
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