By Roxy Madison

The nights are drawing in and getting progressively colder as each day goes by, and tonight is certainly no exception to that rule. It's a cold November evening at The Star & Garter and we're promised an evening of no bull-shit, straight forward rock n roll, featuring three bands from the locality.

The Pyratz, SoundCheck magazine's Chris Rockson fronted 'Rock n Roll' band are here, playing their second only show at this great, compact venue, along with their old-time buddies Voltage and new friends One Man Stand, who have featured in the Mag previously on more than one occasion.

First to hit the stage, in front of a smallish crowd are Voltage. These guys have been around since the late 70's, supported various bands back in the day and reformed recently to carry on with their brand of 'No Bullshit, straightforward rock'. They hit the stage and immediately win over the crowd with their set, containing one or two covers more than it should have, but at least they looked like they were having fun, and afterall, isn't that why you join a band? Geoff Hollows, guitarist and backing vocals has a great sound and is a great player, knocking out solo by solo, note for note. Geoff Greenwood is the bands front-man, and loves to rock out. They had a nice sized following with them too, and they loved every one of the 40 minute long set.

Always quite a hard audience to win over at The Star & Garter, but they managed quite adequately and I really enjoyed their songs.

Next, we were awaiting the return of Chris' band of merry men, The Pyratz. Featuring the original line-up of the band from 1985, they promised us a much harder edge and the odd surprise too. On stage and on-time, old drummer Mr.South has a mission to complete before he can play and disappears from stage for a few minutes as the rest of the band drink and tell jokes to the crowd, returning wearing his 'drum-shorts' and Pyratz logo tee shirt. This night has a good feel to it, as it is simply friends playing a show for the 'Jeff Janiak Appeal' and there's not an ego around for miles. South arrives to rapturous applause and immediately they rock into their forthcoming single 'Tango Down', an instrumental. Great work and the crowd has grown considerably in size too, which is encouraging. Straight into 'Ball & Chain' from their last album, and they are looking and sounding like a completely different band altogether.

Rockson, Sid and Kram have a great stage presence and together, they all look so at ease up there. Well, they've known each other for years, so I guess they should. The set delivers time and time again, with some brand new material being played for the first time. They sound a lot more 'rockier' than before, and a lot of that can be attributed to Mr.South's return.....boy! does he know how to hit his kit?

Some of the songs are simply awesome and the rest are even better! [ Thanks Rox, Ed! ] They blast out a manic version of 'Ring Of Fire' before Chris reads out a personal message from Jeff Janiak, thanking the audience, bands and promoters for their support. One more surprise was the killer track 'How Low Can You Go?' which Rockson dedicates to 'the two pricks running the country'. Hard rock as it is meant to be done. We're in for a treat tonight too, as the guys went to see Motorhead on tour during the week and decided to play a completely unrehearsed version of 'Overkill'.

Frighteningly accurate to the newer, much faster version....they look like they could go on for years and years, but it's time to end and clear down the huge drum-kit for tonight's headline act, One Man Stand.

These guys have featured here on more than on time, and we've long been fans of their old school brand of late 1970's rock n roll. To label them as a 'punk' band would not be fair, they are more than a label!

They are seasoned pro's and have been around for ages, but don't seem to play enough shows, which was echoed on a recent radio interview. Hopefully 2011 will bring them continued success and more shows, lot's of them!!

Hitting the stage and working their way through their catalogue, showcasing some new songs from their new, self-titled album, recently reviewed here and released on Stu Taylor's STP label. in fact, birthday boy Stu was the man behind tonight, master-minding a break away from the normal, run-of-the-mill live shows, he has added a new dimension completely, by having a multi-genre event. Great stuff!

One Man Stand show traces of pure brilliance and tonight is no exception to that rule, although drummer Jan maybe struggling a little with the drum-kit. It's nothing they can't deal with and one of those things that happens at live shows, apparently, the drummer from Voltage is left-handed, so they had to re-arrange it for him too.

You can purchase their album here : One Man Stand

All in all, a completely great event, for as great a cause as you can imagine, raising money to keep a fellow musician in the country and free from deportation.

I can't wait for the next one!

 

 

Rox !