Concerts I've seen

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Bobbie Dazzle played some quite respectable '70s glam tinged rock. She has a good voice, and at times also veered into Tethro Tull style prog as well, the flute obviously contributing to that. Not bad, but not something I'll go out of my way to see again.

This was the first time I'd seen Vixen in quite a while. They'd recently decided to ditch Lorraine Lewis in favour of a new singer, Rosa Laricchiuta. On tonight's evidence, that was absolutely the right decision. She has a great voice, and this is the best Vixen lineup and best Vixen performance I've seen since the classic lineup in the '80s. A slightly subdued version of my favourite Vixen song, "Love is a killer" was perhaps a minor disappointment, but strong showings from "How much love", "Cryin'", "Hard 16" and "Edge of a broken heart" more than made up for it.

Lita Ford started off badly. It's hard to say exactly what was wrong, but the first few songs were really pretty ropey and expectations for the rest of the show weren't high. Fortunately, it picked up mid way through the set and the second half was much better, with "Can't catch me" and "Close my eyes forever" being notable. For "Cherry bomb", she brought support acts Bobbie Dazzle and Vixen up on stage to join her in place of her regular band.

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Atravion kicked the evening off with some prog, and alas it was the worst type of prog. All technical wizardry and no thought given to the needs of the song. There's no denying the technical competence of the band (although the vocalist was flat at times), but there were no songs there to hold it all together.

On to Rites To Ruin, then. A band I've seen several times before, and as ever, Krissie's vocals are the standout feature here. She really is one of the best frontwomen you'll ever find. As good as the band are, I think there's maybe some of the Triaxis magic missing on the songwriting front. What's there is still very good, and "Santanico", "For the love of gold" (the best I've ever seen it played) and the title track from the new album, "Daughter of hatred" were all notable. But I think they stop a little short of greatness.

This was the final show of the "Fractures" cycle before Dakesis release the next album. As such, they chose to play most of the album here, with only "Hold forever" and "Legacy in memory" missing, being replaced by the only non-Fractures song tonight, "The great insurrection". As ever, the band can do little wrong in a live setting and this was another excellent performance. Highlights were "Ends of time, part 1", "Kairos", "The great insurrection" and of course, "Fractures".

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No support for this one, just Avantasia. I've seen them a few times before and while they've always been good, it has felt a little predictable and by the numbers. Tonight was different. A fantastic performance from all of the performance, and easily the best Avantasia show I've seen so far. Highlights of a 22 song setlist were many, but for me, "Reach out for the light", "Dying for an angel", "The wicked symphony" and "Farewell" were all particularly noteworthy.

Colm started the evening off by playing some reasonably entertaining acoustic folk music. Enjoyable enough, but nothing to really write home about. "Rattlin' bog" was good and ending the set with Stan Rogers's "Northwest passage" were notable high points.

I was vaguely aware of Miracle Of Sound, but wasn't really familiar with the material. It's largely music inspired by video games, and not knowing the games, I suspect I might have missed out a little there. But it was decent enough mostly rock music. Sometimes heavier, sometimes more lightweight. Gav was struggling with a sinus infection and apologised for not being able to sing as well as he'd like. On top of that, the guitarist had dislocated his finger earlier in the day. They were late to the stage, and I suspect that was while they worked out which parts he could play and which they'd have to splice in recordings from the previous night into the click track to cover the parts he wasn't able to manage. Again, I enjoyed the set, but it wasn't an outstanding performance. The highlight was "Valhalla calling" - in part because it was the only track with which I was familiar before the show, but also because it genuinely is his best song for my tastes.

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There's not much I can say about Fury that hasn't already been said. They're a fantastic live band and tonight was another example of that. Tonight they played a track from the new album, "Interceptor" which sounds promising. They also had Nyah take the lead vocals on "Lost in space" which worked well, although I think having JJ filling things out on the chorus would have been even better. Fury are a must see band for me right now, and if they're playing anywhere near to me, I'll be in the audience.

As with when I'd seen this same lineup in the same venue a year earlier, Firewind just felt a little flat. Not bad by any means, but just lacking the spark that separates a good show from a great one. Herbie seems a little more at ease in the singer role and I think his voice had improved too - probably due to increased familiarity with the material. But somewhow the performance seemed to be missing something, at least at the start. Things picked up at the halfway point with "The fire and the fury" and "Ode to Leonidas". They stepped it up again towards the end with Nyah doing a fine job of the female vocals on "Breaking the silence" and with "Maniac", "Head up high" and "Falling to pieces" rounding things off. I like the band, but it does seem like their best material is in the past, and they know it and tailor the live set accordingly. They have the talent to come up with more great songs. Let's hope they're able to do so again.

I'm not much of a fan of Ola Englund's main band, The Haunted. But he comes across well online and I was intrigued to see what his solo output would be like. It's better than The Haunted. Lots of chugging riffs, with some electronic bits thrown in for good measure. Apart from one song which was straight up blues and for me probably the highlight of the set. He's a decent enough guitar player, but there wasn't enough on the songwriting side to maintain my interest.

Like Ola, Bernth and Berthoud are making big waves in the online world, and they've teamed up here to play together in the real world, hence the Escape The Internet tour name. Both are extremely capable players, but for me it was all a bit flat. The guitar vs bass battle and the accompanying dialogue was cringeworthy. Just get on and play the music, don't waste time trying to fake a rivalry that clearly isn't there. And the music itself? Very competently performed, but just not enough bite to it and I found nothing there to pique my interest in any meaningful way. In particular, I was hoping for plenty of shredding from Bernth and it just wasn't there. Bernth's wife came out to sing for a couple of songs and those songs were head and shoulders above the rest of the set.

A year after the death of Magnum guitarist and songwriter Tony Clarkin, Bob decided to do a short run of shows to remember him and the music he wrote, with Tony's long time guitar tech taking over the six string duties. As such, this was effectively a greatest hits show from the band's 50 year career. It was split into two sets with a short break between the two. The first set was good, with notable songs coming in the form of set opener "How far Jerusalem" and "Les morts dansant". If the first set was good, the second was fantastic. "Soldier of the line", "Just like an arrow", "Need a lot of love", "On a storyteller's night", "Kingdom of madness" and "The spirit". Absolutely fantastic. I was slightly suprised we didn't get the standard set closer "Sacred hour", but that didn't detract from a great evening. It was an emotional show, and Bob was in tears at the end. But it was a fitting send off for the band.