Kings & Killer Instincts (Part 2 The Gig Review)

Europe + Black Star Riders + The Amorettes

Rock City

Nottingham

10.03.15

After schmoozing with the stars in the afternoon interviews for Total Rock radio, what seems like a mere blink of the eye passes by and it’s time for the action to begin. With a seven fifteen stage call The Amorettes deliver a forty minute set of songs from their new album ‘Game On’ the album is produced by Chris Tsangarides (that easy for you to say) the girls told me earlier that they basically went into the studio and played as live for the recording.

Songs like ‘bull by the horns’ ‘fire at will’ and ‘shoot from the hip’ are rousing rock anthems that I’m sure will take this thee peace all girl band far, their live performance being packed with energy underlines the power of the songs. Gill Montgomery’s strong voice and accomplished lead guitar playing is more than noteworthy whilst sisters Hannah and Heather McKay provide a more than capable rhythm section. Rock City at this point is in the process of filling up and I can see the crowd reaction to The Amorettes grow by the second, after the show I heard many agreeable things being said about the three girls from mid Scotland and I’m sure we will hear a lot more from this band in the future.

Gill Montgomery

Inevitably with a double headline tour it’s always difficult to decide who should be on last, both Europe and Black Star Riders will be playing a full set so as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t matter but some would have preferred BSR to have gone on last or at least that’s the vox populus I got here in Nottingham.

Regardless of all that, it’s BSR next and what a show they deliver for us, they open with ‘bound for glory’ their first single from a couple of years ago then it’s straight into a cover of Thin Lizzy’s ‘jailbreak’ followed by ‘kingdom of the lost’ from their debut album ‘all hell breaks loose’. What a start that is, front man Ricky Warwick loves playing Rock City at one point he tells us that it must easily be the venue he’s played most in the UK over his years with the Almighty, Thin Lizzy and now BSR, he’s also played here quite a lot in various solo projects a s well.

Ricky Warwick

The fourth song in the set is from their brand new album ‘the killer instinct’ and ‘Charlie I gotta go’ is one of my favourites from that disc, it’s great to see them play it live. In fact with only six covers (Thin Lizzy) in tonight’s performance BSR I feel have come of age as a band, with the rest of the songs being their own, good songs too like ‘hoodoo voodoo’ and another very emotive number from their new album ‘soldierstown’ and yes it’s about Belfast.

BSR personnel reads an impressive roll call, the aforementioned Ricky Warwick (lead vocals/guitar) needs no introduction neither does Scott Gorham (lead guitar) Damon Johnson (lead guitar) has played with the likes of Alice Cooper, Stevie Nicks and Carlos Santana. Robbie Crane (bass) Ratt, Lynch Mob and last but not least Jimmy DeGrasso (drums) who’s CV is too long to fully go into here but I’ll just say Ozzy Osbourne, Y&T and Megadeth.  

BSR finish off with the title track from the new album and an encore guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser, ‘whiskey in the jar’ brings the curtain down on a rousing performance one that will live on in the memory for quite some time, BSR have emerged from the shadow of Thin Lizzy and arrived with a bang.

Damon Johnson & Scott Gorham

By the time Europe enter the fray everyone crammed into the hallowed great hall of Rock City Nottingham is well and truly warmed up and ready for more. The Swedish rockers open their set with not one but two songs from their new album ‘war of kings’ the title track and track two ‘hole in my pocket’ a brave opening gambit but both songs are heavy weight compositions. In fact with every album Europe release I gain more respect for their song writing and all round showmanship, long gone is the big hair and light weight output of the early eighties. And to prove that the third song in the set tonight is ‘last look at Eden’ from their 2009 album of the same name, that song is epic.

Joey Tempest

The current line-up is the ever present Joey Tempest (lead vocals) John Norum (lead guitar) John Leven (bass) Mic Michaeli (keys) Ian Haugland (drums) and together they form a tight unit.

About a third of the set is comprised of songs from the new album, ‘the second day’ ‘praise you’ and ‘days of rock ‘n roll’ joining the first two played tonight, all splendid stuff. Obviously the holy trinity are included, no Europe show would be complete without ‘superstitious’ ‘rock the night’ and ‘the final countdown’ however many of the old favourites like ‘Cherokee’ were excluded tonight in favour of newer songs. Earlier in the day I learned from the Jon Leven interview that the band doesn’t like making too many changes to their set but tonight was a big change from when I saw them last year touring with Foreigner.

                                                                          John Leven

What an outstanding evening of rock we’ve had here in Nottingham, a new band, a veteran band and a band who’ve emerged from a veteran band to become a new band. Superlative stuff indeed all three with new albums to promote and new material to perform, whoever said rock n’ roll is dead need to think again because the killer instinct in the war of kings is game on!... GD Manofmetal.