Firebrand Magazine Issue 9 - June

Issue 9 - June 2013

Also Featuring Interviews With

A Sound Of Thunder

Toby Jepson

Gundacker Project

PLUS Jane’s Addiction Edenbridge Tarja Sister Sin Newman Mark Clayton

42 Decibel

Jorn Band Features News Gig Listings

THE GRAPEVINE - 5 For your latest news in the rock world!

FEATURES 06 Downloadable Content 52 Copyright Claims

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INTERVIEWS 11 A Sound Of Thunder 20 Gundacker Project 25 Nightblade 30 Toby Jepson 46 James Toseland LIVE REVIEW 14 Little Angels

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CD/DVD REVIEWS 10 Sister Sin Mockingbird 16 Tarja 17 The Front Bottoms 42 Decibel 18 Jane’s Addiciton 24 Seagall Edenbridge 29 Newman 35 Nightblade Jorn 36 Blues N Trouble Mike Zito & The Wheel 37 Federal Charm Blacktop Deluxe 38 Mark Claytor Aynsley Lister 44 Empire Of Fools Homeless Hill 45 Cardiant The Inner Road 49 Anastasio Farini Stormbringer

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PAGE 61 GIG LISTINGS - 60 2

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“It’s a long story, but it took us a long time to get back together on stage” Toby Jepson

“Strong feelings about different things are a good source of inspiration for lyrics” Nightblade

“It was a bit surreal to be honest.”

James Toseland

EDITOR IN CHIEF Rick Palin SENIOR MEDIA CONSULTANT Rachel Whiston REVIEWS EDITOR Lee Walker REVIEWS TEAM Graham Pritchard Heather Blewett Jason M. Davies Jon Seymour Mel Delacroix Paul Nicholls Stoodge Mc Nulty CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Chris Nelson MG Jen Tony Corner

“The whole thing has been taking on a life of its own” Dave, Gundacker Project

DOWNLOAD CONTENT TEAM Judith Fisher Rick Palin CONTENT DOWNLOAD sales@fbrr2010.com

“I don’t think people realise how much it actually costs to make an album.”

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES sales@fbrr2010.com CONTACT TELEPHONE +44(0)1244 940961

Josh, A Sound Of Thunder

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FROM THE EDITOR So I was having this dream last night in which Master Yoda was telling me how I am going to conquer the world (I am sure he meant conker..but have not found one quite big enough yet, and the local shops do not do really long shoe laces…and the drill bits are a bit tough to get) so now the caffeine has kicked in we shall begin.

It has been an extraordinary month in the life of Firebrand with some very exciting news on the horizon in the development of the station and the magazine which will be bought your way over the next few weeks.

Also this month the issue of Youtube copyright protection reared its ugly head, it is amazing what crap these semi big corporates can get away with (see later in this issue).

We are eagerly awaiting the launch of our new publication Firebrand After Dark in July…we really hope you will enjoy it.

Enough prattling on from me, from me and the team enjoy this month’s issue.

Peace and Respect as Always Doc

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The Grapevine Lingua Mortis Orchestra – release new track Steve Howe. “Fans did indeed love it,” states Yes co-founder and bassist, Chris Squire, “and so did we.

'Cleansed By Fire' along with a lyric-video The outstanding LINGUA MORTIS ORCHESTRA present their first track from the upcoming album »LMO«: it is the opening song 'Cleansed By Fire', in an edit version, as a lyric video. The album will be out on Nuclear Blast on August 2nd.

Blow your speakers here:

Plus, we’ll be performing pieces we’ve rarely played live. In fact, I believe the one song we never performed in concert before our three-album tours is ‘A Venture’ from The Yes Album.” Alan White goes on to say, “As with our three-album North and South American tours, this is a great opportunity to share with our European fans the growth of Yes throughout different eras, and to revisit the great memories of those times, as well as create brand new ones. We’re looking forward to touring Europe, performing these albums, and most of all, meeting our wonderful fans. It’s great fun for us, and we think our fans throughout Europe will love the performance as well.

Courteeners announce Castlefield aftershow Party at Manchester Academy on Saturday 6 July Courteeners have announced an aftershow party at Manchester Academy 2 after the second sold out Manchester Castlefield Bowl show on Saturday 6 July, which will include an acoustic performance Rock Legends, Yes, Set for Triple-Header from Courteeners frontman Liam Fray.

2014 European Tour Courteeners two headline outdoor shows, in Grammy award-winning rock luminaries, Yes, association with Fosters Good Call, are being held at announce triple-album Europe 2014 tour. The band Castlefield Bowl in Manchester on 5 and 6 July, and will perform three of rock’s most influential albums, they will play to 8,000 fans per night. Supports The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, and Going for the across both dates include Miles Kane, Reverend & One, in their entirety. the Makers, James Skelly & The Intenders, The Legendary progressive rock band, Yes, Strypes, The Heartbreaks and Findlay. The gigs sold announced it's 2014 European tour, kicking off 29 out straight away and they are the fastest selling April 2014 in Oxford, England and wrapping up 22 Courteeners shows ever. Tickets for the aftershow May 2014 in Tilburg, Netherlands. On this tour, fans party will go on sale this Friday, 21 June, at 9am can look forward to a unique Yes experience; the from www.gigsandtours.com priced at £10 per band will perform three of its most popular albums ticket. in their entirety, The Yes Album, Close to the Edge, Courteeners also recently announced that they and Going for the One. will play a warm-up show for Glastonbury and the Performing three of rock and roll’s most Castlefield Bowl headline shows on Tuesday 25 June revered albums, Yes members Chris Squire (bass), at Liverpool O2 Academy, which is now sold out. The Steve Howe (guitar), Alan White (drums), Geoff show follows the band’s support slot with The Stones Downes (keyboards), and Jon Davison (vocals), will Roses at Finsbury Park earlier this month. delight audiences with Yes staples from the last four Courteeners released new single ‘Van Der decades. Fans will enjoy long-time favourites, Graaff’ last month, the follow-up to ‘Lose Control’ including “Yours is No Disgrace,” “I’ve Seen All Good which was the first single from their top 10 album People,” “Starship Trooper,” “Close to the Edge,” ‘ANNA’, and is an epic anthemic track with an “And You And I,” “Going for the One,” “Wonderous ~addictive guitar riff and soaring vocals. New album Stories,” “Awaken,” and more. In addition, Yes will ‘ANNA’ followed a two year break since Courteeners perform all tracks in the order they appear on their last album ‘Falcon’, which charted at #6 and was the corresponding studio albums. follow-up to the bands #4 debut album ‘St. Jude’.

“We performed these three albums in their entirety on our North and South American tours, and the fans absolutely loved it,” says Yes guitarist,

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This Months Downloadable Content!

Gundacker Project The Gundacker Project packs an electrical charge into its melodic Hard Rock encompassing infectious hooks, powerful guitar riffs and full vocal harmonies. Lead Vocalist/Frontman Timothy J. Bednarz lights up the stage with his ring master presence and powerful voice. Dave Gundacker's razor sharp guitar licks and leads blast jolts of high energy which could fill any Rock arena. Drummer, and heartbeat of the band, Craig Martin pounds with precise and yet animalistic abandon while WIN! The Bass Maiden holds on to the driver’s wheel as much as she slides and glides along the Bass frets and the stage. Alanna Bautista has a powerful singing voice and plays both guitar and keyboards -- a triple threat talent who completes the band.

Website - https://www.facebook.com/pages/GundackerProject/290530664296617?fref=ts

Lost Weekend English band Lost Weekend can trace their history back some 18 years, and are made up of musicians, who over the last 35 years, have rocked the stages of Britain, Europe and the world.

In November 2006 the band released their 4th album ‘Forever Moving On’ and in 2007 appeared at some of England’s premier rock festivals. In 2008 they became a twin guitar act and released their brand new album ‘Fear and Innocence.’ However, in 2010/2011 the band gave themselves a hiatus from performing together, but after moving to a new premises they decided to start rehearsing again and the result was renewed passion and creativity.

The band are now primed and ready to unleash their brand new album “Evermore” on June 24th, via AOR Heaven. This was again produced by the incredible Martin Kronlund at JM Studios, Sweden.

Website - https://www.facebook.com/lostweekenduk?ref=ts&fref=ts

The Inner Road The Inner Road are a symphonic instrumental prog rock band, with a fan base around the world. The heart of The Inner Road is Steve Gresswell and Jay Parmar.

Steve Gresswell is a highly respected and sought after keyboard player, songwriter and producer. he started writing music and playing keyboard professionally at 15 and since then he's been in a number of rock bands.

Jay Parmar is a renowned guitarist, songwriter and producer. He is a high octane guitar player which is infused with eastern influence and sonic soundscapes.

Website - www.inner-road.com

Click Here to download this content To have your band featured in our monthly Downloadable Content please send an email to sales@fbrr2010.com with ‘DLC Request’ as the email title.

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Sister Sin Dance Of The Wicked (Re-Issue) Record Label: Victory Records

9/10

Released: 26 June 2013

Highlight of the album: Rock N Roll Website: http://www.sistersin.com Reviewer: Jon Seymour

So Sister Sin are re-releasing album number one, but repackaged and with a few more tracks added for good measure. This was the album that introduced the world to this power quartet, and first time around it was a corker. There was no excuse needed to give it another run through though, but it seems they’ve given us one none the less.

the fans of any band. Re-masters can be extremely poor reproductions of the originals, and releasing an album again exactly as it was, is something that I wouldn’t entertain personally.

That said, I think these guys have got it bang on.

Include fifty percent more music on the CD, put it in a new package which includes a rather nice gig So is it worth buying again? Well yes actually. The poster, and include a bonus DVD, and all for the original was eight tracks, and this one has twelve. price of the standard CD. Yep that pretty much ticks More is always better, right? Of the extra tracks, one all the boxes for a value for money (or bang for your is a storming cover of the Motorhead song ‘Rock ‘n’ buck for that matter) re-release.

Roll’ featuring that ever so slightly well known rock queen Doro. Hell, that’s worth a few quid on its own If you haven’t got this album, then you really should isn’t it? get it, because it’s got some killer tunes on it, and now even more so. If you’ve got the original, then Also included is a bonus DVD which features all nine with all of the extra content included, this is still well of the band’s official music videos. Now re-releases worth getting, So what are you waiting for? are always a bone of contention, and can often split

Mockingbird Live Cuts Record Label: Self Release

10/10 Released: 15 July 2013

Highlight of the album: Movin’ On Website: http://mockingbirdrock.com/ Reviewer: Lee Walker

Having first discovered Irish rockers Mockingbird last year when I had the pleasure of listening to their ‘Fresh Cuts’ E.P I jumped at the chance of reviewing their debut album.

blues laden guitar driven overtures merging seamlessly with perfectly timed drumming and classic NWOBHM style vocals creating great, catchy rocking tunes to bang your head to.

Having a live album as your debut album is a risky move, as lets face it live albums are very hit and miss, and the result is either totally amazing such as Maiden’s timeless classic ‘Live After Death’ or totally dire like the Seb Bach turkey that escaped earlier this year.

The album itself captures the live atmosphere of the festival perfectly, without allowing it to overpower the songs themselves, and displays a very high level of recording quality, which to be perfectly honest, puts a lot of live albums to shame.

Overall ‘Live Cuts’ is a great live release and as a Recorded at this years Wizzfest in Belgium, this Cork debut album it manages to tick all the right boxes based threesome take no prisoners with their no and will hopefully propel Mockingbird to greater nonsense, cut back breed of all out rock n roll, with heights. opening track ’All That I Need’ laying down the foundations for this superb live album, with its deep

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Interviewed by Jon Seymour So the new album is out now, but it’s actually been made for quite some time, are you still as excited by its release as you would have been if it had been released last year?

Josh: I’m excited, but at the same time I was ready for it to come out.

Nina: Yeah for us it’s been out for like a year now.

I’ve seen quite a few reviews for Time’s Arrow, and it’s getting some really good press around the world.

Nina: Yeah, I was really lucky, as I managed to get a couple of people do some reviews, then we got people that reviewed the last album to do some reviews, and also some new people to do the reviews, so it’s getting out there.

Josh: It’s really only people like you guys at Firebrand So was there any particular reason why it’s taken so that are helping us out. None of the bigger long? magazines have picked it up yet, so it’s mostly word Josh: Yeah, this time around we spent a long time of mouth, and people that are really into our type of trying to get a good record deal, then when we music is where it’s going to come from. couldn’t find one, we decided to put it out ourselves.

Once we’d decided that, we had to make sure we got When I first came across you guys last year, you had everything in place before we released it. I think this around 5,000 Facebook likes, and now you’re almost time around we actually spent more time trying to at 13,000, so obviously you’re doing something right. get it out there than we did recording it.

Josh: Yeah we’ve definitely seen an increase in our fan base over the last year, but again it’s mostly So are guys planning on any shows around the US metal fans that are telling their friends to check us any time soon? out. We’re really lucky to have a band that really gets Josh: Definitely, well Nina does our bookings, and along and loves playing together, we’ve got a great she’s got some plans that she’s not allowed to producer and all these things, but one thing we’ve completely reveal yet. never had is industry contacts. We not inside of any Nina: Well they’ve kinda hinted at it already, I mean record companies, or anyone in the larger area of it’s on the internet. No dates as yet, but we’re going the music business. to be going on tour with Benedictum, I can’t say Nina: And none of us posed for Playboy, so we don’t when or where, but there is a tour being booked. have that advantage either.

Josh: Although Jesse might do a spread later this So are you guys big fans of theirs? year….

Nina: Oh sure, I’ve known Veronica for a couple of years now, so it’ll be fun to play some actual shows with them.

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A lot of the music business has always been about “who you know” more than anything else though don’t you think?

Josh: Yeah definitely, we’ve never had any huge leg ups or whatever from anyone else we’ve just been building things slowly.

Nina: Although I’m always harassing people online, so maybe I’ll harass the right person someday.

Josh: The beautiful thing is though, that we have enough fans that give us the support we need to keep on making music. The Kickstarter program did really well, and because of that, it looks like we’re going to be able to continue to make albums at the pace we want to, which is obviously pretty fast, so I don’t think there’s going to be any problem with getting more music out to our fans. If the fans want more music, we’ll be able to give it to them.

The Kickstarter campaign did really well too, you went over your goal with time to spare, so a lot of people obviously want more music from you.

Josh: Yeah, it was really a partnership with the fans though. We raised about $9,000 through the campaign, and without that help, we wouldn’t have been able to make the album, but the whole thing cost us over $25,000 to finish, and I don’t think people realise how much it actually costs to make an album. The only money we ever get back is through the sale of albums and merchandise. We’re not getting any royalty cheques from some mysterious nebula, or a record label or anything.

Nina: And imagine how much extra it would have cost if we had to pay a designer.

Josh: Yeah we do pretty much all the design work ourselves. Chris was able to write the story for the

box set. Nina was able to do all the artwork, and design the lay out and everyone is helping to promote it.

Nina: And Josh is the one putting the boxed sets together, and packing them, and shipping them.

So what’s the story with the boxed set? Its been growing all the way along, and new bits have been added all the time from the original package.

Josh: Yeah it’s been hard to contain ourselves, we probably should have kept to the original idea to keep the costs down, but people have been good enough to pay for it, so there’s a couple of things in there that people don’t know about. It’s going to be a big surprise when people open them and see what’s inside.

Of course the US postal service have put their prices up recently, so has that affected you a lot?

Josh: Actually yes, the overseas shipping costs have gone up a huge amount since the Kickstarter ended, and we’re actually not making anything at all on stuff we’re sending out to Europe. That’s ok though, as it’s for our fans, and after they’ve helped us out so much, we couldn’t ask them to pay any more.

So knowing how you guys work, when you say that this album has been finished about a year, you’ve probably just about finished the next one by now?

Josh: Yeah, we’ve actually got too much music for the next one already. We’ve got about ten or eleven songs marked out for the next album, then another four or five for the album after that. Then we’ve got some other ideas that aren’t complete, like partial riffs, and some of them are lyrics. So yeah, we have

“I don’t think people realise how much it actually costs to make an album.”

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way too much music, it’s ridiculous.

find some other way to make it happen. It’s definitely on all of our bucket lists, so it’s something we are going to work hard on doing one way or another, even if we have to do it “guerrilla style” and make it a band vacation. We’ll play to people at night, and go sightseeing during the day.

So have you ever thought of maybe doing a concept album?

Nina: Yes, actually this next one is possibly going to be a partial concept album. Not the whole thing, but maybe a few songs tied together with a main theme.

Josh: Yeah the closest thing I could compare it to So when you’re not playing, writing or doing other would be like the end of Alice’s “Welcome To My music stuff, do you all hang out as friends at all?

Nightmare” where he does the “Steven” suite.

Nina: Yeah, in fact as soon as we’re done talking to you we’re gonna go out back and have a barbecue.

So what about after the dates with Benedictum, have Josh: Yeah we’ve got a bunch of chicken and you got anything else in the pipeline that you can tell vegetables to throw on the grill. Jesse and I live in us about? the same house, so we see each other all the time, Josh: We actually have a lot of things we want to do. whether we want to or not. We also rehearse twice The tour might be late enough in the year that we’ll a week, which is already more than I see of anyone actually have some work done on the next album by else except my girlfriend. Chris and I also have a third then. For instance if you guys in the UK get to see us day where it’s just the two of us, because we both play, if we manage to pull that off, we’re probably have enough time. It’s usually though, that when going to be playing stuff from the next album. We’re we’re all together, we just end up playing music, also going to be shooting a concept video for “I’ll because that’s what all of us really want to do.

Walk With You” in the coming weeks, so you can look Nina: Except when we go to the comic store. out for that, and we’ve got some other projects that Josh: Yeah Nina and I have this weekly ritual where we can tie in, but nothing we can announce just yet. we’ll go to the comic book store before practice.

Nina: Josh likes Marvel comics, and I like DC Comics.

So have you guys got any live footage or recordings I used to like Marvel but then they started ruining all that you might put out officially? of my favourite characters.

Josh: We don’t have anything suitable for release.

We have some archival stuff that might come out So who came up with the idea for the album cover? someday as some kind of bonus content, but nothing Josh: Well Chris and I really came up with the that we could actually put out on DVD. We did record concept together. He wrote the lyrics, and we knew some stuff when were touring with Raven and we wanted this mad scientist thing, and the lab. there’s video and sound board recording of that, so There are actually two covers, one for the album, we might do something with it, we’re not too sure and a different one for the boxed set. We were going yet, and we’ll definitely be recording the album launch to pick one originally, but we couldn’t decide between concert. them, so we decided to use both.

A lot of bands out there fronted by females play on the phrase “Sex Sells” and really push that, but you haven’t gone down that route. Do you think there’s too much of that going on?

Nina: You know it would just be so easy to flash my boobs and maybe we could get more likes. It’s worked for the Butcher Babies and also Huntress to some extent although Jill Janus doesn’t actually do any of that stuff live, just in promo shoots.

Josh: We all made a conscious decision as a band that we would promote Nina purely for her voice. She doesn’t need to do anything else.

Nina: Maybe that was a bad idea.

Josh: Yeah maybe we should have just put you in something a lot skimpier.

Nina: Yeah you probably should have, maybe we’d be signed by now.

So have you been able to get closer to maybe doing some dates over in Europe?

Josh: Yeah, hopefully we’ll be coming over to Europe with Benedictum to do some dates, which would be really cool. If that doesn’t happen though, then we’ll

So would you have anything you’d like to say to the people in the UK? Nina: Yeah, please buy our album so we can come over and play for you guys.

Josh: You probably won’t find another band in the US that loves British metal as much as we do. I don’t know if you guys over there have anyone that is carrying on that tradition or not, but if you don’t, then listen to our stuff, because we’re flying the British flag over here. Chris should also thank you for pasties. He recently discovered them, and we had the Great A Sound Of Thunder Weight Crisis because he ate so many of them. Most of all though, we’d like to thank all of the radio stations, websites and fans over in the UK that are supporting us, it’s really awesome that people all over the world are discovering us, and we really appreciate it. We hope to get over and play for you real soon.

For More on the band visit: https://www.facebook.com/ASoundOfThunder? fref=ts

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Cambridge Junction, 15 June 2013 Support - Toseland Review and Photos by Jon Seymour So this was to be the penultimate Little Angels gig on their last ever UK tour, with the final appearance being at the Isle Of Wight Festival on June 16. It was always going to be an emotionally charged evening, but none of us were there to mourn the passing of an iconic British rock band, this was a celebration of a career which spanned over twenty years, and one that has given us some amazing music.

This was my first time at “The Junction” and all in all, it’s a great venue. I found it to be well organised, and there were no hassles getting in or out. There’s a curfew of 11pm, but that’s late enough for most gigs if I’m honest. Tonight’s gig finished around 10.30ish, so no troubles at all in that respect. The sound quality was very good actually, and a lot better than some venues I’ve visited of similar size. The sound guys there obviously know what they’re doing. Sound checking and tech runs were already underway about 4 hours before the doors opened, so they obviously wanted enough time to get things right.

First up were Toseland. Having received their EP recently, I was rather intrigued to hear what these guys sounded like as a live band. Fronted by former World Superbike champion James Toseland, with a

great bunch of musicians backing him up, these guys took to the stage, and meant business from the off. I could scarcely believe that this was actually only their sixth live gig ever. They honestly looked like they’d been doing it for years such was their onstage chemistry and the tightness of their individual performances. Being a brand new band is always difficult when playing to someone else’s fans, but it was obvious from the start that Toby Jepson’s belief in the band was definitely not unfounded.

They blasted their way through the set, with songs from the forthcoming album, including the new single “Life Is Beautiful” which is receiving air play across the UK right now. The crowd got behind them early on, and even though none of this material had ever seen the light of day, they delivered it with power and precision, and above all, attitude. They finished their set with a storming version of Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)” which got the crowd going wild, and warmed up nicely for Little Angels.

Watch out for these guys, as they’re going to be around for a good while yet, I’m sure of that, and as for the album? I really can’t wait to get my hands on that. Going on tonight’s performance, it’s going to be a belter.

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hosts, and everyone else along as honoured guests. Of course there were the poignant speeches, and the thank you speeches, but for everyone in the building, this was a last (almost) final hurrah.

Can we survive without Little Angels?

Possibly not, but then, because of the great legacy they’ve left us, thankfully we don’t have to. Personally, I’m glad I got to see them one last time, because this was one of the bands that formed my rock education, and one of the foundation blocks that holds up my own personal church of rock music. Yes they’re an important part of my personal history, but more than that, they’re another testament to just how good British rock Little Angels have always been one of those music can be. Most importantly though, is that “Marmite” bands. You either love them or hate them. they’re an inspiration to a new breed. There were a Whatever your opinion, you can’t deny that they have lot of people at this gig that were too young to have stood the test of time, and produced some really even been there back in 1994, but they were there great rock songs. When they arrived on the scene tonight, singing along with the rest of us. way back in the eighties, they were unique. Fast forward some twenty years on, and there is nothing Yes when a band we love decides to call it a day, it’s around now, or indeed ever was, that has even come always sad, but tonight I bade the guys a fond close to capturing their distinctive sound. The set farewell, and I salute everything they stood for, and consisted of a vast array of songs from their everything they leave behind, and of course their extensive back catalogue. Of course the favourites legacy will continue through the musicians that have were there, and before the gig I’d made up my mind been touched by them. Tonight wasn’t just a which songs would definitely be in there. I was bang concert, it was a piece of rock history, where people on too, but I’m not going to go into all that. young and old will tell others about it and they’ll say “I was there” and there wasn’t a single person that For the guys on stage, you could tell that they were didn’t have their socks rocked off. Goodbye Little having a blast. There was a lot of crowd interaction, Angels, it’s been great having you around, and and these guys genuinely love each other, and that thanks for everything you’ve given us, you’ll be sorely was portrayed in the way they played. When they missed, and fondly remembered. split up back in 1994, there were a lot of people asking why, but they’d been there and done it, and there was nothing left to prove. When they got back together last year to perform at Download, it was a momentous occasion, and demand for more dates became apparent. So that’s what led them here tonight. With all of the stuff they have going on, it would definitely be the penultimate time anyone would see them on stage together.

Sad as that may be, tonight’s show was all about celebration.

There were no tearful goodbyes, and no negative feelings were going to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd. It was a rock n roll party, with the ‘Angels as the

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Tarja 9/10

Victim Of Ritual Record Label: earMUSIC

Released: 12 July 2013

Highlight of the album: Victim Of Ritual Website: http://www.tarja-coloursinthedark.com/ Reviewer: Lee Walker

Tarja Turunen (or Tarja as she is performing as) needs no introduction thanks to being the voice that took Finish superstars Nightwish to the top of the symphonic metal scene until she departed way back in 2005. Since then Tarja has been busy with several projects but has yet to quite hit the levels of fame that she reached during her Nightwish days.

Hysterical, Tragical; Victim Of Ritual’; Cynical, Critical, Victim Of Ritual’; She’s A Killer; She’s A Killer; Having the demo of ‘Victim Of Ritual’ play directly after the album version of the same song fails though, as yes I dare say that Tarja fans would love to listen to demos of her songs, but to play them back to back just causes you to hit the ‘next’ button and is a massive no-no in my book.

‘Victim Of Ritual’ is the first single taken from the upcoming new studio album ‘Colours In The Dark’ which is due out in August via earMUSIC. The e.p itself is made up technically of four tracks (I say technically as one of those tracks is a demo version of another track which is on it) and is available only in limited quantities.

Thankfully the single quickly kicks back onto the right path with previously unavailable live versions of the ‘Victim Of Ritual’ is everything that you would expect poignant ‘I Walk Alone’ and the orchestral piece from the Tarja era of Nightwish with its huge ‘Underneath’ (with both recorded at Luna Park) booming symphonic acoustics magnifying Tarja’s finishing off the single in fine form. exquisite vocals, pushing the sweeping choruses to whole new levels as the song opens up in front of you Overall ‘Victim Of Ritual’ wets the appetite nicely for with its concept style lyrics bringing back memories the ‘Colours In The Dark’ release and despite its flaw to the massive Nightwish fan favourite ‘I Wish I Had with regards to the track layout, is set to become An Angel’, particularly with its powerful evocative highly sought after by fans of Tarja everywhere and chorus lines: hopefully will herald in the return to the type of fame she once enjoyed.

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The Front Bottoms 9/10

Talon Of The Hawk Record Label: Bar/None Records Released: 3 June 2013 Highlight of the album: Twin Sized Mattress Website: http://www.thefrontbottoms.com Reviewer: Jon Seymour

So the guys with one of the coolest band names ever are back with a second offering. It starts as it means to go on, with some acid wit, and a tongue in cheek attitude, and ironically starting with a song called ‘Au Revoir (Adios)’, immediately sets the tone for the rest of the album.

a band with new ideas, but this is definitely one of those bands. Of course that’s not to say that every idea is new, as there are some tunes that will remind you of the glory days when the likes of Green Day, NOFX and Blink 182 first burst onto the scene.

Well, at least if you’re as old as me they will.

The songs are light, short and punchy, and it’s very much a pop/punk sort of album, with a few twists and turns. These guys are definitely not a one trick pony by any stretch of the imagination, even putting brass into the mix of guitar, bass, drums and vocals, and making a wholly fresh sound.

What they do though is stay true to the KISS method of making music. Not the band, the acronym, and for those that aren’t familiar, it’s ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid.’ The production is minimal, and overall it gives it a very energetic sound, and it has an air of honesty about it.

This is quite a bit different to a lot of stuff that’s been released of late, and it will provide a welcome break from the norm. It’s not often you come across

42 Decibel 9/10

Hard Rock ‘n’ Roll

Record Label: Steamhammer/SPV Released: 24 June 2013 Highlight of the album: Drinkin’ Margaritas Website: https://www.facebook.com/42Decibelofficial Reviewer: Lee Walker

With a deep rooted full on Aussie rock sound in the vain of AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Rhino Bucket etc you would be forgiven for thinking that 42 Decibel are from Australia but they are in fact from Argentina.

the early carefree 80’s which is exactly where you feel that you have been transported to while listening to the album.

Overall listening to ‘Hard Rock ‘n’ Roll ‘ is like listening to AC/DC while they were going through their most productive phase and the repetition set in, undoubtedly 42 Decibel will be labelled as ‘clones’ but music is not about reinventing the wheel, it is about making music that rocks which is exactly what these guys do.

Sounding like early, pre Brian Johnson, AC/DC, 42 Decibel set about doing exactly what the album name suggests by playing pure, unadulterated rock ‘fkn’ roll with songs about women, drinking and rock ‘n’ roll. With opening track ‘Scotch Drinker’ setting the scene for the album.

With the blues laden, gravel voiced vocals of Junior Figueroa leading the way as the band kick back and play their no frills based style of rock letting the music do the talking, and with song titles such as ‘Drinkin’ ‘Margaritas’, ‘Drunk Love’ and ‘Gimme A Drink’ it will come as no surprise that drinking features heavily in the songs lyrics taking you back to

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Jane’s Addiction 10/10

Live In NYC (DVD) Record Label: Capitol/UMC

Released: 8 July 2013

Highlight of the album: Irresistible Force (Met The Immovable Object) Website: http://www.janesaddiction.com/ Reviewer: Lee Walker

Originally recorded in New York City at Terminal 5 on December 29th, 2012, ‘Live In NYC’ was filmed during a special run of North American shows called ‘Theatre of the Escapists’ with the band performing in intimate venues, most of which are classic theatres.

that has ever been released. Successfully capturing Mr Farrell and co in full flow as they play what is essentially a greatest hits set, with every song that you would expect to be played featured, with hits such as ‘Nothings Shocking’, ‘Whores’, ‘Been Caught Stealing’ as well as the first live performance of the ‘Irresistible What can be said about this band that has not already Force (Met The Immovable Object)’ fitting into this been said before, monsieur’s Perry Farrell, Dave superb recording as it manages to capture the Navarro, Stephen Perkins and Chris Chaney, electricity which seems to flow from this enigmatic collectively known as ‘Jane’s Addiction’ have simply frontman, leaving his health scares far behind him as done the lot over the years right from pioneering the fading past distant memories, as he captivates the alternative rock scene in the late 80’s and early 90’s, crowd with his wit and banter before pulling out all the through to creating their own touring festival with stops with his performance, which is backed up Lollapalooza, though to flirting with disaster with drugs flawlessly by the rest of the band. and other problems. Simply put there is nothing shocking left to say about this band, well apart from Perhaps it was the intimacy of the venues which one main thing, the fact that they are still on the go in brought this change in fortune, or perhaps it was the 2013. rest and recuperation that the band have had, I guess we will never know for certain, but one thing is certain With ‘Live In NYC’ you have exactly what is says on the Jane’s Addiction are back and firing on all cylinders tin, well with one vital exception, it should say that it is with my only regret not being at this gig to witness the possibly the greatest live recording of Jane’s Addiction rebirth of Jane’s Addiction.

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Tim and Dave Interviewed by Lee Walker How did the band originally start off?

Dave – I basically was doing a lot of demos with my garage band at home and two things were happening, one: I was singing badly (Tim laughter) and two: I had one drum loop I used for nearly every song which is “boom tap boom tap boom tap” no rolls or anything, so I said I would love to get these songs on a demo and start some sort of a project to do the recording. So I had a jam with a drummer called Craig, so I pulled Craig in and got Craig to find a friend who happened to have a studio, so we laid down four or five tracks with his son and that’s how it started rollin. Then I saw Tim at an all-star jam and I said that guys a great front person and he sang pretty good too which is a bonus (Tim - thanks I appreciate that) and I knew him from back twenty – thirty years ago from the scene, so I asked him to come over and check out some demos and he really liked the songs a lot and it was really set up for his vocals, which I liked, a kind of higher singer so that’s where it all started from with Tim and I got the rest

of the band together person by person. It really snowballed and from our first gig we have been getting a really great response and the whole thing has been taking on a life of its own, so it’s been great.

You briefly mentioned the scene and how you’ve been following it for the past twenty – thirty years.

Have things changed much?

Dave - Back in the day I was in an original band and it was more of a local scene around here, where there was about I would say eight or nine places to play on average all the time and bands got a pretty good following going and played a lot of places. There was a lot of bands doing it I swear probably fifteen – twenty bands that were doing that. At any weekend you could go and see original bands playing mini concerts. It was very cool. You don’t see it as much now but they are starting to bring it back here in our area. Would you say that Tim? Tim - Yes I would say it’s a scene that has been

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trying to wake up back here in the San Francisco Bay area since about 2009. This used to be a vibrant, original band scene and it’s kind of given way to a lot of cover bands and tribute bands that have took over the scene and of course DJ’s, hip hop, trance and rave really took over the live scene and pushed out all the live rock bandsm but it seems that there is a desire and a hunger for the live rock ‘n’ roll scene, especially the melodic rock scene to return, so the Bay area is trying to bring in, and I know this is actually national, and from what I understand from talking with people over there on your side of the pond Lee, it seems like it’s also happening in other venues in other countries where there seems to be a lot of a desire for a re-awaking of that melodic hard rock scene so I think we are in the right time frame as far as bringing that back and so far the response seems to be good and more clubs are starting to re-open and more bands are starting to be formed out here so there is a lot of hope.

How was the band’s name chosen?

Dave – (Laughter) That was as pretty obvious one.

No actually a lot of people started saying that they thought I had kind of a cool last name and when you have it for years you don’t really think it’s that cool at all and all of a sudden you have people say that’s a cool name so that’s, how it started and I decided to do the Van Halen thing and to say it’s a project as I didn’t know where it was going to go. I had no idea if it would get off the ground or not. One of our marketing people Lee has been doing a lot of our artwork was saying that it was catchy and that people were liking it a lot.

Tim - I have to say Lee that that I was actually a big fan of when Dave was saying what he was going to call the band when it was it was in its demo stage.

He was kicking around a few things, at first I thought we was going to DGP (Dave Gundacker Project) and right away I started seeing, I have a real visual marketing mind set and Lee and myself with Dave Graces have really put the imagery of the band together to go along with the cool last name and Dave decided not to put the D in it and said let’s just call it Gundacker Project. The thing for me is when we was playing the demos the type of guitar player he is and the type of songwriter he is, I just heard this electric energy coming out. It was like this cool surge of electricity and Lee and I started coming up with this idea of what can we do with this name Gundacker Project and the word “Project” really took off in the sense that its Dave’s experiment so it’s really taken off from there so electricity is the driving, visual force to go along with Dave’s cool last name.

Tim – I’m really happy with the way that it’s been received so far, we are getting a lot of love from the alternative radio stations all around the world including Firebrand. The reception that are getting from these people that are putting together radio stations outside of terrestrial radio are big huge fans of independent artists and they are supporting independent artists that are bringing out a good product. We are blessed to have put out an album that has exceptional production exceptional song writing in my humble opinion, and I speak for Dave as well and is being received very well. It has been out for three months and we are already getting a lot of radio airplay and we are getting some terrestrial airplay in the Bay area and on a couple of college radio stations as well as a commercial radio station that has a home grown block programme called Local Licks, and so in three months’ time I can’t complain but we definitely want to see it continue to grow and as I was saying earlier I think that with the melodic hard rock arena rock that we have the sky is the limit and we are looking forward to seeing where this can take us for the rest of the year going into next.

Continuing a bit more about the album. How did it actually come together? Was it songs that you had left over from over bits and pieces?

Dave - Actually of the stuff was pretty fresh, and fresh means that I started writing four of the songs at the beginning of the project about nine months ago and then I said that I definitely want to do an E.P was my first thought so the first four songs were pretty close to being done, Tim and I went back and worked on the lyrics a little bit but most of them were pretty well done and then as the band got together I was getting pretty inspired to write more new stuff. I’m kind of a constant writer, I practice a lot and write a lot of stuff so then I come up with another 6 songs that I wrote and then Tim and I worked on the lyrics, really creating good lyrics then we decided to do the cover song ‘Don’t Ever Want to Lose You’ by New England and I think that song really fits this band in a lot of ways. It’s very melodic, it’s got great harmonies, Tim’s voice sounds almost like the guys voice and we did a bit of reorganising of the song, putting a new structure to it but basically that song really painted our wheelhouse and we did a pretty decent job on redoing that song. We are writing all the time I pretty much have another 5 songs ready to go for another album.

Tim - Lee let me put it this way Dave will never stop writing and as we are still learning a song he is bringing in another song and the rest of us have go Noooo, wait, stop! (laughter). So we know that there is never going to be a shortage of material for Gundacker Project.

You recently released your debut album ‘Plug Me In’.

Have you been happy with the way it’s been How did you decide the name for the album? received?

Dave - That’s a good question actually. We were

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thinking about some other names at the beginning, Mission Critical is what I was going with first, and then all of a sudden Tim and I was working on a new song which was like an anthem type of song with ‘Plug Me In’ and all of a sudden everything just came together and it was obvious that that song was the lead track of the album and that was where the title came from. I think that was one of the better songs that we came up with. Tim really helped me to get the concept of what the song was about and all of a sudden I just came into my head as soon as we wrote that song and I think that song is a great starting song for the album in which put it all together in terms of electricity we’ve got going with our theme Wouldn’t you say that Tim? Tim - Yes and the working title was originally Get It Plugged In and Dave was like nahh I’ve got this idea melodically we need to shorten it, and so he said what about Plug Me In? And I’m just like wow this is going to be the title track as the name of the album and then it was just a matter of everyone agreeing that they like that idea and then it became the lead track, the title track I guess. Also that track seems to be the first one that everybody in radio that’s playing us grabs that first and then they start going through the rest of the album, so I think we made a good choice in having that be the first track, the title track and just to help with the concept of imagery of the band.

really love ‘Gonna Find You’ it’s a deep cut on the album and it’s been a favourite of mine since we recorded it so those are my two favourites.

What would you say is the biggest problem that the band has encountered since it came together?

Dave - I would say that when we first started we went through about three studios to get the album finally finished and there was a lot of questions on getting this thing done and what songs to add to it and financially as well so that’s been the biggest challenge. We got lucky on the last guy that we worked with Jerry from J 31 Studios he actually really liked the band a lot put a lot of extra time into it and really mixed it really well I mean we have been getting a lot of complements from the quality of the sound in the production for how little we paid so we are pretty happy about that. That’s been the biggest challenge I think the band really is in the right now that we have got that done we spent a lot of weekends we spent a lot of nights and a lot of time to get this finished, but I think the best is in front of us as to what we are doing now we have got some shows lined up and people are really liking the album, things are going really well. The pain was getting the album done – that was the biggest challenge you know because it was questionable. At the first couple of studios we couldn’t get the quality that we wanted, so now in the last studio we found a guy who knows what we are talking about, really likes the Do you have any your favourite tracks on the album? band’s sound and really happy to put a lot of his Dave - I would say Tim and I differ on that probably extra time in to mix it properly. That was the biggest (Tim - yea laughter) If you listen to the album there is challenge, wouldn’t you say Tim? a little bit of two sides to it there’s a little bit of Tim - Yeah, I think you said it in spades. heavier theme base type of Quensrhychey sound and there’s the more melodic poppier sound so to me I How would you say that the band has developed like both music sounds a lot and I am into the darker since starting off? theme based type of songs so for me I think the Dave - Well recently we have got a new member and favourite one of mine is two or one “Burn Me it’s taking on a new realm, and as far as working Innocent” is one of my favourite ones because of the together the band has never been so happy at theme of it and how catchy it is to me, but it also practice as we are now for sure. I think that with the very hard and driving and has my favourite solo on it. new songs, we are learning a few new songs and I Then there is “Light Up The Sky” which is my think that even in the last three or four songs that favourite on the more pop side of the genre. Number we learnt we started to develop more of our own one I think Times sing on there is awesome the sound. I’m like the bassist of the band and the other vocals just sound great and I also love harmonies in people are doing their own think like they like so it it and that to me could be on the radio nowadays. So becomes part of their playing in the part that those are my two favourites. becomes our sound. It’s not all just me. So I just put Tim – ‘Plug Me In’ is definitely my favourite track on the blanket up there and say make a picture, so I say the album I would have to say that for many reasons, that we are developing quite a bit in that area and because I think it encompasses all the styles that I’m curious to do that with the new member. She are available on the album in a sense that there is a plays keyboards and guitar and sings really, really hard driving and hard rocking part to it, and then of well to so I’m looking forward to her input and her course there is the more melodic top side of it and creativity on the new stuff coming up. to me that song is, if you want to know what Tim - Yes Lee our new member is Alana Vatisa.

Gundacker Project is all about based on Dave’s great guitar playing, good song writing great hooks What do you have planned for the rest of the year? and then just a fun upbeat hard rock with a smile Tim - Play, play, play, play, play, play, play, play some kind of vibe that song tells it in less than 5 minutes more, write some more, record more demos to get and I would say right next to it I have to say that I ready for the second album as we are playing,

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Playing, playing, playing supporting ‘Plug Me In’ that is me desire and I know its Dave’s desire because Dave wants to keep writing, wants to keep adding new material to our live set list and get ready for the second album and we want to play to as many people that we can because this is actually a resurgence for quite a few of us in this band since that we were doing this when we were young now we are not so young and it’s kind of a return for us to being in an all original group that’s writing and performing and so we want to do this until we can’t do it anymore, so I hope that we can play over in England really soon and play in Ireland and heck just get out of California and play some place besides California.

Dave - We are looking to play a lot, we look to also locally work. We are a headlining band now so we are putting more songs together for that and we are putting more of a show together before we were doing lots of supporting which kind of a new cool thing for us as well adding some guitar and drum solos in to the live set but we are also looking to travel into different parts even if it’s just L.A, San Diego, Sacramento and play some new crowds and some new venues that we haven’t played we are pretty excited about that and I think the cd will help us do that.

Tim – I’m thinking bigger though Lee I want to go over to England and I want to go and record in Abbey Road. What do you say?

Lee - I don’t know if Abbey Road is still there (laughter)

music to and we are already working on one of those songs it’s going to be on the second album that’s going to be in the live set here coming up on our next show called ‘Raise Up The Flags’ so we are good to go. We are ready to get some more songs in our set and we are ready for that second album but we are going to celebrate Plug Me In for the rest of this year at the very least before we get to that.

Final question time, are there any messages that you would like to pass on to your fans?

Dave - For our local fans here and I have talked to a lot of the international fans we are getting a lot of love and really appreciate that and we are so happy to be in a situation where we are the one of the only bands in our territory that is actually playing melodic rock and that they are liking and we believe that bands that are still touring these days from twenty or thirty years ago are melodic rock band, and we think that is something that people will always love and we are pretty excited with the reception that we are getting at these shows has been amazing and we really appreciate the support we are getting and people are coming out to you every show we see the same faces a lot of times and really appreciate the support and people are buying the album and we are getting rave reviews from it so far so we are pretty happy with what is going on and we are excited.

People have been greatly supportive of us and we are really happy and thank our fans for liking the album and liking the band.

Tim - I just want to say thank you for plugging in the people that are plugged into Gundacker Project so You keep mentioning all these recordings that you far and we can’t wait to get more of you plugged in keep doing so how far along is the second album? to what it is that we are doing and we look forward Dave - Right now we’re in pre-production for the to seeing all of you for the rest of this year and on song writing part of it we have about four or five into next. This is a ride that we are enjoying and we songs started, that are written and then we will need want you to take that ride with us. about another six or seven more on top of that, so we are still looking to support the one we came out with. But it’s defiantly in the minds of everyone that we are going to do another one. And it’s hopefully in the send phase of the Gundacker Project as far as where it takes us and as we develop as a band so we are pretty excited about it.

Tim - The thing is ‘Your Love Lights Up The Sky’ which is one of the tracks Dave was talking about that’s on ‘Plug Me In’ which was one of his favourites was actually going to be on the second album. We was going to release it as a ten song album with nine originals and one cover (‘Don’t Ever Want To Lose You’ by New England) which we call the bonus track and then we just looked at each other and said no we are going to do a second album. This song is ready to go lets go in the studio lets have it be our last song that we will record for ‘Plug Me In’ and right behind that’s song Dave started showing me and Craig a couple of other songs he had already had already written and ready for Dave and I to put lyrics and write melodies to and for the band to put

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Seagall 10/10

Hidden Ego Record Label: RecordJet

Released: 21 June 2013

Highlight of the album: Iron Dragon-Fly Website: http://www.seagall.ru/en Reviewer: Lee Walker Formed in 2003 by Elena Seagalova, this Russian instrumental act have been quietly making a name for themselves with their unique brand of musical experimentation.

guitarmanship and superbly timed musical backing somehow this strangely named band pull of a cracking album with songs reminiscent of Steve Vai and Focus and manage to capture my attention for the entire album with their wall of sound being built around the stunning guitar work of Elena Seagalova, be it with the breathtakingly good solos, catchy hooks or the structured breakdowns, allowing the sounds themselves to captivate you as they draw you into their magical world.

The mention of having an ‘instrumental’ album to review is enough to make most reviewers break into a cold sweat, as let’s be honest about this most are not that good at all to listen to, and to be perfectly frank about it they are a nightmare to review without obsessing over the need for a singer to augment their sounds.

Overall to say that I am shocked by ‘Hidden Ego’ is an understatement and that I am surprised that this is the With a name like ‘Seagall’ and hailing from Russia I was first that I have heard of Elena Seagalova. Hopefully with somewhat apprehensive about reviewing this album, this release she will get the exposure that her talent particularly when I read the accompanying press release deserves. and noticed the dreaded ‘instrumental’ tag so to say that I was actually pleasantly surprised by what I heard was somewhat of an understatement. Comprising of stunning

Edenbridge 9/10

The Bonding

Record Label: Steamhammer/SPV Released: 24 June 2013 Highlight of the album: Alight A New Tomorrow Website: http://www.edenbridge.org/ Reviewer: Lee Walker

Not really knowing much about Edenbridge I was pleasantly surprised when I first listened to the album, with the opening song ‘Mystic River’ setting the scene for the rest of the album, with its big, grand symphonic overtures, reminding me of early Tarja era Nightwish, with Sabine Edelsbacher doing a superb job on vocals, with her powerful vocal range that can effortlessly hit notes so high that only small children and animals can pick up on in the blink of an eye.

Overall ‘The Bonding’ should propel Edenbridge to lofty heights and it is only a matter of time before they are mentioned in the same breath as Within Temptation and Nightwish.

The album itself is a finely tuned affair with the a lot of the powerful symphonic sections augmented with full on orchestral arrangements taking the songs to the next level and giving them the extra boost of energy that they need to take the songs from average run of the mill symphonic affair’s to full on, power packed symphonic anthems.

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Rick Palin catches up with Mark from

Mark, for those out there who don’t know Nightblade please tell us something about the band?

Nightblade are a NWOBHM band with a twist with big emphasis on "catchy elements" to remember a song by whether it’s the chorus, bridge riff or everything combined.

How did the idea of Nightblade come about?

Dave and Bill were interested in creating a band and put an ad in Ritch Bitch studios looking for a vocalist, to which Mark/I Responded. The idea to be creating A NWOBHM band with a difference/ edge.

What are your chief influences musically?

Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Alter Bridge The New Album has just been launched called “Closer To The Threshold”, tell us a bit about it?

The aim with Threshold was to make a more creative album than Servant, with a few extra twists and turns .We wanted to continue the emphasis on catchy melodies choruses and bridges as we have from the start. From the outset a song for Nightblade only reaches the studio if we think it has one of these catchy elements to remember it by. There is a nice balance on the album with our trademark "quick riff" material, plus mid tempo and slower tracks.

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We recorded "Servant" in two days, which was 6 songs recorded in a day x 2. With Threshold was recorded in 3 hits, we took the extra time as the material was more complicated and we wanted to work on the production more. The production has come on a long way and we are really pleased with the overall sound on "Closer Too The Threshold".

If you had not been in the music business what career would you have chosen?

Something creative I guess the arts, graphics or photography.

There is obviously a strong dynamic between the band members has it been tough to find a band that gel together so well?

We are developing/refining our own sound and I As far as I am concerned there is a gel with think that is apparent listening to the album.

Nightblade that I have never had before and the lads As a band we spend alot of time and money on the feel the same way also. Let’s just say I have been artwork/cover etc. The feedback on the album through a few bands previously and haven’t really got cover has been very positive and it has been close to what we have now with Nightblade. suggested that the album does" what it says on the Whatever Dave puts down I can always interpret tin", if that is the case I am glad my 20 years of what he’s doing and fit some lyrics/vocals to it. marketing were put to some use.

Potentially I feel we could have a few albums to come to fruition in the foreseeable future. The creativity is I really try more and more with lyric writing with each bubbling away and we are already have material for song to go "one better" and hope that the third album already. We all have similar listeners get the jist of it and can relate to the words. influences which must help bond the band and have With that in mind we developed the album with an 8 a dam good laugh in the process of what we are page booklet in which we have printed the lyrics. doing. I have known Rich since my college days so We feel as a band we have made a huge step up having him on board is great and fits like a hand in a with this album, which have been confirmed by both glove.

Copro records and SkyFire management and fans that we are heading in the right direction...

Where do you draw your inspiration for lyrics from?

It looks like the album has the elements to take My lyrics draw mostly on actual life experiences, Nightblade to the next level. people I have known or know, situations which have come about/different scenarios. Some true and Who would you most like to tour with? others fictional. Now and again I can go a bit Several bands of a similar genre, all of the above political, Tongue Tied and Broken is about being the mentioned bands, Deep Purple or Whitesnake would most watched nation. Strong feelings about be nice.

“strong feelings about different things are a good source

”

of inspiration for lyrics

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different things are a good source of inspiration for lyrics, although I tend to steer clear of love and all sloppy things!

What is next on the Agenda for Nightblade?

Higher profile gigs, tours, a video for "Threshold" is being organised. To continue to write more creative material, develop our own sound, increase the awareness of Nightblade worldwide.

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By Metal Goddess Jen When I first started doing internet radio shows nearly two years ago, I was introduced to a lot of amazing indie bands here in the U.S. While it’s no secret that I am a fan of harder rock and metal (such as bands like Pantera, Halestorm, Five Finger Death Punch, Mastodon) and 80s hair metal bands, I fell hard for indie bands and felt it an honor to be able to play these amazing up and coming bands on my show, and sometimes I was able to do interviews with them. Getting their music out there became a priority to me. I developed a passion for doing this.

show “Music Mania” (which you can listen to on Friday Nights at 10pm UK/5pm EST), but I can do that through the magazine, too. I’ll be introducing you to some established indie bands and some brand new indie bands – but all just as amazing as the other. So make sure you tune in every Friday night, and watch this space!

Also, as summer time approaches, so do music festivals. Some bigger music festivals here in the U.S. coming this summer are the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, and Vans Warped Tour. The Once I started on Firebrand Rock Radio as a show Mayhem Fest brings us Rob Zombie, Five Finger host, I was suddenly introduced to a whole new world Death Punch, Amon Amarth, and Mastodon as of music from over in the UK music scene. A lot of headliners, and also brings us Machine Head, these bands were indie as well, but even the well Children of Bodom, and more as supporting acts. known and established bands blew me away, and Warped Tour features We Came As Romans, then even more worldwide - bands from Mexico, Sleeping With Sirens, Reel Big Fish, and a lot more Japan, Sweden, Italy, Portugal, everywhere you can bands. If Indies are your thing, this is the festival for imagine began to send us music for airplay. Finding you. For more information on these festival tours, these amazing, talented bands (or them finding us!) check out their websites: has been one of the best things about my job here on FBRR. Getting to set up the Band of the Month contest has only increased the amount of talent that is out there, just waiting to be heard by the world’s ears.

One thing that Firebrand Rock Radio has always strived for – and continues to do so – is recognizing these unsigned artists; getting their music and names out there while our listeners reap the benefit of some kick ass music for your ears. It is easy for bands to get lost in the mix anymore in the music industry. In my opinion, indie bands work harder than anyone in this business. They find the gigs; they haul their gear; they set it up; they play their own songs written by their own hands and hearts; they tear down their gear; they work their merchandise tables, and well, you get the point. That type of passion is amazing to me. Pure dedication is what they have, and so it is my honor to play and recognize these bands for all their hard work..

So in all, I feel it is my duty and privilege to introduce the rest of the world to those hard working, unsigned, indie bands here in the U.S. to all of our readers and listeners. Not only can I do that on my

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Remember: stay safe, stay hydrated, bring sunblock, We have the best DJs, writers...the best of and enjoy these summer festivals, wherever in the everything. If you don’t believe me, tune in and check world you are! us out for yourself. Thanks to all of the staff for all their hard work they put in daily. We kick ass!

On a closing note, I would just like to give a shout out to the staff here at Firebrand Rock Radio and If you would like to submit your unsigned bands Magazine. We have the hardest working group of music to my show and the station, or to contact me people you will ever meet, and it is such an amazing if interested in having your band spotlighted, email privilege to work with each and every person me at metalgoddess@fbrr2010.com. affiliated with Firebrand Rock Radio and Magazine.

Newman 9/10

Siren Record Label: AOR Heaven

Released: 19 July 2013

Highlight of the album: The Foolish One Website: http://www.newmansound.com/ Reviewer: Paul Nicholls

Steve Newman and band are back with us again, this time with new faces joining the team. Pete Newdeck of Edens Curse / Tainted Nation gains writing credits on two songs while Robert Sall (WET, Work Of Art) and Nick Workman (Vega) co write on one song each..

fades from the speakers. I for one can’t wait to hear some of these songs performed live !

Another hit from Mr Newman, See you on the road Steve!

This album may surprise some as it is, in my opinion, much heavier than ‘Southern Skies.’ This is not to be mistaken as anything else but a serious rock album, the guitars are more aggressive than you may have heard on a Newman album in a while, the song writing as usual is masterful full of hook laden choruses, Steve Newman’s voice just gets better as the time goes past especially on The Foolish One. This man really knows how to sing with Feeling!

On first listen, this CD has got everything it needs to grab the attention and retain it until the final song

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Toby Jepson Of Interviewed by Jon Seymour So we’re on the last run of shows for Little Angels on the farewell tour, again... Is this definitely going to be it this time?

Yeah it genuinely is. All joking aside, when we got back together we really didn’t intend it to last any longer than Donnington. It’s a long story, but it took us a long time to get back together on stage, for a number of reasons. When we did make the decision to get back together it was for a couple of reasons.

One was because Mike Lee passed away and we all met up at the funeral, and it seemed a bit silly that we weren’t doing something together, and that’s what started the conversation going. From that point it took about 18 months to two years before anything was put into place. By that time we’d been contacted by Andy Copping (artist booking for Download Festival), who basically told us, look if you guys do get back together, we’ll put you on the stage at Download. He said you know, do a few warm up gigs, then play Download and if that’s all you want to do then fair enough. That was a big incentive for us, as we’d never played Monsters Of Rock back in the day, so to be offered the chance to play Donnington was something we didn’t want to pass up. What we

were concentrating on though, was taking baby steps. We didn’t want to ruin the legacy we’d left behind. The thing about Little Angels was that we left on a high. We sold a lot of records, especially with Jam and we played the Royal Albert Hall, and although to some people it may have been stupid to split up at that stage, we did, and we left the integrity of what we’d built up intact. So coming back, we wanted to make sure that we didn’t ruin that. So we took it in stages, we did the rehearsals, did that feel any good? Yes it did. OK, so we’ll go on and do the shows then, and then do Download, and that was great, and we had a fantastic reaction from the fans, so we thought OK, maybe we’ll do a tour. So we thought we’d just announce it and see what happens. Obviously it did pretty well for us back in December, and John Giddings, the guy who runs the Isle Of Wight Festival is a friend of ours, well more specifically Mark Plunkett’s actually, and he asked us if we’d play this year. Again, it’s such an iconic event, so we said “yeah we’ll do that” but all the time we were saying to ourselves that if it felt good, then we’ll carry on. Apart from that though, we’ve all got other things that we’re doing. I’m a record producer mainly

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now, Mark Plunkett manages Ronan Keating, Bruce & Jim are both teachers effectively, and Mark Richardson is in Skunk Anansie, so we made the decision that if we weren’t going to do an album, and put all the time and effort into reinventing ourselves, then there was no point in carrying on. We didn’t want to go down the road of just doing bits and pieces here and there, coming back to do a couple of shows once a year, and just disappear the rest of the time. To all of us, that would just seem to run the reputation of Little Angels down, and none of us wanted that, and it’s not part of what we do. We thought that the fans deserve a lot better than that, so no, we will not get on stage after these shows ever again.

You’re all good friends again now though, so will you be keeping in touch?

Well the things about this was, that since we all got back together, we’ve been talking about doing other things with each other.

The thing about the band is that we all came from the same town, we went to school together, and we grew up together, so to get back together again after all that time and be able look at our history is a very positive thing, in fact it’s the most important thing.

There are other bands around that do the odd shows here and there, but haven’t released anything new for years, but the tickets are always in high demand, does that not tempt you in the slightest?

For me personally, it’s never been about the commerciality. It’s not about selling records, it’s not about selling tickets, and it’s not about just running a business. It goes deeper than that, and I think everyone else in the band feels the same way. We set out as young lads from Scarborough in the North East of England, with a dream in our heads about wanting to be big rock stars, and by and large we achieved that. We may not be the biggest band in the world, and we may not have the legacy of AC/DC or Bon Jovi but we mean a lot to our fans, and that in turn means a lot to us. It was never about making money, it was about living the lifestyle. It was like it was in me, and I had to do it. Going on from that, we

feel as though we can’t do that anymore. We can’t live the lifestyle the way we used to, it’s just not there anymore. It’s not the 90’s, you know I’m 46 years old, I’ve got children and responsibilities, and while it’s great to have this blast and enjoy it again, it’s not something any of us can carry on with. You know it’s just as important to close chapters in your life as well as open new ones.

So going back to before, when you mentioned record production, have you got anyone that you’re working with currently?

Toby: Yes, I’m working with Toseland and I actually co-wrote the album with James. I’ve also got a couple of other young bands that I’m working with, and my long game is to change the music business. I want to work with people, and to give them advice, as someone who’s been in the business, in a reasonably successful band, and I want to be able to impart that knowledge onto others. I’m not that interested, although I have done it, in working with established bands. I’m more interested in trying to find new things, and develop them. Working with James has been great. For me it’s all about the people, you know, the interaction, and you spark off each other, and that’s what it’s all about, so working with someone as exciting as James has been really great.

You don’t know at the start whether it’s going to work or not, but you’re going to give it a go anyway.

It’s about finding like minded people, and James is one of those. Going on from that, that’s what I want to do. Find exciting people to work with, and to give them a hand in the business, because the music business is so complicated, and so difficult, and it’s changing day by day. Saying that though, the more things change, the more they stay the same and all that. It’s got to come down to the music. If you can’t play, and you can’t write songs, then you’ve got no chance anyway. No amount of PR, or great looking websites are going to help you, it’s got to come down to the people playing and writing the music. If the music is good, and the songs are good, then people will like it.

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Do you find that the internet has had a major effect on the music business in general?

The thing with the internet is that now, anyone can do it. You know, back in the nineties when we were around, the internet wasn’t around, so the only way you could do it was to play local pubs and clubs. We were playing in Scarborough, and Leeds was a like a whole other world away, when really it was only just a few miles up the road. Once we’d played there of course, we realised it was just another town. It had the same sort of people as our home town, so we thought ok perhaps we should go and do London then. We did that, and it was the same, it had the same kinds of people, who had the same thoughts and the same dreams. Nowadays though, you can just be sat in your bedroom and pretend to be a rock star, with all these flashy websites, and fancy apps that you can get and all of that other bollocks. At the end of the day though, that’s not a career, but anyone can do it. That’s the biggest problem with the internet, because you can pretend to be something you’re not, and the music business is just that. It’s a business, and it’s a complicated, difficult and fucking vicious world to be in.

studios with good engineers, and decent equipment etc and that costs money. I’ve done this for a living so I know how much it costs. A band obviously has to start somewhere though, and most of the time it’s in a bedroom or a garage, or somewhere similar, but taking them out of that and into the world of making serious records is a big step. That’s where record labels used to be. They used to discover little demo tapes, like the ones we did all those years ago, and they went out to pubs and clubs looking for people to take on, and give them a helping hand to be able to get somewhere in the industry. That’s all gone now, and most record labels are saying now, unless you’re selling 5000 units of your own records, then we’re not going to take you on. There’s a real problem there, and I’ll make a statement right now. The record labels haven’t got the fucking balls they were born with. They’re spineless. Universal is worth something like £34 Billion, and they won’t give £10,000 to an up and coming new band unless they’re selling 5000 copies of their own record. I will tell you now, 5000 copies of an album is enough today to get you into the top 20 album charts. It’s a ridiculous scenario, because the people in the business that are making all the money aren’t willing In terms of the music business, it would seem that to spend some of it to help the business grow. the record contract as a concept is now almost They already have masses of established artists I dead and buried, would you agree with that?

Yeah, there’s not really any such thing as an advance guess, so they’re making shit loads of money, why on an album anymore. Sure there are still a few that throw it away on something? I know that’s not the get them, but I’m fighting these battles every day. I’m right attitude to have, but that’s the one they’ve currently working with six bands, and I’m trying to got I believe. help them out. None of them have a record deal, four Yet I’ve been talking with Andy from Download, and of them don’t have any money to spend what so the guys that organise Sonisphere over here, and they’re saying that they’re struggling to put on the ever, two of which have got money spend, which warrants bringing someone like me on, so I can help festivals in the UK, because they’ve not got many headline acts to choose from that can pull a big them with where to spend that money to get the enough crowd to sell tickets. Why? It’s because the best out of it. They’re all mainly young bands from labels haven’t bothered over the last 10 or 15 years little towns, and they’ve got loads to offer, or I wouldn’t be getting involved with them, but to try and to invest in anyone, to make them into a genuine headline act. get any record labels to put any money into them?

It’s almost impossible.

Actually you’ve touched on something there, as a I guess that’s why so many independent labels are lot of people have noticed that and have talked cropping up everywhere, and why bands launch the about a lot. If you take away all of the artists that fan funded projects, because making and have been around for more than 15 years, there is recording music and getting it out to people is just hardly anyone left that’s big enough to headline a so expensive. major festival.

Toby: The thing about making rock records is that How many times can we have Metallica headlining you can’t do it in your bedroom. It takes time and it Download? How many times can we have Iron takes effort, and the money isn’t necessarily about Maiden yet again, as good a band as they are, on as just getting the stuff recorded. You need to be able a headline act? It’s indicative that they have to get a to invest a lot of time, you need to find a decent band like Slipknot who haven’t really done much over studio, and you need to find the right equipment. It’s the years, and they were like gone. They’ve reformed not like dance music, where you can sit at a for this for whatever reason, but they haven’t got the computer and compose music, and I guess some of profile of say Aerosmith or AC/DC, does that make the acoustic music you can do in a small space, but sense? There seems to be a massive divide between rock and roll? No. I’m talking about proper rock the big headline acts lik Metallica and Iron Maiden to records here, not approximations of records I’m the bands underneath like Korn and Bullet For My talking proper recordings, where bands are in Valentine who are fairly big bands, but nowhere

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“It’s a long story, but it took us a long time to get back together on stage” near big enough to sell 100,000 tickets, so they couldn’t be headliners. This is because the record labels haven’t invested inwardly, and pretty soon, if it continues, we’re going to see the death of the major festivals, or the festivals will change so much that it won’t be about the headliners any more, it will be about how much content you can squeeze into it.

Look at the amount of acts you had on at Download this year. There were like five tents, an acoustic stage, a fucking silent disco going on, as well as the main stages. There was just no way you could see all of them, it was impossible. The problem is the record industry doesn’t know what to do, and I hope it actually crashes and burns and has to rebuild its self, because then you’ll get some exciting new people coming through, with cool labels who’ll say “you know what? We will put the time and effort in, we will invest in the new and upcoming acts again” and that’s somewhere around what I want to do. We need to reinvent the industry as business model, and we need to get people into buying music again, because hardly anyone buys it these days. The old adage is though, that the record industry can’t live without the music, but the musicians can live without the record industry. If no one is making records any more, then the music industry is going to collapse, but the musicians? They can always get their mates together, pick up their instruments and go play in a pub or something.

I do think genuinely that music fans still want to own stuff and they still want to take part in something that lasts a long time. Rock n roll has always been about the lifestyle. The fans say I like this kind of music, so I’m going to go out and see those kinds of bands, and buy the t shirts and buy the records. It allows them to be a part of the lifestyle that the musicians lead themselves, even if it’s only a small part. The thing is, we all want to belong to a tribe, its human nature to do that, so that’s always going to be there, it’s just how you engage it? If a band has a great clear message about something, then eventually they’ll be heard. Most of the best rock music has come out of social conditions. The greatest rock and roll in the world came out when social conditions were terrible. The 1960’s started it off when the post war austerity hit, and there was some great music out of that. The Beatles came along and kind of kicked rock n roll into a new stratosphere, where it grew and became the enormous monotonous creature that gave us Pink Floyd and Genesis, which was then destroyed by Punk Rock and guitar music came back into fashion in a big way all through the 1980’s. Then it all crashed and burned again and became Nirvana and Pearl Jam and all of those kinds of bands. It sort of like goes in massive circles, but it’s usually the social conditions that dictate what most people are writing about. Of course that leads us up to now, and I believe we’re going to see another explosion soon, Yes exactly, with no musicians there wouldn’t be a because of the austerity that’s going on in this country, and I really hope those bloated fuckers that record industry. Of course you get these bloody Justin Biebers or whatever, who are famous for 5 own these huge companies that have ripped us all off for years and years and years, because they did, I minutes and then thrown aside just as quickly. hope they fucking crash and burn, and realise the Nothing in the modern music industry is built to error of their ways, because it’ll just give everybody last, everything seems disposable.

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else a chance to say “hang on, we’ll have another look at this, and we’ll re-do this” and they’ll get people engaged again. People like to interact. Just because the internet arrived, you know, the digital explosion, people aren’t just going to become robotic automatons. We’re humans, and I don’t agree with all that shit. I can’t even turn my fucking phone on, let alone work the fucking thing.

How do you feel about the Kickstarter and Pledgemusic campaigns that more bands are going in for? It does allow fans to be a part of something before it’s even been made.

To some extent I agree with you, but I also have a problem with these kinds of things. It’s just my personal opinion, but I think that rock n roll has always held a certain mystique, and we didn’t know how bands made records, and we didn’t know how they funded them. I guess it’s a romantic notion, you know, this band that just sort of does it without anyone knowing how. When I was listening to Deep Purple and Whitesnake I didn’t give a shit how they made their records, or how they funded it, I just liked the fucking music, and the problem that I have with these so called DIY projects, and yes of course it’s a good idea, and fair play to anyone that does it, is that it just seems to be that the fans are connected a little too closely to something, and for me that makes it less attractive. I just think it’s a real shame that bands have been driven to that, when it should be the record companies doing it, and maintaining the mystique. I mean really, if we could all do it, we would wouldn’t we? The thing is I used to come home from school, and queue in the rain to get the new one from Uriah Heep or something, because they were doing something that up until then, I didn’t know how to do. It was the mystery of it all, the magic of it all. I don’t want that bubble to be popped you know? The blurring of the lines between fans and the bands has gone, and that’s a shame. I don’t give a shit what fucking shitty tweets these people put out. I don’t want to know what David Coverdale had for fucking breakfast, I don’t give a shit what Dave Grohl’s inside leg measurement is, I just want them to make a

decent fucking song.

The internet has gone a long way into removing the barriers between the fans and the artists though, don’t you think?

Yes, exactly. I’m not sure that’s a good thing either.

When I was younger, you could only find out about the bands you liked through the magazines or on the radio, and now, it’s everywhere. You realise that your favourite artists are normal people, but years ago, you didn’t want them to be normal people, you wanted to get out of your normal life, and go and live rock n roll for a change. I remember years ago when I went to see Rainbow at the Leeds Queen’s Hall as a little 13 year old, and I looked around and thought “oh wow, this is what it must be like” and you looked around, and there were all these people having a collective experience, and there’s this band on stage, and this sound come out of the PA, and they’re up there doing this thing, and it was like “fuck yeah” and that’s what I loved about it. I don’t want that to end.

When I walked out of there I was high for days because I thought “shit I’ve just seen my heroes” and they felt like giants to me. That’s the bit that’s missing now, and the internet killed it. Why do these people have to tweet what they’re doing every minute of the fucking day? It’s boring, I don’t want to know. All I want from these people is the fucking music, write me a record, sing me a fucking song, and forget the rest of it, because I don’t want that, and I don’t need it. I tweet a little bit, but I try to keep it to the minimum, but there are people out there who say “oh I’m just going to the fucking bread shop” you know what? I don’t care. I’d rather you tweeted that you did a line of coke, and were riding on the back of a fucking wildebeest riding down the highway.

At least I’d think it was rock n roll. I don’t give a shit if you like éclairs, I don’t care. The relationship has changed, and it’s really odd. I still think the mystery should stay, but maybe I’m just an aging ex rock star who doesn’t like change, but the way the door has opened up into the world of the rock musician is something of a shame to me.

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Nightblade 9/10

Closer To The Threshold

Record Label: Sky Rocket Records Released: 22 June 2013 Highlight of the album: Your Soul Right Of Way Website: http://www.nightblade.co.uk Reviewer: Graham Pritchard

In 2010 four lads from Birmingham formed Nightblade and set about making music that would take the UK by storm. Three years later they have their second album under their belts. and what an album it is. As a fan of the NWOBHM I love these guys, Nightblade are like a cross between Maiden and Tank with plenty of melodic tunes mixed with nice clean vocals and just enough heaviness to keep people interested.

From the first track ‘Over My Dead Body’, which is a fast rocker with Maidenesq riffs, right through to the last song on the album (‘On Blackened Days’ which has more of a Sabbath feel to it you ) you get treated to a mix of tunes that all work to make one hell of an album and with the title track being a stomper you just know these boys will gain a lot of new fans. They deserve to be a lot bigger that’s for sure.

So to sum them up I would have to say NightBlade After their first self-produced and released album are pretty dam good and you should go and buy the ‘Servant To Your Lair’ they have come back with yet album, or at least try to catch a show some time and another great album in ‘Closer To The Threshold’ make up your own mind. which is ten tracks of pure metal done just the way it should be.

Jorn 9/10

Traveller Record Label: Frontiers Records

Released: 14 June 2013

Highlight of the album: Traveller Website: http://www.jornlande.com/ Reviewer: Paul Nicholls

Jorn Lande is back hot on the heels, or so it seems, of the “Symphonic” album with this new offering. On this occasion joined by two of the members of ‘WigWam’, Trond ‘Teeny’ Holter and Bernt ‘Flash’ Jansen which is not to forget Jorn Stalwarts Willy Bendiksen or Jimmy Iversen.

writing, world class musicianship and topped off with one of the most instantly recognizable voices in the business.

The album is instantly accessible and a true Jorn straight ahead rock album, while not skimping on the luxurious production we have come to expect from Jorn, this album seems much more raw and aggressive than symphonic in particular and not as dark as ‘Bringing Heavy Rock’. This is much more commercial.

There are 10 tracks on the album, starting with the magnificent ‘Overlord’ and in all honestly the overall quality never stops. For me the stand out being a difficult choice between the title track and ‘Rev On’.

Fans of Jorn are unlikely to be disappointed with this release and for those that have found Jorn difficult to truly appreciate, well this could be the album for you.

How much of that is down to the writing partnership of Trond Holter I can only surmise but it shows what a talented musician Mr Holter really is. This album truly is a great rock and roll outing with superb song

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Blues N Trouble 8/10

Try Anything Twice Record Label: Moonbeam Music

Released: 17 June 2013

Highlight of the album: Waiting Website:

http://www.bluesntrouble.co.uk

Reviewer: Jon Seymour

These guys have been going for 30 years or so now, and they’re showing no signs of letting up anytime soon. This British quintet will get your feet tapping along with their infectious grooves and Texas boogie.

Musically this is as good as anything else out there, and vocally, there is just the right amount of gravel added to the mix to keep it raw and jagged.

Having had 30 years to hone their craft though, it’s hardly surprising that they’ve managed to produce something of a very high standard. I’d have been more surprised, and rather worried, if they hadn’t managed to churn out something of good quality to be honest. This is just a bloody good blues album it

really is as simple as that.

Of course it’s not ground breaking by any means, but then the blues is something that doesn’t need to break new ground. It’s got everything, emotional guitar, thumping bass lines, screaming harmonica, soulful vocals, storytelling lyrics and all done over twelve bars. Yep this certainly ticks all the boxes for sure. Yes it’s simple music, but only in the way it’s portrayed. The way it’s delivered is far from simple, as the music is complexly layered to give it a fuller sound. Yep this is an enjoyable experience from start to finish.

Mike Zito & The Wheel 10/10

Gone To Texas Record Label: Ruf Records

Released: 11 June 2013

Highlight of the album: Don’t Break A Leg Website: http://www.mikezito.com Reviewer: Jon Seymour

This guy has been around for some time now, and is a world renowned singer/guitarist in the blues world. This is his first album on that well known blues label Ruf Records. More recently, Mike has been plying his trade as a founding member of Royal Southern Brotherhood, but has now graced us with this new solo album, which quite honestly can only be described as something that’s very good, extremely good in fact.

This isn’t strictly a blues album in the strictest sense of the word, or at least that’s my impression of it. It instead leans toward the blues rock side of things that Bob Seger does so well. This of course is no bad thing, as it’s a really great sound to listen to. There are also some quite heavy tracks thrown into the mix

too, and some jazz, and a lot more besides. It’s an album of diversity, and that’s a fact.

As you’d expect, the guitar work on the album is nothing short of brilliant, whether it be slow emotionally charged blues, or good old rock n roll boogie, Mike just delivers the goods on all counts.

He’s not a glory hunter though, and has invited a number of guest musicians and vocalists along to the party to share his duties.

All in all, this is an album full from start to finish with great music, there’s really nothing more I can say, except that you need to go out and get it, because you’ll definitely be missing out if you don’t.

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Federal Charm 9/10

Federal Charm (Self Titled) Record Label: Mystic Records

Released: 1 July 2013

Highlight of the album: Reconsider Website: http://www.federalcharm.co.uk Reviewer: Jon Seymour

So the first offering from these guys hailing from Manchester is finally here. After a taster EP was released last year, there was some genuine interest generated, and quite a bit of buzz. They sounded like a band to get excited about. The album then, has a lot of expectations to live up to.

fault it, as everything is played very well indeed. The songs too are well written, and while they may not be the most intricate and complex songs you’ve ever heard, they’re straight up in your face, and give off plenty of attitude.

This is an out and out rock album, heavily tinged with blues. It’s catchy, it’s groovy, and chock full of crunching guitar, thumping rhythms and some great work on the keys. All of this is overlaid with some soulful vocals. Bring all of this together, and it sounds pretty damned decent. There is some really great guitar on it too, ranging from cool sounding slide, to slow and emotional, and a lot more in between.

Overall, this is a mightily impressive debut album, which packs a real punch. It’s got bags of raw energy, and it will get you hooked from the very first song. Check these guys out, as they’re well worth your time and effort.

There are also some classic sounding rock tracks, which bring a little variety and pace to the proceedings, so it’s an album that’s going to appeal to both rock and blues fans alike. Musically I can’t

Blacktop Deluxe 8/10

Dark Horses E.P Record Label: Self Release

Released: 31 May 2013

Highlight of the album: Money In My Pocket Website: http://www.facebook.com/blacktopdeluxe Reviewer: Jon Seymour

This EP is the first offering from a band that’s risen from the ashes of not one, but two others, namely Blue On Black and Devil’s Creek. These two bands were flying the blues flag down in the South West of England for quite some time. The band features Keith Howe from Blue On Black on vocals and guitar, and from Devil’s Creek we have Alan Ibbotson on drums, and Tim Chapple on bass.

The thing is though, that it would seem they have taken the best bits from both former bands, and put them together without sounding too much like either of them. That’s some feat when you think about it.

They’ve also done a bit of experimentation with different sounds and techniques, so they’re not afraid to push the boundaries a little and see where it takes them.

Both of these bands leaned toward the more rocky side of the blues, so it comes as no surprise that the three tracks on this EP are pretty loud and raucous, with a thick layer of blues influence slathered on top for good measure. Honestly, if this is a taste of what’s to come, then the main course is going to be worth the wait, because the appetiser is killer.

Yes there were certain elements I was expecting, but only a few of them appeared on this EP, the rest was all new. Putting a new spin on old ideas is how music evolves, and these guys are just starting out on what is sounding like another great journey.

Check them out, especially if you’re looking for something a little off the wall.

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Mark Claytor 9/10

Uprising Record Label: Sumthinfierce

Released: 10 March 2013

Highlight of the album: Black Magic Blues Website: http://www.mcsologuitar.net Reviewer: Jon Seymour

One thing that’s apparent is that it’s not often that you come across a really good instrumental album these days. Sure there are instrumental albums out there, but some of them are nothing but ego stroking exercises of some twiddly wanker guitar player, or someone who thinks that as they’re the “most talented” member of the band, then no other instruments are important.

Yes of course there are moments of technical brilliance that will literally have your head spinning they’re that fast, but there’s also a lot of other things going on. It’s not an ego stroking exercise then.

That’s a very good thing. Each piece of music is finely crafted, and multi textured, so that everything works in harmony, rather than one instrument dominating the whole album.

So that brings me neatly onto this album, which honestly was stumbled upon quite by chance, merely by being in the right place at the right time. Don’t you just love it when that happens? From the opening track, it’s quite apparent that the guitar is the star, and that there is a phenomenal amount of talent on tap. The thing is though, is that it’s done with intricate timing, and a great deal of subtlety.

Musically, this is a master class in guitar playing.

With such a vast array of different techniques across the whole album, it will certainly keep the geeky guitar types happy, and for those of you who just like to listen to great music, then you really can’t go wrong with this album. As I said previously, it’s not often you come across a really good instrumental albums, but this is certainly one of those rare occasions.

Aynsley Lister 10/10

Home Record Label: Straight Talkin’ Record

Released: 8 July 2013

Highlight of the album: Home Website: http://www.aynsleylister.co.uk Reviewer: Jon Seymour

The latest offering from this guitar virtuoso has been generating some buzz around the blues world for some time now, so expectations are somewhat high.

No pressure at all then. There are a lot of good singing guitar players on the scene right now, and there are a handful of great ones. This guy certainly falls into the latter category.

The vocals on this album are full of soul and passion, and you can feel every emotion as it pours out of your speakers. The guitar work is as good as you’ll hear anywhere, and in many cases a lot better than some. He’s one of those musicians that put heart and soul into their playing, and his tone is just beautiful, there is no other word to describe it.

tight and precise. This is top quality for sure. When the guitar kicks into high gear though, you will get chills instantly. Several times I found the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. There are only a select few musicians who have this effect on me if I’m honest, but this guy is stunning.

From slow blues all the way up to blues/rock, this is an album that changes pace on a whim, and it just works on every level. There is no doubt that Aynsley is one of the finest British blues artists around at the moment, and this album does nothing but prove that point. If you’re a fan of guitar music, you really need to get this album, it’s as simple as that.

The original material on this album is well written, and flows effortlessly. Musically, the whole band is

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With Chris Nelson 18 & Life is the brainchild of Firebrands Switchblade Serenade presented by me, Chris Nelson. Each month I will be bringing you an insight into what goes on in the personal lives of musicians and bands. It's 18 questions all about them, with final question telling you what they are up to at the moment and what their plans are for the next 6 months. So if you’re in a band and you want to take part, send your contact details to chrisnelson@fbrr2010.com This months

Features Gothminister otherwise known as Bjorn Alexander ‘gothminister’ Brem. He has been creating quite a storm amongst the goth electronic scene since its inception in 1999, playing festivals such as Darkstorm, M’era Luna etc as well as reaching the Norwegian Eurovision song contest final. “2013 is the year that the world ends for some but in Gothminister land after the world goes under there will be a resurrection of the dead, of the righteous and of the evil.”

WHATS THE BEST BAND YOU’VE EVER SEEN LIVE? Hello, and thanks for the interest in Gothminister! That’s a difficult question.

Sound-wise, I have two favourites; Korn and Tool. When it comes to show, Alice Cooper and Rammstein are in the lead, together with The Tiger Lilly’s “Shockheaded Peter” (that’s more theatre than concert but still great.

IF YOU COULD HOST A DINNER PARTY AND INVITE ANY TWO PEOPLE FROM HISTORY ALIVE OR DEAD WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE? I would invite David Bowie because of his great influence on music and fashion. And Michael Gira from Swans, because of his fantastic lyrics.

WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE HORROR MOVIE? I would have to say “Prince Of Darkness”

by John Carpenter. It is still scary as hell after almost 30 years.

ARE YOU AFRAID OF ANYTHING AND WHATS YOUR FEAR? My greatest fear is people who only like superficial things and things that are nice and ‘pretty’. Also, when it comes to music and artists. We all have some dark sides.

In Gothminister we are not afraid to let them out, but those who are scared to let their dark sides out or who are scared to take a step into the unknown; God knows what they are hiding…?

WHO ARE YOUR HEROES, THE PEOPLE WHO INSPIRED YOU TO GET INTO MUSIC? No heroes, but I was hugely inspired to get into music because of an older friend who introduced me to the metal scene.

WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE TYPE OF FOOD./DISH? Thai food (chicken, etc).

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WHAT WAS FIRST ROCK ALBUM YOU EVER BROUGHT? “The first rock vinyl I ever bought was Queensryche with ‘Operation Mindcrime’.

Great album! (And a concept album, like our new one ‘Utopia’;) WHAT WOULD YOU SAY YOUR CAREER HIGHS AND LOWS HAVE BEEN? Low: when the tour with Das Ich in Germany had to be cancelled (the last 6 shows anyway) because (the last 6 shows anyway) becausethe vocalist was ill. Sad because he was really bad afterwards but also sad because we all disappointed a lot of fans.

High: Right now, when we are performing our huge live shows; the recent show in Hamburg @ Grosse Freiheit and also Castle Rock in Germany last year were great.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS OR UFO’S AND HAVE YOU HAD ANY EXPERIENCES YOU CAN SHARE WITH US? I believe that I don’t know about everything that might exist; I have no proof that they don’t exist.

YOU’RE CHILLING AT HOME AND PUT ON AN ALBUM BY AN ARTIST SOMEONE WOULD NOT ASSOCIATE YOU WITH, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE? Hehe; that would probably be something like Toto or Michael Jackson. Both are/ were great artists! And Whitney Houston, but that is mainly because the guitar player and I in Gothminister have a side project called Wizard Houston, which is speed metal cover songs from Whitney, so I am constantly trying to find new songs to cover. You can check out some early stage demos here: www.myspace.com/ wizardhouston WHATS THE MOST UNUSUAL PLACE YOU’VE EVER HAD SEX? Hmmmm; that one is quite personal I`d say… but no place is unusual to me…only the mind sets the limits!

FAVOURITE COMEDY TV SHOW OF ALL TIME? Little Britain. My favourite is the fat guy in the wheel chair. ‘Yeah I know!’

WHAT IS THE ONE THING IN LIFE YOU SIMPLY CANNOT DO WITHOUT? Writing music.

WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK? Jameson and coke (NB important! NOT Jack and coke).

WHATS YOUR FUNNIEST TOUR BUS STORY? Haha; that actually took place in the UK, on our tour there in 2006. We had a support band driving their own car behind our nightliner. We were on our way from a gig in Edinburgh and back to do a gig in London, I think. On the motorway, the bus driver said he wanted to empty the toilet of the nightliner (where people normally only take a piss, not allowed to shit, but you never know what s in there?). There was some miscommunication, and somebody thought the bus driver gave a signal to pull that handle while driving on the motorway with the support band driving right behind us. So somebody emptied our toilet right there and then. It went straight into the nose of the support band’s car behind us. When we arrived at the venue, the support band wasn’t there. Then they finally arrived, and they looked really pale, like they had seen a ghost; they were in an awful shape. They explained that they’d suddenly seen lots of fluid and other stuff coming from the nightliner in front of them. They had the air conditioning on full because it was warm, then somebody had noticed a smell, and the girl in the support band had said: “Oh no, I know what that is…(!)” All the piss (and something else too) went straight through their air con system and everybody had immediately puked inside the car. They needed to go to a car wash and wash it 3 times to make the car “Normal” again. It didn’t make things better that when cueing into London, the drummer had suddenly had a really bad stomach and he had to shit in a bag, in the back of their small car. Man, that band really didn’t look good when they finally arrived in London and we could, unfortunately, not stop laughing.

And then, there’s this other story about another support band bringing her own makeup artist, with a wooden leg (she cut off her leg because it didn’t feel a part of her body?), but that’s a very weird (and long story) that can be told another time…..

WHAT WAS THE FIRST GIG YOU EVER WENT TO? Manowar, Oslo, Kings Of Metal Tour, 1989.

WHAT SPORT DO ENJOY PLAYING OR WATCHING THE MOST? Haha; I was actually a tennis player from the age of 8-18, competing in championships in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Number 4 was my highest rank in Norway.

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18. WHAT ARE YOU UP TO AT THE MOMENT AND WHATS YOUR PLAN FOR THE NEXT 6 MONTHS? We have a new album out, a CD/DVD called “Utopia”, so here is some info about it; Utopia is Gothminister`s new concept album, consisting of both studio recorded and live film recorded songs, with even a live film intro and outro.

just how the main character, now as a grown-up, has turned into the evilness he feared as a boy; When I was a child, I used to live across the street from here, on those sleepless nights a faint bell and a harsh cough filled the air Nothing will remain He will ease you from your pain If you shall reign this world The concept of ‘Utopia’ is inspired by Bjørn Embrace your nightmare Alexander Brem’s life and nightmares – the They said he once rose from the earth combination of being a lawyer in daytime To help people die, to resurrect and join and ‘GOTHMINISTER’ at night drives him his Army of walking undead eventually insane – it becomes impossible He will ease you from your pain for him to understand the difference If you shall get your revenge in the end between reality and imagination.

He was a lunatic from my worst nightmares; they said he used to lure Below is a comment on each track on the sleepless and unaware children and in his CD + DVD. We have a great live show and dark cellar he would end their lives, we’re on tour right now. Our next gig in consume their brains, and thus reconquer the UK is at Alt Fest, Aug 15-17, in Kettering, the ability of being creative again, and to Northamptonshire. Thanks for the live happily as only a child can, in its interview and thanks for the interest in pathetic fantasy world On Sunday nights I Gothminister! often walk pass that old house, where I used to live as a child. Last night, when I Utopia – the studio recordings passed the house, I heard a faint sound of a bell in the wind. I was wondering if others The studio album kicks off with ‘Someone Is also could hear it, that bell, and my harsh, After Me’. It all starts with our main nagging cough that that I can’t get rid of character, a little boy, living in a big, old Is this my nightmare house. On certain sleepless nights he hears Is this my nightmare a faint bell in the wind and a harsh cough Who the hell am I from some stranger walking across the If this is my nightmare’…. street. The rumours say that this man was pure evil, and that he used to lure In ‘All Alone’ then, everyone is dead. And unaware children. our main character realises that his evil work cannot be appreciated if everyone is In Utopia, we are given the description of the perfect world but still some questions are left unanswered; ‘Maybe Hell only exists here on Earth’? And therefore, Heaven, or ‘Utopia’, may also exist on Earth? And if so, is it the heavenly and good world that is our main character`s Utopia? Or maybe his idea of a perfect world is Hell and pure evilness…?

‘Horrorshow’ takes our main character further into his fantasy where he finds himself trapped by sinister creatures.

‘Afterlife’ reminds us of our limited time here on earth, but it also asks the question whether there is something else after death.

This brings us on to one of the most lyrically important songs on the album; ‘Nightmare’. Here we are told

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gone. So he wishes them to come back to life again, so, as he says; ‘I can scare you once again…’

for any survivors, he suddenly sees a little girl running away. So he follows her. And she leads him into a big, dark venue where he meets military guards and where ‘Eternal’ describes the essence of what can see creepy shadows without knowing will happen; the resurrection of the dead. what it is all about.

And maybe this is what our main character wants; an army of walking undead to serve Suddenly, pale arms pull him into the him for eternity. But he also needs to join shadows, and out comes…’Gothminister’. them, which means he has to end his own The band goes on stage, and the concert life. show starts… The audience consists of living undead, zombies, call them what you ‘Bogeyman (Death Is Coming)’ is the last want. The fact is that this is a quite song on the studio album, and it describes different and much more dangerous the last part of the journey for our main audience than what we normally might see character. His double personality - like a on a metal show, right?

Mr. Jekyll and Hyde, will end here, at least as a regular human being. And maybe Slowly the audience infects the whole that is for the best, “maybe this world is band and each one of them in turn, turn better off without the two of us”. into a living dead. The concert ends when Because, at that point our main character the lead singer (‘Gothminister’ himself) is does not know if he will manage to raise overpowered by the crowd and he from the dead…, but he still has his disappears underneath them. delusions of grandeur, as described in the main characters last words; “I have had a He then wakes up in a dark, empty room, dream since birth, that the dead will reign and the little girl is there, standing with the earth…” her back to him. He can`t see her face. He needs to know. So he crawls towards her, And where the studio album ends, the live and turns her around. She looks just like film DVD picks it up… a normal, pretty little girl…….. Until he looks closer, and, suddenly the most Utopia – the live film. 1Hr 15mins… nightmarish face appears. The whole world now seems chaotic, no one can be trusted, The live film starts with the following and our main character must end his life quote; for real……

“And while I have hope in God, which they also do, they preach these things: There is And the film`s last scene shows our main going to be a resurrection from the dead, character after death; at the morgue…… of the righteous and of the evil.” (Acts Then, suddenly, the corpse starts moving 24:15, The Aramaic Bible) and who knows, is this also a part of the main character`s nightmare, or maybe the It is quite clear what we might resurrection from the dead seems to experience….in the name of life and death. happen after all, of the righteous (the lawyer) and of the evil….

The story starts in front of Oslo county court, showing our main character as a All the best from B. A. & GOTHMINISTER….. lawyer, greeting his client, living his “normal” daily life in a regular city. But our main character has a hard life, switching between his job as a lawyer in Don’t forget you can catch up with Chris daytime and the artist and alter ego Nelson every Sunday 12-2pm on ‘Gothminister’ at night, and this Firebrand Rock Radio combination slowly drives him mad. Soon he can`t see what is reality and what is imagination.

When the pictures he sees in his head slowly disappear, the whole world has changed. The city seems empty and everyone is dead. Our main character needs to find a way out of this, and in his search

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Empire Of Fools 9/10

Unstoppable Record Label: Self Release

Released: 21 June 2013

Highlight of the album: Unstoppable Website: https://www.facebook.com/empireoffools Reviewer: Lee Walker

With a grandiose name such as Empire Of Fools your mind immediately conjures up images of a huge stadium filling band. Not quite reaching that level just yet Empire Of Fools sound though is summed up exactly like that through with its mix of powerful guitar driven rock harmonic’s. This fledgling young band have rapidly been making quite a bit of noise for themselves with their anathemic style of rock, quickly racking up a string of festival appearances including the likes of the Bulldog Bash and the Cambridge Rock Festival to name but a few.

as a taster for this young band with the three tracks showing off their rich mix of powerful vocals, and cut back guitar work, demonstrating the bands uncanny knack of creating huge stadium rock style anthems.

For a debut E.P ‘Unstoppable’ ticks all the right boxes but could do with having a couple more tracks in it as it ends far too quickly, but that none withstanding, if they keep on producing songs of the calibre displayed on it I am sure that you will get to hear a lot more of these guys in the future.

‘Unstoppable’ itself is a three track debut E.P and showcases the bands immense talent nicely, acting

Homeless Hill 8/10

Invincible Record Label: Self Release

Released: 4 July 2013

Highlight of the album: Die Alone Website: http://www.homelesshill.com Reviewer: Jon Seymour

These guys hail from the US, and play a they have a straight up attitude to rock. The opening track sets you up for the album, coming at you with all guns blazing. They certainly don’t intend in taking any prisoners with this album.

The album has an overall grunge feel to it, and it sounds dirty and grimy. The vocals have a certain drawl to them, and when put together with the music, it makes the whole thing really gritty, probably akin to pouring sand and baby oil down the front of your Speedos….

This is an album full of fist pumping songs, that will make you want to shake your head, and what more could one possibly expect, or indeed want, from a hard rock album? Not much to be fair. This is worth checking out though, as it’s a pretty decent album on the whole, and while it might not be a truly great album, it’s got enough going for it to keep it up there with the “good” albums that are around right now.

Make no mistake though, this is no trailblazer. It’s not heading off in some new direction. It’s just straight ahead rock n roll, but it has enough of an attitude to carry it off well. There are no strict weak points that I could pick on, and both musically and vocally this ticks all the boxes.

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Cardiant 9/10

Verge Record Label: Inverse Records

Released: 31 May 2013

Highlight of the album: Justice Turns Into Revenge Website: http://cardiant.net Reviewer: Lee Walker

Playing catchup on the number of releases that have popped up in Firebrandland over the past month I have stumbled upon the strangely titled ‘Verge’ by Finnish band Cardiant.

The album itself starts off with well with opening track ‘Justice Turns Into Revenge’ setting the scene for Cardiant’s breed of music, which manages to sit somewhere in the boundaries between European power metal and symphonic metal with its mix of sweeping choruses, fast paced guitar work and melodic, almost harmonic vocals and will draw comparisons with the likes of Tarot, Nightwish etc etc.

The album itself thunders along well, having an almost concept style feel to it, with elements of fast paced out and out guitar work leading the way, providing the perfect backbone to carry Erik Karhatsu’s European power metal style vocals, occasionally being joined by Outi Jokinen adding an extra dimension to the tracks that she appears on.

Overall ‘Verge’ would make a great addition to any power metal fans collection and is set to propel Cardiant into the forefront of that scene.

The Inner Road 8/10

Ascension Record Label: Orbital Productions Released: 31 May 2013 Highlight of the album: A Fleeting Dream Website: http://www.inner-road.com/ Reviewer: Lee Walker

Described as being ‘Instrumental Symphonic Prog Rock’ ‘Ascension’ is just that and is the follow up album to The Inner Road’s 2011 ‘Visions’ release.

The opening song “Ascension” really sets the scene for this almost concept style instrumental release, with its deep rich progressive sounds displaying hints of space progers Hawkwind and Steve Hackett, while it envelops you in within its wall of sound, leaving you feeling that you are being transported to another time and place far away from the noise of modern day life.

Overall with ‘Ascension‘ The Inner Road have done a great job with bringing this concept instrumental beast to life, but as with most releases of this nature you will either love or hate it.

Throughout the album itself you get to marvel at the perfectly controlled guitar work, and the cleaver use of keyboards to convey the feelings and emotion that the songs revolve around.

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James Toseland Interviewed by Jon Seymour

So tell us a little about yourself, as you were in Crash before, if I remember correctly.

Yeah the band was called Crash and it was a covers band that I was in for around 10 or 11 years, mainly as a hobby, as I did it alongside my career in racing. I started to promote Yamaha pianos as well as motorcycles. Although it was a covers band, we got around a lot, as we played at the racing venues around the world. The guys that we’ve got together now though, are a new band. The guitarist Zurab is my brother in law, and I met him around the time that I met my wife. He was at uni at the time, and when I was writing the album with Toby Jepson I asked him if there were any like minded guys at the uni with no commitments who would be willing to join a band, and that’s how it started up. The lads I played with in Crash all have full time jobs, families and kids, so it was as much a hobby for them as it was for me. Once I was forced to retire from racing though, I knew I wanted to do this professionally, which meant travelling, and a lot of time away, so it wasn’t really something those guys could get involved with, so that’s when it was decided to get this group of lads together.

So have you any idea yet when the album might be released?

Actually no, not yet. We haven’t got any sort of time scale planned out, as I’ve only really just sorted out the management. Toby and Martin Tibbets from Strange World Management are going to be managing the band, and Steve Strange is going to be the agent for it, and that team has literally been put in place in the last couple of weeks. They’re currently talking to the labels now to generate some interest, and hopefully we’re looking at the album being released early next year.

The EP that’s going around at the moment is getting a good reaction though isn’t it?

Yeah it’s been fantastic. Literally everything that you’ve seen so far was all funded by my self. I’ve written the songs with Toby but everything else has been done pretty much by me. I got a thousand EP’s printed up, and we played Download yesterday, and for the first time, the crowd were singing our song, because they’d heard it on the radio. It was the first time that’s happened to us, so it was a bit of a moment honestly.

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So honestly, what was it like playing Download’s hallowed turf?

Well actually it was only our fifth ever gig. How many bands do you know that have played four gigs in their career, and number five was Donnington? It was a bit surreal to be honest. I’m really proud of the music I’ve written with Toby, and I’m really proud of the rest of the guys in the band. They’re really committed to it, and with that commitment and hard work, Toby picked up the phone and spoke to Andy Copping and he gave us a slot on the acoustic stage. It went ok, but we had a lot of feedback about half way through, and my keyboard packed up too, so it was a bit eventful, and a great learning curve. You’ve got to laugh it off though, and as we’re the underdogs at the moment, people tend to give us a bit more of a break.

That’s ok though, as those kinds of incidents make a gig more memorable, you can always remember what went wrong at a gig, it doesn’t matter whose playing either.

Well I was playing, and I knew it cut out, as I couldn’t hear anything coming back through the monitor.

Luckily I saw a young lady down the front, who was holding up a flag from when I was racing, so I thought “I can trust her, she’ll help me out” and I looked at her, and pointed to my keyboard and she just shook her head, and made the “cut” signal, so at that point I just decided to give it up, but it was fun none the less, and everyone had a laugh and a giggle, and hopefully we’ve got some interest in playing some more gigs later on, so it was good of Toby to believe in us, and to let us open for his band on these few dates too.

We’re really good friends, and of course now he’s managing us too, and I don’t think he’d be supporting us if he didn’t believe in us, so it’s working out really well. We had a great gig in Cardiff last night, and it’s all a bit emotional for him and the rest of the guys, as it’s their last ever headline show tonight, and for us to be opening for them is an honour.

doing it. That was it really, and two world championships and a sixteen year racing career later, here we are. It was an amazing time which unfortunately came to an abrupt end. I had a crash, and the old girl bit back at me and threw me off. As a result of that I dislocated my wrist pretty badly, and now I can’t bend my wrist anymore, so I had to retire.

I was only 30 years old, so I decided that was it, I would go back to music, as that was my first love.

Well it would seem that it’s going pretty well so far.

Yeah, although I’m under pressure a bit really, as my old job was really successful, and bringing that with you into the new job can have a bit of a stigma to it.

When I first met Toby I said to him “look, this has got to be as good as my riding, so if I can’t do it, you have to tell me.” We did a couple of demos together, and we sat down and wrote together. After about eight months, once we’d done six or seven tracks, I started to feel like we really had something here, and I’m really proud of what we achieved.

The EP has got 4 tracks on it, and when you’re putting something like that out, it can be quite difficult to decide what to put on it, so who made the decisions as to what tracks should go onto it?

Well this is all new to me you know. I was told that we need to get the music out there, so that people could hear it. You know, we’ve got the album done, we’ve got the band ready to go, but no one was able to listen to anything we’d done yet to get into it. That’s when Toby said that we need to get an EP out. An EP usually has 4 tracks on it, but he said that he didn’t really want to give 4 album tracks away, as we’ve only got 11. We haven’t got the advertising, or the deal in place, so we needed to find something else to go onto it. So we put 3 album tracks on it, plus a demo of one of the other tracks, which is just me singing over a keyboard. It’s been really well received actually, as I literally recorded it with just me at my house. Quite a few people have come up to me and You actually got into music before you got into said “hey that demo was really good” and when I first racing, so what made you decide to take that path did it, and listened to it against the produced stuff, I instead? was worried it was a bit of a risk. I’m slowly starting Well my mum and dad divorced when I was three, to realise that people appreciate the music a lot, and we had to move in with my grandparents. So especially Little Angels fans, you know, they’re very there was my mum, my brother and I, plus my grandparents in the house, and they had a piano, and knowledgeable, and they like that stripped back I became really interested in it from an early age, and sound, and they can actually hear a musician then.

I was classically taught from the age of 8 until the I have to agree actually, I like the stripped back songs age of 16. Then when my mum met her new too, so is the album version going to be a lot boyfriend, he had a motorbike… That’s where it all kind of shifted, because as a youngster, when I got a different?

Well first of all, I like the song, as it’s a bit of a motorbike, all of a sudden I had 100 extra mates, personal song for me. It was kind of about me, you mainly because it was a lot cooler than playing the know I was born in Doncaster, a kind of Northern piano. I don’t know what happened, but it seemed I English town, and I was a bit of a Renegade you know, was naturally talented at riding a motorbike, and being a biker, so that’s where the idea for that song from the age of 15 onwards, I started my racing career. I didn’t have any decisions to make on leaving came from, and it just so happened that I put piano on it, so the stripped back version worked really well. school as to what I wanted to do, as I was already

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The album version is all electrified, but still with the piano, and still with that similar vibe. I sing both in a very similar way, so while they might sound really different musically, vocally they’re pretty much the same song, if that makes sense? I didn’t want to put something onto the EP that was going to throw people off the sound of the album version though, and it’s a really difficult decision. With racing it was easy, you know you ride the race and cross the line first, it was that simple, but music is another world, and deciding which tracks to put on was hard, as it’s something that will either make or break my career.

I’ve read a few reviews though, and people are generally receiving it well, and that’s quite a surprise to be honest. I thought a few people would like it, but the response to it has been amazing, and that’s what I needed to do from the get go. I didn’t have the comfort zone of building into a musician slowly, because of what I did before. People’s expectations were going to be high, so we had to come up with the goods from the stat, and I think we’ve started something.

project you take on, you need everyone behind it to be able to just push it along. I think people can see how much time and money I’ve put into this project though, and they’ll appreciate that. I’ve not started out to make money in this game, it’s just something that I’ve always wanted to do even before the racing, and now I feel very privileged to be able to come back from racing, and be able to be a musician up on stage.

So what will you be up to between now and the album release?

Well we’ve got some gigs lined up, and a festival in the Isle Of Man, that’s going to be a great gig for us.

There’s going to be sort of about 10,000 people in a marquee, so we’re really looking forward to that one.

Like I said, we’ve just got the management on board, so there’s a lot to work out between ourselves as to where to go from here, and they’re currently working on getting some dates lined up for Autumn/ Wintertime. Toby and I together decided to get the EP done, we decided to get these gigs all booked in, basically to show people. Obviously in my old I guess it comes down to it, that if you’ve got profession, there was quite a bit of talking involved. something to sell, then people will buy into it, but only That means I can get on TV and I can do the press if it’s good enough. stuff because of what I was before, so I’m used to it, Exactly, I think the way we’re doing it now, building it but you know, with the rock game, people are more up slowly, playing a few gigs and stuff is the right way like “enough of the talking, show us what you can do” to do it. We’ve got some great gigs, and we couldn’t so we were hoping that the management team have got those opportunities if people didn’t believe would come along once people had seen it, and in us. I’m just fortunate enough to have a really good hoping that a deal would come out of it if we’re lucky, team looking after me and the band. It’s like any but we’ll see.

“It was a bit surreal to be honest.”

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Anastasio Farini 9/10

Lil’ Angel

Record Label: Heart Of Steel Reords/Defox Records Released: 20 May 2013 Highlight of the album: Brother To Brother Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/AnastasioReviewer: Lee Walker

Not really knowing what to expect I was pleasantly surprised when I had chance to listen to ‘Lil’ Angel’

by Anastasio Farini.

superbly crafted melodic rock.

Musically speaking, throughout the album I can hear influences from all of the great 80s melodic rock bands which hints of everyone from Tyketto through to Journey through to Magnum thrown in.

Anastasio who? I can hear a lot of you saying, which to be honest is perfectly understandable, as until I received the request to review his debut album I had never heard of him, but if you take the time to his Overall for a debut album the result is breath taking music you will defiantly want to know more about this and is certain to make Anastasio Farini a familiar Greek guitar hero. name throughout the melodic rock circles.

The album itself is flawless with stunning guitar work leading the way, being offset against some superb guest vocalists, with cameo appearances from the likes of Rob Mancini, Dean Mess, Reuben Archer and George Gakis all adding to the dynamic mix of

Stormbringer 10/10

MMXIII Record Label: Transcend Music

Released: 15 July 2013

Highlight of the album: Control Website: http://www.bringthestorm.com Reviewer: Graham Pritchard

For those of you who like me were gutted by the announcement that Viking Skull are no more then take comfort in the fact that Ex Skull Guitarist Dom Wallace is back with a new band called Stormbringer. Whilst the Skull had the brilliant vocals of Roddy Stone Stormbringer have the equally brilliant vocal talents of Mike Stockley.

The title track opens the album, ‘MMXIII’ is one of those stomper head banger tracks but is only the intro to the album and takes you into ‘Gazing At The Grave’. You don’t get any let up on this 11 track album as every song will hit the right spot producing a hard heavy and melodic rock album from a brilliant band.

Hailing from Northamptonshire and formed in 2011 over some beers Stormbringer are a hard heavy band that mix thumping drums grinding guitars and clear vocals to make up their sound. A replacement for Viking Skull? I think not after all there will only ever be one Skull but Stormbringer are definitely a band that will carve their way to success.

The twin guitars of the legend that is Dom Wallace and Ash Smith mixed with the engine that is Darren McCullagh on Bass and Jon Paul Quantrill on Drums makes this one heck of an outfit and definitely a band to watch out for in the future. Catch them on tour you won’t be disappointed.

The album titled MMXIII, (or 2013 in normal terms), is a brilliant first effort from these guys I just can’t stop playing it.

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By Lee Walker

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Originally formed in the Midlands in 1991 Agincourt were heavily influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement and first came to prominence during the early nineties where they recorded a number of demos as well as a BBC Radio 1 session. During this time the band was receiving lots of radio airplay, as well as having video appearances on the likes of Noisy Mothers.

Just as Agincourt were getting into their stride and starting to get noticed, the Grunge scene exploded engulfing traditional metal and killing off shows such as Noisy Mothers and the Friday Rock Show with it.

Inevitably in 1997 the band split up and went their separate ways. In 2008 the band was revived by vocalist and guitarist Richard E. Toy, bassist Russ Weaver, guitarist Frank Miracco, along with former Benediction/Scarab drummer Paul Brookes. Frank left the band in 2008 and was replaced by guitarist Paul Anderson. In 2009 the band started work on their first album ‘Angels of Mons’ at Sable Rose Studios with producer Andy Faulkner. The mixing of the album was finished by Alex Cooper at Arkham Studios, Birmingham in November 2010. Steve Riley (also formerly of Scarab) replaced Paul Brookes in 2010 completing the current line up.

‘Angels of Mons’ was released on the band’s own label on 1st March 2011, and released in Japan on the 20th of July 2011 via the Spirit record label (a subsidiary of Spiritual Beast) and was also released in Germany on limited edition gold vinyl record by German label High Roller in November 2011.

Since the release of the album the band has performed at the The British Steel Festival and Hard Rock Hell in 2011 and the Headbanger’s Open Air Festival warm up show in Germany in 2012. They also appeared as special guests at the Denim & Leather NWOBHM festival alongside NWOBHM legends Stampede, Weapon, Praying Mantis and Gaskin later the same year.

The band are currently working on new material for the follow up album to the ‘‘Angels of Mons’ release.

Discography BBC Sessions E.P - 1994 Angel Of The Mons – Album 2011 For more information on the band check out: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ Agincourt/187840847894619?fref=ts http://www.agincourtmusic.com/default.asp

To have your band featured please send an email to: magazine@fbrr2010.com 51

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FRAUDULENT COPYRIGHT CLAIMANTS ON YOUTUBE

By Doris Brendel Companies claiming copyright on Youtube videos for afford to sue a potentially large company most likely which they have no rights is becoming an ever based abroad? increasing problem.

There are a few companies which are cropping up Any individual or company can submit a copyright time and time again who are the main offenders and infringement notification on any video using who are easy to search for. Some of these Youtube's automated system and tick one of the companies are legitimate distribution companies infringement categories supplied. Technically this is a who bend the rules along the way. Others have great service giving artists and record companies an names very similar to bona fide companies and use easy route to reduce piracy and to clamp down on this for additional credibility and to make them anyone illegally making use of their music. But it also harder to track down. gives way to unscrupulous companies making unfounded claims with ease.

On the surface this is a simple case of fraud. One person has written, copyrighted and published a So what's in it for them? song and someone else has falsely claimed for it.

When a copyright infringement claim has been And this certainly does happen, as it did with me. made it becomes a case which can be disputed by But things are not always so simple. There may be a the owner of the channel hosting the video. During separate record company involved, online this time the claimant receives the option of distributors, co-writers. The dispute may be over monetising the video, taking the videos stats for their stolen lyrics which can be complex to prove. A big own site, or asking for deletion of the video. Once the area causing problems is with the use of tracks channel owner has disputed the claim, the claimant legitimately bought online via a music library or has a whole month to counter the dispute, during videos featuring other peoples' music with full which time they are earning the advertising revenue permission. There have been several recorded cases on your video. Done on a grand scale there is where even with the correct licenses or permissions certainly money to be made. It's worth noting that in writing videos have been deleted due to these this has nothing to do with royalties. The companies claims and all appeals have failed, even when the involved are not (on the whole) registered with authors of the music have endorsed the video. collection agencies as confirmed with PRS on the couple I looked into. Also a video has to receive in And this is where the biggest problem lies. Youtube excess of 100,000 hits to generate any royalties at understandably don't want to get involved with all and are not generally targeted by false claimants. disputes. They've added an automated system, but the problem isn't theirs and it's up to others to fight That is particularly worrying is that Youtube does not it out amongst themselves. And in so may cases send the channel owner a notification if a claim has Youtube errs on the side of the larger companies been made, so if you do not regularly check your and the 'little' people suffer. video manager page and scroll down your entire video collection, you are unlikely to know that they So how do you know when a claim has been made have been hijacked. This means it is extremely likely against you? that a large number of videos are earning money for Check your Video Manager page regularly. If a claim these fraudulent claimants without the rightful has been made you will see a blue 'copyright claim' owners even being aware of it. link next to the 'Edit' button of the video in question.

Clicking on it will reveal the company making the The other problem is the issue of proof. Anything can claim, though there are no real details as to what be made up during the initial claim without having to that claim is. provide any actual proof, making it extremely easy for these companies to target anyone they like. Even if An ad suddenly appearing on a video you have not they decide to drop the claim along the way, there is monetised is also a clear sign that your video has no come-back for them and they've probably earned been hijacked. If you have already monetised your some money along the way. And how many video(s) you will not notice a difference without independent record companies and artists can checking your Video Manager page.

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So what can you do to protect yourself?

First of all dispute the claim. When clicking on the copyright link next to the video you will receive that option. Tick the relevant boxes and enter the relevant information in the text box. Then you will have to wait a month for them to reply.

In the meantime look up the company and contact them directly by phone and email and demand that they remove their claim. They will either not reply at all at this stage or send you a confusing statement or article made to look like it has been endorsed by Youtube blaming the claim on their automated system.

My first suggestion is to notify channel holders whenever a claim is made against one of their videos.

If it's a simple case of self-written, self-published works, the best way to get fraudulent claims removed is by making an awful lot of noise. Look up the company and bombard them with emails, phone calls. Find their Facebook page and get everyone you know to write messages on their page to desist fraudulent behaviour. This generally bears quick results.

If an external record company is involved, the claimants will often blame them for having made a deal with them. In this case contact your record company and ask them to confirm this. If they haven't had any dealing with the company ask them to write to the claimant directly and then bombard the claimant's Facebook page.

Another thing you need to check is your online distributor. Artists use a number of distributors to sell their music on iTunes, Amazon etc., and some distributors do have deals with companies instructed to match and monetise any video containing your music. Zimbalam for example have an optional monetisation programme, whereas Mondotunes do this automatically, in which case you have to write to them directly to have it removed. Ideally you would have a monetisation programme where you can elect URL exemptions, such as your own channels and websites.

Emily Stewart from the Musicians Union in the UK confirmed that members are eligible for free legal advice and some legal aid depending on the complexity of the case should such an issue arise.

PRS on the other hand say they are powerless to intervene as it's not a royalty issue and is firmly a case for Youtube to monitor and regulate more closely.

So how can this abuse of the system be solved?

Though it's understandable that Youtube don't wish to spend additional resources on tackling this issue, it does make vast sums of money from its customers and much of Youtube's content consists of music from independent record companies and

artists. It would certainly be an ethical step to assist in stopping the ease of this abuse and helping the numerous 'little' people on their site, who generally do not have the finances or know-how in combating this type of fraud. Fine-tuning their automated copyright claim system is the only way to reduce this problem.

My second suggestion would be not to monetise videos on behalf of the claimant until the channel holder has had a chance to dispute the claim and receive a direct reply from the claimant with detailed information regarding that claim. At the moment there are no details at all.

The third suggestion would be for Youtube to sponsor a small team of people who actually look at the Channel holder's defending proof. I am not suggesting they put together a large legal team to deal with complex matters, but much of the defendants' proof is very simple and straight forward, such as legitimate licenses from music libraries, written permissions from artists and record companies or tunecodes and ISRC and catalogue numbers which can be easily checked.

Right now, according to fairusetube.org, claimants have the ability to unilaterally 'confirm' their claims with no further recourse to the uploader, making them judge and jury.

As a song-writer I understand the dread of your lovingly crafted video being deleted through no fault of your own and perhaps some artists simply don't contest the false claims in order to safeguard their channel. Either way, there is evidently money to be made for these companies or they simply wouldn't do it and I urge musicians to be vigilant, to fight any false claims and foremost for Youtube to find ways to improve their service to close this loophole.

~ Reference Article http://fairusetube.org/youtube-copyfraud A. 3. The Content ID dispute process is ineffective and gives copyright claimants the ability to unilaterally "confirm" their claim with no further recourse for the uploader. The Content ID system includes a supposed "dispute" process, wherein a user who believes his video has been incorrectly flagged by Content ID can use a simple webform to dispute the Content ID match for one of three

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reasons (1) misidentification, (2) license to use the material in question, and (3) fair use. YouTube describes this dispute process as being a sort of front-end buffer to the notice and counter-notice process established by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 USC § 512). According to YouTube, once the user files a dispute, the video is automatically restored. If the copyright claimant wishes to have the video blocked again, they must file a DMCA takedown notice. If the user still disagrees, they can then file a DMCA counter-notice and get the video restored. At that point, if the copyright claimant still objects to the video, they must file a lawsuit seeking an injunction.

If this was the way the dispute process actually worked, the impact of the first two problems would be minimal, as false identifications could be easily corrected by filling out a simple online form. As it is however, this is not the way the dispute process works in practice. In reality, after the original uploader files a dispute, YouTube allows the Content ID claimant to simply "confirm" their claim to the video, allowing them to either permanently block or monetize the video with no further recourse for the uploader. The user is then met with a message saying "All content owners have reviewed your video and confirmed their claims to some or all of its content." After that, there is nothing the uploader can do to fight the copyright claim on their video.

Further Content ID disputes are not allowed, and neither can they file a DMCA counter-notice because no DMCA takedown notice has been filed. This

conundrum is illustrated by the diagram (See opposite page) The upshot of this is that Content ID allows claimants to unilaterally reject any dispute filed against their own copyright claim, essentially making them the judge of their own case. Many, if not most, entities that use the Content ID system make it their policy to blanketly confirm their claims against all disputes that are filed, and don't even bother to evaluate whether individual disputes have merit or not. As a result, the Content ID dispute process as it exists now is simply a joke, and provides no effective means to appeal false copyright claims against a user's videos. This leaves the system wide-open for abuse, with little to no accountability for those who seek to use the Content ID system for nefarious purposes.

B. Wall of Shame: Documented Cases of Copyfraud & Routine Abusers of the Content ID System 1. GoDigital Media Group (www.godigitalmg.com) 2. Netcom Partners (www.netcompartner.com) 3. Sanoma NL/Gamer NL (www.gamer.nl) 4. X-Media Digital (www.xmedia.ru) 6. The Orchard Music (www.theorchard.com) 5. Major Record Labels (Sony, EMI, WMG) C. Google's Response: Silence

Do you think your band has what it takes to be Firebrand Rock Radio’s

Prizes include interview both on air and in our Magazine, and much more.

If you are interested, please email us at bandofthemonth@fbrr2010.com for more information and details!

We only have six slots available, so get your entries in!

Good luck!

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Featuring all your favourite DJs and Shows every day only on

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Absolva June 28 Newcastle Trilliums 29 Crossford Les Fest

Ben Harper & Charlie Musslewhite

Bruce Springsteen & The E Band July 23 Cardiff Millennium Stadium

Buckcherry

Hawklords

Metal Wave UK

October 12 Leeds Brudenell Social Club

October 5 Purfleet The Circus Tavern

Huey Lewis and The News

Mindless Self Indulgence

September 30 Gateshead The Sage October 01 London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire

November 28 Brighton Concorde 2 29 London KOKO 30 Norwich Waterfront December 1 Edinburgh Liquid Rooms 3 Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall 4 Manchester Ritz 5 Bristol Anson Rooms

December 10 London O2 Arena 12 Belfast Odyssey Arena 14 Sheffield Motorpoint Arena 16 Glasgow Hydro 18 Manchester Arena 20 Birmingham LG Arena

November 22 London Koko 23 Coventry Kasbah 25 Manchester Academy 26 Glasgow O2 ABC 27 Belfast Limelight 2 29 Dublin The Academy 30 Nottingham Rock City December 2 Bristol O2 Academy 3 Cardiff Solus 4 Exeter Lemon Grove

Black Star Riders

Courteeners

Kings Of Leon

June 25 Liverpool O2 Academy SOLD OUT 28 Pilton Glastonbury Festival July 5 Manchester Castlefield Bowl SOLD OUT 6 Manchester Castlefield Bowl SOLD OUT 6 Manchester Academy 2 (Aftershow) 12 Balado Kinross T in the Park August 17 Chelmsford Hylands Park V Festival 18 Stafford Weston Park V Festival

June 25 Manchester Arena July 09 Birmingham LG Arena 10 Birmingham LG Arena

July 16 London Shepard’s Bush Empire

Black Sabbath

November 22 Bournemouth O2 Academy

Joanne Shaw Taylor November 28 London Shepard’s Bush Empire 29 Birmingham Town Hall 30 Holmfirth Picturedrome December 1 Gateshead Sage

Deep Purple

August 8 - 11 Derbyshire Catton Park

Bon Jovi July 3 Glasgow Hampden Stadium

Levellers June 30 Yorkshire The Picturedrome August 1 Dorset Bestival 4 Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms June 29 Pilton Glastonbury July 21 Dublin Longitude Festival 27 Kendal Kendal Calling Sun 28 Huntingdon Secret Garden Party August 2 Dorset Camp Bestival 9 Cornbury Wilderness Festival September 6 Isle of Wight Bestival October 15 Norwich Open 16 Brighton Haunt 18 Brixton Electric 19 Oxford Gathering 20 Bristol The Fleece 22 Nottingham Rescue Rooms 23 Birmingham O2 Academy 3 24 Leeds Cockpit 26 Manchester Sound Control 27 Glasgow Broadcast 28 Newcastle Cluny

Depeche Mode

Bloodstock

June 28 - 30 Lanarkshire Valley International Park Crossford

London Grammar

October 12 Manchester O2 Apollo 13 Glasgow Clyde Auditorium 15 Birmingham NIA 17 London Roadhouse

23 London O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire 25 Bristol O2 Academy 26 Cambridge Junction 27 Norwich UEA 29 Pwllheli Hard Rock Hell 7 30 Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall December 01 Cardiff Solus 02 Oxford O2 Academy 05 Inverness Ironworks 06 Edinburgh Picturehouse 07 Newcastle O2 Academy 08 Leeds O2 Academy 10 Leamington Spa The Assembly Rooms 12 Nottingham Rock City 13 Manchester Ritz 14 Academy Dublin

Lesfest

November 11 Glasgow Hydro 13 Leeds Arena 15 Manchester Arena 19 London The O2 January 2014 27 Birmingham LG Arena

Dereham Blues Festival July 12 - 14 Norfolk Dereham

Emilie Autumn August 23 Edinburgh Picture House 25 Manchester Ritz

Fleetwood Mac September 24 London O2 Academy 25 London O2 Academy 27 London O2 Academy 29 Birmingham LG Arena October 1 Manchester MEN 3 Glasgow Hydro Arena

Motorhead and Saxon November 13 Nottingham Royal Concert Hall 14 Newcastle City Hall 16 Brixton 02 Academy 17 Brixton 02 Academy 19 Wolverhampton Civic Hall 20 Manchester 02 Apollo 22 Glasgow02 Academy

Papa Roach December 1 Portsmouth Pyramids 2 Sheffield Academy 3 Birmingham Academy 5 Manchester Academy 6 Dublin Academy 8 Glasgow Barrowlands 9 Newcastle Academy 10 London Brixton Academy

Roger Waters September 14 London Wembley Stadium

Smashing Pumpkins July 1 Manchester Academy 2 Glasgow O2 22 Wembley Arena

To have your gig Highlighted please email sales@fbrr2010.com

For a free listing please email your gig or festival information to:

Hard Rock Hell 7

With the following info: Date(s), Band Name, Venue, City (Please do not send any attachments)

Novermber - December 28 - 1 Pwllheli Hafyn Y Mor (Haven Holiday Park)

Sadly if any of the above information is not included we will be unable to list your event.

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Photo Credit - Stephen Lethbridge of 2 Bridges Photography

Band Name: Marotte Date Formed: 22/11/2012 Based In: Wisbech/Peterborough Band Lineup: Guitar & Vocals - Gee Harliguin Bass - Lionel Merz Drums - Chris Bleaze

To contact the Firebrand team for anything from advertisements to reviews you can contact us on:

Influences: Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Witchfynde, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Disarm Goliath, Amon Amarth, Viking Skull and the NWoBHM in general!

Describe your sounds: Marotte are a Hard Hitting Traditional Heavy Metal band that adheres to the sights and sounds of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal era (circa ’78-’85) but giving it a fresh approach and bringing it up to date.

Having successfully headlined this years Peacock Music Festival in Peterborough, and also had our 1st single “I Am! I’m Me!” featured on the Unsigned in the East album (available from iTunes) we are now moving forward and forging the next stage of the band, with some new songs on the way, Marotte will become louder and bigger and a force to be reckoned with in the Metal scene!

Album Reviews/Interview Requests submissions@fbrr2010.com Content Download sales@fbrr2010.com Advertising Enquiries sales@skyfirepr.com

Upcoming gigs: None atm as we are currently working on and writing new material!

PR pr@fbrr2010.com

Find out more at: https://www.facebook.com/Marotte.Band http://www.reverbnation.com/marotte

Contact Telephone +44(0)1244 940961

To Apply or find out more information please send an email to : submissions@fbrr2010.com With Underground Focus as the email title

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SOS Fest

T in the Park

July 20 - 21 Manchester Radcliffe Civic Hall

July 12 - 14 Kinross-shire Balado

Soundgarden September 13 Manchester O2 Apollo 14 Birmingham O2 Academy 16 Dublin O2 18 London O2 Brixton Academy 19 London O2 Brixton Academy

Steelhouse Fesival July 27 - 28 Ebbw Vale Hafod Y Dafal Farm

Steve Winwood June 30 Margate Winter Gardens

Stormbringer June 28 Kettering The Market Inn 29 Great Yarmouth The Oakwood July Northampton King Billy August 17 Abbw Vale Odin’s Rock Club September 21 Stoke Prior Rock Circus Festival

Sweet Taste July 25 Manchester Grand Central 26 Bury Flying Shuttle 27 Burnley Sanctuary

Texas November 9 York Barbican 10 Inverness Leisure Centre 11 Manchester Bridgewater Hall 13 Bristol Colston Hall 14 London Hammersmith Apollo 15 Plymouth Pavilions 17 Oxford Apollo 18 Birmingham Symphony Hall 19 Southend Cliffs Pavilion 21 Brighton Dome 22 Portsmouth Guildhall 24 Ipswich Regent Theatre 25 Cambridge Corn Exchange 26 Sheffield City Hall 28 Glasgow Academy 29 Edinburgh Usher Hall

The Cult October 18 Cardiff University Great Hall 19 Exeter Great Hall 20 Southampton Guildhall 22 Norwich UEA 23 Wolverhampton Civic Hall 25 Manchester Academy 26 Glasgow Barrowlands 28 Nottingham Rock City 29 Liverpool O2 Academy 31 London Roundhouse

The Damned August 4 Yorkshire The Picturedrome

November 29 Portsmouth Pyramids December 6 Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall 7 Edinburgh The Picturehouse

The Goo Goo Dolls October 15 Nottingham Rock City 16 Manchester Academy 17 Glasgow Academy 19 Newcastle Academy 20 Leeds Academy 21 Norwich UEA 23 Birmingham Institute 25 Hammersmith Apollo

The Quireboys October 6 Bristol O2 Academy 7 Oxford O2 Academy 9 Birmingham O2 Academy 10 Sheffield O2 Academy 11 Glasgow The Garage 12 Nottingham The Rescue Rooms 14 Newcastle O2 Academy 15 Manchester Club Academy 17 London O2 Islington Academy 18 Bournemouth Old Fire Station

YES April 2014 29 Oxford New Theatre 30 Southend Cliffs Pavilion May 2014 2 Glasgow Clyde Auditorium 3 Newcastle City Hall 4 Birmingham Symphony Hall 6 Leicester De Montfort Hall 7 Sheffield City Hall 8 London Royal Albert Hall 10 Manchester O2 Apollo 11 Bristol Hippodrome

Y&T September 21 Nottingham Rock City

ZZ Top June 25 Manchester O2 Apollo

The Wildhearts June 28 Leicester Academy 29 Newcastle Academy 30 Leeds Academy

Training Icarus August 24 Stoke Scarfest

BACK ISSUES

Headbangers Balls July 12 Cardiff Bogiez 13 Bristol The Exhange 14 Plymouth The White Rabbit 19 Nottingham Rescue Rooms 20 London The Underworld 21 Oxford O2 Academy August 2 Wakefield The Snooty Fox 3 Manchester Academy 2 4 Glasgow The Grand 5 Newcastle World HQ 16 Liverpool The Lomax 17 Birmingham The Warehouse

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