The Moon Tower

The Smashing Pumpkins

Wembley Arena, London 16/10/2018

Billy Corgan has decided it’s time to rock again. After a well-received and mostly acoustic solo album released at the end of 2017, rumours of a Smashing Pumpkins reunion tour to commemorate the band’s 30th anniversary were confirmed. Initially, a run of US arena shows was announced, and then just two in Europe - one in Bologna, and one in London, where we are tonight... (more)

Hollywood Vampires

Genting Arena, Birmingham 16/06/2018

The Hollywood Vampires - part supergroup, part covers band, comprising Alice Cooper, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, and some actor called Johnny Depp - make Birmingham the opening night of their first ever UK tour. The Hollywood Vampires started out as a rock star drinking club, formed upstairs at the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip in the 1970s. The requirement to join? Outdrink everyone else and stay standing. Cooper of course is one of the original and lasting members (although he swapped alcohol for golf many years ago), and tonight is a tribute to those fallen friends. As Cooper announces as the Vampires stroll onto stage "we are the Hollywood Vampires - we sing for our dead, drunk friends"... (more)

Ride For Ronnie

Los Encinos State Historic Park, CA 06/05/2018

Today marks the 4th annual Ride For Ronnie event - a bike ride starts off the day from Harley Davidson in Glendale, and ends down in Los Encinos State Historic Park with food, drinks and bands. The event raises awareness and funds for the Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund, set up in memory of the late, great, Ronnie James Dio by his wife Wendy Dio... (more)

King's X

Whisky A Go Go, Hollywood, CA 25/04/2018

I first heard of King's X the best part of 20 years ago, after vocalist/bassist Doug Pinnick provided backing vocals on Lines In The Sand, one of the standout tracks from Dream Theater's 1997 album Falling Into Infinity. Back in the late '90s, with online music still in its infancy and King's X's albums not exactly freely available at my local HMV or Our Price, it wasn't until several years later that I actually consciously heard the band, when a colleague at the time lent me their Gretchen Goes To Nebraska album. Since then, I've picked up as many of their albums as I could, and become familiar with their back catalogue, which is obviously a lot easier these days with music streaming services... (more)

Paul Draper

SWX, Bristol 21/02/2018

I was never a big fan of Britpop in the 90s, being much more into grunge, metal and what at the time was desperately uncool - progressive rock (what do you mean, it’s still uncool?!). Nothing many British bands were doing at the time interested me at all - Radiohead were pretty good, and I loved the Wildhearts (still do) - but the whole Britpop scene totally passed me by. Most of the music press back in 1996 seemed content to lump Mansun in with this genre, which baffled me at the time, and still does retrospectively. The only thing they had in common with other Britpop bands was the "Brit" part, nothing about their music was remotely similar to anything else going on at the time... (more)

Brian Fallon

O2 Institute, Birmingham 20/02/2018

After The Gaslight Anthem went on an indefinite hiatus in August 2015, frontman Brian Fallon hasn't exactly taken it easy. His first solo album, Painkillers, was released after barely six months of Gaslight inactivity, and his second solo album, Sleepwalkers, less than two years after that. Tonight he returns to the O2 Institute in Birmingham, where we last saw him in April 2016 on the Painkillers tour... (more)

Mastodon

Civic Hall, Wolverhampton 04/12/2017

Metal is a funny genre. Whilst there have been so many bands over the years that are instantly identifiable to even the casual fan by only a few seconds of music (Black Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Type O Negative, Pantera, Korn, Slipknot to name a few), there are also a countless number that insist on recycling the sounds of their forebearers (no names mentioned here, I'm not one for controversy). Mastodon are undisputably in the former category. Since their first full length album in 2002, bassist Troy Sanders, guitarists Bill Kelliher and Brent Hinds, and drummer Brann Dailor have been purveying a brand of progressive metal that's firmly in the stoner/sludge category... (more)

Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul

O2 Academy, Birmingham 10/11/2017

As one of the main figures of the early 1970s (New) Jersey Shore scene, Steve Van Zandt has probably become better known over the years as a member of the E Street Band, radio host and for several high profile acting roles, despite being a prolific songwriter and producer over the years of both his own material and for other artists. Only last year he reassembled his solo band, The Disciples of Soul, which last performed together in 1990, for a one off show in London. Thankfully this reunion has lasted into 2017 to include a more extensive tour and a new album... (more)

The Iron Maidens

The Assembly, Leamington Spa 27/10/2017

I'm told that these days there are two different classifications for bands who focus on music written and made famous by others - covers bands and tribute bands. The covers bands are those you can find in numerous pubs the length and breadth of the country on any night of the week, stumbling their way through standards like The Boys Are Back In Town, Sweet Child O' Mine and Mustang Sally. Tribute bands on the other hand are a completely different proposition - they devote their act to a single band and go to great efforts to reproduce that band's music, and sometimes appearance, in perfect detail... (more)

Jared James Nichols

Town Hall, Birmingham 27/07/2017

Ever since Gene Simmons ran his mouth about rock being dead a few years ago, it doesn't seem like a month goes by without the music press publishing another opinion piece on the death of the genre. While we all have our own opinions about Gene's bold statement, what can't be argued is that the last couple of decades have definitely seen a dearth of guitar heroes. I'm not talking about kids who have been raised on YouTube videos and have spent hours locked in their rooms trying to nail that 200bpm John Petrucci lick, but guitar heroes in the truest sense of the word: honest to goodness showmen who do something new and original with their instrument... (more)

Monster Magnet

O2 Academy 2, Birmingham 21/05/2017

As far as stoner rock bands go, you don't get much more iconic than Monster Magnet. Formed in 1989 in New Jersey, they have spent the best part of the last 30 years releasing dense globs of psychedelic space rock with only a smattering of commercial success to show for it. Over the years, many band members have fallen by the wayside, with only founder and frontman Dave Wyndorf remaining today from the original lineup.... (more)

Lita Ford

O2 Academy, Islington 12/03/2017

Lita Ford first burst onto the rock scene in 1975 aged just 16, joining the soon-to-be iconic Runaways alongside Joan Jett, and paved the way for female fronted rock n’ roll bands and guitarists. Although the Runaways only lasted four years, Lita continued to dominate the music scene into the 1980s, but by the mid-90s her career took a slight downturn and she retired from music to focus on raising her family on a remote island in the Turks and Caicos. It would be another 15 years before Lita released any music and took to the stage again, and in 2012 she released her autobiography Living Like a Runaway... (more)

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Established July 2017