Gettin’ Heavy (Gig Review)

Witchfynde

Chameleon Bar

Grantham

13.02.15

Metal Mayhem, not the most original ‘umbrella’ title for a heavy metal night but you know things are getting’ heavy when on Friday the 13^th NWOBHM stalwarts Witchfynde are headlining the sixth evening of mayhem at the Chameleon bar and grill in old Grantham town. Chameleon is just about the right name for this venue as by day they serve mixed grills and rare bloody steaks and by night they have live entertainment for their punters delectation.  

When I heard about tonight’s gig it was an opportunity not to be missed, a trip back to the county of my birth to see a band I’ve not seen for a few years, a band who come from the county I now live in that is Derbyshire. So why you may ask are Witchfynde travelling to Lincolnshire to play what amounts to a ‘shakedown’ gig for their summer festival shows? Well you might well ask, I did and the answer is that new band member Tracey Abbott (he joined last year) has a connection with the Chameleon bar and being as they have a semi regular heavy metal night here, well I’ll leave it to you to do the maths.

Any road everything at the congested Chameleon bar seems to be going to plan. A sound check at half past nine for the support band seems to be the norm here, the support band being Black Sabbatical a… and I quote a ‘musical tribute’ to Black Sabbath. To be fair the guys haven’t been going long and they put in a pretty good performance despite no attempt to look or sound like Black Sabbath, more of a Black Sabbath covers band if you ask me. But they did attract a lot of attention from the crowd.

It’s close to eleven o’clock by the time we’ve had a full kit change and sound check for tonight’s headliners to perform their show, maybe some kind of kit sharing scheme would have been in order, after all isn’t that the main point of having a support? Anyway no amount of waiting is gonna dampen my enthusiasm as the gothic candelabra is lit and Witchfynde finally take to the stage let’s turn the clock back thirty odd years because it’s time to give em’ hell.

It would take too long to give you a full history of Witchfynde so for the uninitiated here’s a quick low-down of the New Waive of British Heavy Metal veterans. Formed in 1974 they split up ten years later in 1984 after achieving success with four studio albums and having bands of the quality of Def Leppard support them on tour. Now sadly for Witchfynde Leppard went on to bigger things whilst they vanished from the metal scene but having reformed in 1999 Witchfynde have continued to entertain fans old and new around the world.

The current line-up of the band is Luther Beltz (lead vocals) Montalo (lead guitar) Pete Surgey (bass) Gra Scoresby (drums) and the aforementioned Tracey Abbott (second guitar) and boy do they hit the ground running. Opening the set with their first single and title track from their first album ‘Give En’ Hell’, it’s a classic of it’s genre, this song is over thirty five years old but it sounds as fresh and new as the day it was written.

‘Gettin’ Heavy’ is next also from their debut album and the ‘B’ side of ‘Give em’ Hell’ whilst the third song is ‘Moon Magic’ from their second album ‘Stagefright’ three classic metal songs one after an other, I’ll wager they’ve heard nothing as good as this at the Chameleon bar before and it will take some doing to better it.

In fact Witchfynde’s entire set which lasts around a hour is packed with ‘classics’ Leaving Nadir, Conspiracy, Stab in the Back to name only three. Its Friday 13^th and lead guitarist, the legendary Montalo (we’re not worthy) seems to be possessed by other worldly forces as his fingers prowl up and down his guitar’s fret board he furnishes us with great riff after great riff and generates the most sublime guitar solos.

No Witchfynde show would be complete without the trademark ‘Cloak and Dagger’ and rounding off tonight’s performance, ‘I’d Rather Go Wild’ both songs giving lead singer Luther Beltz chance to deliver his idiosyncratic ear shattering screams.

It’s close to midnight when inevitably the curtain falls on an awesome show, ‘Tetelestai’ fulfils the role of the encore it’s a song from the early days of Witchfynde’s career and although it doesn’t appear on any album it can now be heard as a bonus track on the CD of Give Em’ Hell. I personally wouldn’t have chosen that number to conclude on I can’t even pronounce it but it’s obviously a favourite of the band. So many great Witchfynde songs were not included tonight, songs like Ready to Roll, Crystal Gazing and Trick or Treat one hour wasn’t enough they could easily have gone on for another sixty minutes nae bother.

This evening was all about honing a performance for future shows both here in England and on the continent this summer. I got the chance to catch up with front man Luther Beltz before the show and he told me they’ve already played one gig with this line-up, late last year in London with Diamond Head and Girlschool and they’ve got several festivals in 2015 to fulfil mainly abroad in countries such as Italy. Also in June Witchfynde are on the bill of the Garage Days festival in Islington along with the likes of Tygers of Pan-Tang, Jaguar and Savage, a NWOBHM treat not to be missed.

The Lords of Sin are still alive and well and playing better than ever, seek them out and go watch a live show and I guarantee you’ll be ready to roll… GD Manofmetal.

Videos of Witchfynde @ The Chameleon Bar by GD