Live Review : Wolfsbane + The Spangles + Spunk Volcano And The Eruptions @ Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on December 7th 2023

So what could drag me out on a trip to the seaside on a cold, wet filthy night? The chance to spend the evening at The Waterloo Bar in Blackpool watching the original lineup of Wolfsbane of course! These rock stalwarts are back on their Tough as Steel tour and playing at the Waterloo Bar tonight.

The first of three bands, Spunk Volcano And The Eruptions kicked off proceedings at 7.15 pm prompt. I know very little about these, as the band enters the stage with a very definite punk attitude in tow. Then emerging from stage left, the main man Spunk Volcano himself, a very tall robust imposing chap resplendent in a spiky leather jacket and balaclava with safety pins complete with an orange Mohican on the top!

Live Review: Tyketto + This House We Built @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on December 3rd 2023

It’s very busy early doors at the Waterloo, seemingly with much of tonight’s Sold-Out crowd having already claimed a premium spot long before openers, the unusually monikered This House We Built, have played a single note. I must confess to being unfamiliar with this Yorkshire four piece before tonight’s gig, so wasn’t sure what to expect, but whatever those expectations might have been they would have been unexpectedly (and pleasantly) confounded by tonight’s performance.

Live Review : The Supersuckers + Warner E Hodges Band @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on October 6th 2023

It’s Friday night at the Waterloo and there’s a real buzz in the air for tonight’s co-headline show, that delicious electric anticipation you get before a night of rock n roll, this time round with a Southern edge.

Two of the most precious commodities in the rock world are credibility and authenticity. Ephemeral but vital, like trust they’re hard to gain and easily lost. Warner E Hodges has consistently had both across his entire career, whether it be with Jason & The Scorchers, Homemade Sin, The Bluefields (still in the top ten of all the gigs I’ve witnessed) or, as tonight, with his own band.

Live Review: VEGA + Kim Jennett @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool, 5 October 2023

I last saw Kim Jennett a mere couple of months ago on this very stage, supporting local Blackpool legends A’priori. On that occasion it was a much more understated acoustic set, but tonight backed by a full band, she seems firmly in her natural environment of full-on rock star and relishing every second.

Taking to the stage with a ferocious intensity, Kim is a whirling dervish, a blur of movement, colour and vocal histrionics. The Myke Gray penned ‘Psycho’ is an apt opener, Kim’s almost manic energy firmly in line with the lyrical content. It’s a heavy riffing number, Kim snarlingly delivering the lyrics, whilst poised on and over the barrier, pulling the audience into her orbit almost literally at times as she is within touching distance of the front row.

Live Review: Mike Tramp + Dan Byrne @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on Wednesday 30 August 2023

One guitar and one voice.

Sometimes that’s all you really need to deliver a great set, and that’s precisely what Dan Byrne delivers tonight. Proving once again, that he possesses one of the finest new voices in rock today, his performance tonight is an exercise in control, power and delicacy.

Live Review : The Damn Truth + Empyre @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on July 23rd 2023

This is the third experience I’ve had of Empyre (the first time being in a Library of all places) and like a fine wine they seem to be improving with each year. Constant touring and hard work has honed them into the tightly disciplined and impressively together band that grace the Waterloo’ stage tonight.

Live Review: Geoff Tate + Daxx & Roxane @ The Waterloo Music Bar , Blackpool on Wednesday 21 June 2023

According to popular stereotypes, the Swiss are known for, amongst other things, Toblerone, Cuckoo Clocks and a calm neutrality. I don’t know about the first two, but no-one seems to have told Daxx and Roxane about the last!

When before they’ve even played a single note they are knocking back shots from a square bottle, you know this is a band that’s here for a good time not a long time. A delightfully madcap confection of classic rock riffage and eighties excess, they are a blur of energy, colour and fun from start to finish! Cal Wymann on lead guitar is a veritable dynamo, careening from one side of the stage to the other, vaulting from the riser with scant regard to logic or indeed safety.

Live Review : Kickin' Valentina + God Damn Smile + Sweet Electric @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on May 31st 2023

Sweet Electric are the new outfit from Massive frontman Brad Marr having only been together for six months or so, and as the lights go down and the floor toms kick in, the band hit the stage in a Technicolor explosion, it’s fascinating to see the direction that Brad has taken his new musical endeavour. There’s a distinctly 70s glam vibe about Sweet Electric, with glitter, zebra print and lycra in abundance. No longer fettered by the guitar duties he undertook as part of Massive, Brad is having the time of his life, careering from one side of the stage to the other with a wild abandon. Resplendent in gold lycra and declaring “I feel as good as I look!”

Live Review : Gin Annie + White Raven Down + A’Priori @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on May 19th 2023

It’s an unseasonably warm evening in Blackpool and if it’s hot outside, the temperature inside the Waterloo Music Bar, is through the roof, both literally and metaphorically.

An air raid siren intro announces the arrival of local heroes A’Priori to the stage, the first of the three bands that make up tonight’s bill. Boasting a somewhat unusual line-up configuration of guitar/vocals, drums and keyboard but no bass guitar, A’Priori ‘s sound is equal parts familiar and unusual all at the same time.

Live Review : Fury + Crowley + Luke Appleton @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on Friday 14 April 2023

Kicking tonight’s proceedings off in fine style, is last minute substitute Luke Appleton drafted in at the eleventh hour when illness forced Promethium to withdraw from tonight’s show. No stranger to the UK scene, tonight Luke was in much more reflective form than we are accustomed to seeing from him in his other bands, taking to the stage alone with just an acoustic guitar for company. With Luke’s latest release “Forever Viking” only being released on the day of the gig, half of the set comprised, unsurprisingly of tracks from this EP.

Live Review : The L.A. Maybe + A'Priori + Unknown Refuge @ Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on December 7th 2022

The small venue with the massive attitude serves as a worthy backdrop on this bitterly cold December evening. The L.A. Maybe are perhaps one of those bands you may or may not have heard of, and I confess to being one of them. A couple of You Tube videos later and I can report back being suitably impressed by this American quintet. One video, a beautiful power ballad called ‘When I’m Done’ blew me away. Apparently, the new singer is the old singer who doesn't sing that tune on the video. Would they play that tonight? I’m ready to find out.

Live Review : Gun + Gin Annie @ The Waterloo, Blackpool on December 4th 2022

I have a strange relationship with Gin Annie. I absolutely love them, but because they don’t play locally to me that often I tend to forget how much. You know how it is, other good bands come on your radar in the meantime and you’re like “oh yeah, Gin Annie, they’re OK, I’ll bob along in time to watch them” and then when you get there BAM they smack you between the eyes and knock you over. Again. Every bloody time.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby6 December 2022The Waterloo Music BarGUN, Gin Annie, Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool, 2022, Live Review, Jo CrosbyComment

Live Review : Kira Mac + A'priori + Dan Byrne @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on November 24th 2022

Small correction to that third name actually, as tonight the banner on stage tells us we are watching Dan Byrne featuring… well let me explain… Last year we saw Myke Gray (Skin, Jagged Edge) make something of a comeback in what was meant to be his final year of touring. Dan Byrne helped him out alongside his day job in Revival Black, and was very much a bit player (albeit a good one!) in Myke’s show. Now we have reached the stage where Dan has left Revival Black to embark on a solo career, and this run of shows with Kira Mac were going to be a toes-in-the-water time for him as a solo artist.

Live Review : Myke Gray + Ashen Reach @ Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on July 24th 2022

It’s hard to imagine sometimes exactly where the last 30 years have gone isn’t it? If we think back to those days, say every time we listen to Planet Rock, it immediately transports you back through time and the music we listened to, or probably still listen to, and how it has woven in and out of our lives through the good, the bad and the indifferent times.

Live Review : John Corabi + Tony Mitchell @ the Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on December 11th 2019

It’s another bleeding Wednesday gig, bah. Sometimes I think the Universe conspires against me, other reviewers get to go and do nice no-need-to-juggle-work weekend gigs but for some reason all the best gigs that I get to go to are on Wednesdays at the moment. I do cheat a bit tonight though by accepting a lift from my ROCKFLESH colleague and ace photographer Johann, so at least I don’t have to tackle the M6 again and I can have a couple of rum & coke for *ahem* medicinal purposes when I get there. The Waterloo itself when we arrive is warm and welcoming. It’s really starting to take off as a venue now and some class acts are queueing up to play here. Ian and his team have done a superb job of making it into a venue that’s a good experience for both bands and fans, and if someone you like announces a gig at the Waterloo I highly recommend that you pop along and see for yourself. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with the décor, the atmos, the sound or the bar prices!

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.