Live Review : Massive Wagons + The New Roses @ Hangar 34, Liverpool on November 21st 2023

We were having a discussion at ROCKFLESH Towers the other day, wondering which band we have reviewed the most since we started. General consensus was that as we are a local website for local people, it would probably be a local band. In the end we decided it was likely to be Massive Wagons, who seem to have stayed true to their local roots too despite achieving not just national but international success in recent years. Tonight we are just up the road from their hometown, so I settle in my usual position lurking at the back to see how they are doing these days.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby22 November 2023Hangar 34Massive Wagons, The New Roses, Hangar 34, Liverpool, 2023, Live Review, Jo Crosby, Jason SamuelsComment

Live Review : Massive Wagons + The Virginmarys @ The Tivoli, Buckley on April 22nd 2023

Later on this evening, Baz Mills from Massive Wagons makes a very profound statement about a time when he was lucky enough to meet the late great Lemmy. “Lemmy told me there are only two types of music” he said, “music you like and music you don’t like”. As I review my notes from The Virginmarys set tonight, I reflect that this is true and that The Virginmarys are unfortunately very much in the second section for me. There are only two of them, one providing guitars and vocals and the other doing a very energetic and entertaining turn on the drums

Live Review : RPM Rock N Roll Christmas @ Johnny’s Shed, Morecambe December 17th 2022

The weather this weekend is pants. It’s cold and windy, there’s still snow on the ground and I am still full of the lurgy kindly donated to me by Gun the other week. But. There’s a party to go to so I pull on the dancing trousers and head up the M6. First of all, things aren’t looking good – the show was due to be at the Alhambra but due to the aforementioned weather there was a burst pipe and a LOT of water there, so the lovely ladies from RPM made some frantic phone calls and managed to source and prepare Johnny’s shed at literally the last minute.

Live Review : Ugly Kid Joe + Massive Wagons + Chris Catalyst @ O2 Academy, Liverpool on November 3rd 2022

Chris Catalyst, recently outed as one of the ghouls from Ghost’s 2022 tour, opens up tonight. Essentially it’s just Chris, his guitar and some bad dad jokes and although I like Chris and his work I can’t help wondering how he got the gig. Stay tuned, all is revealed later! The songs are from his solo output and his main band Eureka Machines but because it’s so raw they are barely recognisable.

Live Review : The Darkness + Massive Wagons @ O2 Academy, Liverpool on December 2nd 2021

It’s a cold and rainy Liverpool tonight, yet the O2 Liverpool Academy is rammed. This is good but not good, the place is steamimg and so are my glasses.

I wipe them just as Massive Wagons hit the stage. Wagons are a band who have slogged their arses off on the pub and club circuit for the last dozen years or so, and it’s been amazing to see them transform from a fairly average pub covers band to the new Britrock powerhouse that they have now become. This tour with The Darkness is yet another rung on their ladder to success – they are here as a last-minute replacement for Steve Harris’s British Lion who pulled out for unspecified reasons that appeared to involve covid precautions. Yes, THAT Steve Harris.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby9 December 2021The Darkness, Massive Wagons, O2 Academy, Liverpool, 2021, Live Review, Jo Crosby, Johann WierzbickiComment

Live Review : Massive Wagons + Chris Catalyst @ Academy 2, Manchester on September 19th 2021

Like dawn slowly unfolding itself across a field of corn, the Manchester music scene is beginning to awaken from its enforced hibernation. Parklife returned last weekend, the arena spluttered back into life Friday night just gone with Stockport “finest” The Blossoms and on the way in I pass a fully functioning Apollo (Dodie. No, me neither). Here at the Academy complex (basically the students union) it very much business as usual. The students are back and the cheap(er) beer of the main bar is being lapped up by packs of Wagons t-shirt adorned aging rockers, determined to prove to the young whippersnappers that they don’t have a monopoly on having a good time.

Live Review : Download Pilot @ Donington Park on June 18-20th 2021

Ok lets cut to the chase, last weekend’s Download Pilot (or Diddy Download as every bugger and their aunt are calling it) was probably the most pleasant experience I have had in the eighteen years I have been making an annual pilgrimage to Donington Park. Let’s put all the emotion aside of this being the first one back and concentrate on what worked, which frankly was its size.

Live Review : Massive Wagons + Anchor Lane + Mad Haven @ The Tivoli, Buckley on February 21st 2020

I’ve not been getting my usual Wagons fix recently, so when the opportunity came up to pop along to their first “breakin outta the studio” tour date, I jumped at it. After all, who doesn’t want to drive down the M56 in a storm so bad it’s got a name, just to see them? Well, me actually. So I brought the Grumpy Husband along to do that bit.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby26 February 2020The TivoliMassive Wagons, Anchor Lane, Mad Haven, The Tivoli, Buckley, 2020, Live ReviewComment

Live Review : Massive Wagons + Bootyard Bandits @ Gorilla, Manchester on December 7th 2019

My sister has followed Massive Wagons for years. I've listened to the CD's she's bought and seen numerous Facebook posts showing she was at another Massive Wagons gig having a great time, and she's constantly telling me how good they are live, about how their brilliant party atmosphere is always delivered and how it’s like one massive (see what I did there) night out for everyyone. Can they be really that good live?

Live Review : The Massive Weekend @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on October 19th 2019

Local band Apriori open the show today, and do a damn fine job of it too. They have changed a lot since I last saw them. Previous vocalist Mouse is now the drummer, his brother Tony still plays the guitar but also handles lead vocals, and new boy Mark covers pretty much all other bases on an impressive bank of keyboards. I’ve seen bands play with a drum machine before but I think this is the first time I’ve seen bass played on a keyboard, with feet!

Live Review : The Massive Weekend @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on October 18th 2019

It’s been a helluva week. I started out by getting caught up in civil insurrection in Spain, got home intact thankfully only to come down with some variety of D&V bug that completely knocked me out for a few days. So it was a fragile Jo that trundled up the M6 to Blackpool on the Friday afternoon to attend the Massive Weekend. Massive because both nights feature local Lancashire lads Massive Wagons as headliners, ably supported by a plethora of some of the best up and coming bands on the circuit.

Live Review : The Wildhearts + Massive Wagons + Towers Of London @ Academy 2, Manchester on May 3rd 2019

In early May 1994, as an enthusiastic but rather rough around the edges reporter I reviewed The Wildhearts playing the Student Union’s Main debating Hall for the Student Paper. I tell you this as here I am twenty-five years later as an enthusiastic but rather rough around the edges reporter for ROCKFLESH reviewing The Wildhearts play exactly the same room (now renamed Academy 2). Many things have changed (how many new buildings does Manchester actually need and where did that bloody spiral staircase come from) but other things have stayed the same; namely I still can’t spell, my social skills haven’t improved, my teeth are still in woeful condition (I remember someone at the ’94 gig commenting on it) and The Wildhearts are touring a stunning album seemingly on the verge of greatness.

Live Review : The Dead Daisies + Massive Wagons @ O2 Academy, Liverpool on November 13th 2018

One of the most startling developments of the last few years has been the re-emergence of heavy, bluesy rock as a dominant force in our musical world. Classic (or you can call it hard, heavy, bluesy or commercial it really doesn’t matter) rock was seemingly dead and buried ten years ago or at least only worth a dollop of tongue in cheek irony (The Darkness, I’m looking at you). But now there is a virtual Smorgasbord of young whipper-snappers playing the type of infectious guitar-driven danceable rock that was last in vogue before any of them were glints in the soundman’s eye.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas19 November 2018O2 Academy The Dead Daisies, Massive Wagons, O2 Academy, Liverpool, 2018, ReviewComment

Live Review : Massive Wagons + Henry's Funeral Shoe + KYNGS @ Rebellion, Manchester on March 9th 2018.

In my previous post, I mentioned how I felt the rock scene was well and truly happening in the Northwest with an endless list of local bands performing for anyone who took the time to rock out between snow storms. Last Friday night, Massive Wagons at Rebellion with the support from Manchester's KYNGS and Welsh Henry's Funeral Shoe only reinforced that feeling.