HRH Sleaze – O2 Academy, Sheffield 27-28.08.22 – Part Two

HRH Sleaze – O2 Academy, Sheffield 27-28.08.22 – Part Two

Here we are on day 2, sadly the beginning of the end of this lovely weekend. Sunday has hit some like a ton of bricks, the academy is not quite full of the lust for life today. Thank the lord for the Bank Holiday tomorrow or there could be tears before bedtime and some of these lovely makeup jobs would be ruined.


I kick off the day over at the second stage with Tremendous. Equal parts power pop to glam rock, easing us into a hungover Sunday afternoon. Our singer/guitarist frontman is clearly a great songwriter, hints of Wreckless Eric and even at times a tiny bit of Paul Westerberg. My criticism is he over extends himself, especially with trying to do lead guitar parts. Expand to a quartet, get some backing vocals in the mix and do these fantastic songs justice!
I head to the main stage to see what all the fuss is about with Confess. Without question these guys know what their audience is after, and that’s definitely a wake up call for Saturday night’s escapades. They effortlessly connect with the crowd and make a clear statement that they are ready to be headliners and ascend the bill. As slick as they are, for me they were lacking in charm to win me over completely.

Back over at the second stage if you want to talk about charm, Mercury Riots have it in spades! It’s gotta be five o’clock somewhere and we’re 51 minutes into drinking time here, a party is about to break out and this band is going to become the talk of the weekend. Bringing a good ole boy spirit and a much sought after Southern Rock swagger meets bar room boogie action, these guys know every trick in the book and use them well. Those who caught this hot act today will certainly spread the word and those who missed out will be bowing their heads.


The buzz I have just experienced sadly doesn’t carry over to the main stage. Electric Boys just aren’t igniting any enthusiasm in Sheffield tonight. They have the tunes and play them well. The audience seems to be willing and waiting to connect, but for whatever reason no one seems to be getting out of second gear.


As the evening goes on we hit what many in the crowd are considering to be the true headliner of the day, Pretty Boy Floyd. They treat us to pretty much the entirety of their 1989 debut, Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz. No one in the audience seems to be complaining one bit. The show is effortless, the only gaff being an overzealous member of the audience trying to have off with frontman, Steve ‘sex’ Summers’ bottle of Jack Daniels. Don’t worry he got it back. The lads of PBF spend the rest of the evening at the merch desk, tirelessly talking to fans, taking photos, giving autographs and selling out of their merch too. Good for them. If the line to meet the Floyd boys is anything to go by, HRH should be booking them as a straight up headliner.


As the stage guys start twanging acoustic guitars in preparation for the final act, it serves as a siren for a lot of today’s punters and causes a mass exodus. Without introduction or fanfare Eric Martin abruptly kicks into his set earlier than scheduled. Mr Big’s frontman is definitely making it seem that he feels out of place on this bill. The first part of the set he is primarily diving into songs headfirst, barely an introduction or a passing comment to the crowd. He eventually warms up to the occasion, makes some fond comments about his and the band’s legacy and actually seems to be enjoying himself by stark comparison to earlier on. Eric even makes a touching dedication to Mr Big’s now deceased drummer, Pat Torpey. Overall I think both Eric and the crowd had reservations about this being featured on the bill, and that is on the promoter more than anything. On paper an acoustic set to finish off a Sunday night looks dire and does not inspire. It wasn’t as bad as anticipated thankfully, by the end when the hits were cracked out (‘to be with you’ & ‘dancin’ with my devils’) there is a genuine feeling of nostalgia in the air and everyone is having a good time.


There we have it, HRH Sleaze V is put to bed for another year. Definitely a fun event if you leave your preconceptions at home and embrace the passion and nostalgia surrounding you. With the bill already announced for next year’s 6th installment things already look like they are going to get ‘naughty, naughty’.

Author: Dan Kasm

That Was The Week That Was

That Was The Week That Was

Seven days in Rock and Roll can be a long time or if you like us then it’ll fly by.  With some exclusive interviews and a whole lot of records reviewed we hope we’ve at least shone a little light into a corner of the entertainment world we think houses the best of the best and having the likes of Rich Jones give an interview with some snippets about the new Michael Monroe album revealed ‘One Man Gang’ is now out of the bag and having the likes of Nasty Suicide and Captain Sensible playing on the record 2019 is shaping up nicely or as someone here at HQ said “that’s album of the year sorted for 2019”.

We also brought you Paul Collins interview who is the self declared king of power pop although I did get a call in to HQ saying that wasn’t quite true as Rags now holds that title but I’m not getting involved in that debate but we did announce that Rich Ragany is holding an album launch in London Town in January and the line up is a very impressive set of bands that shouldn’t be missed details can be found on RPM online News section.

There were live reviews from Japanese Garage legends King Brothers as well as acoustic platinum seller Eric Martin and on Friday we brought you a review of The Feelgood Band playing in London which rounded up a pretty diverse bunch from around the globe I’m sure you’ll agree?

For our bread and butter album reviews, we had some old new um very old and one turkey so a festive collection of records were covered by a crack team of scribes.  We previewed Black Friday RSD must own – Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers ‘DTK’ as well as newcomers Estrons that went down extremely well here.  We took a trip to New York for Palmyra Delran and her doppelgangers and whilst we were there Beechwood were heading out the door to Europe for a tour but left us their new long player which is also an impressive second album this year from the three-piece.  The Turkey well we couldn’t sit Idol let Billy off without mentioning his revisited best-of collection that has been given the dance remix treatment which could have worked but cutting edge it isn’t.  90’s dated Ibiza dance off it might have been but disappointing is what it is and we can only bring you the truth here at RPM even though we love William Broad we’re excited for Generation Sex but not his new collection of remixes. There were the likes of the excellent Bitterlicks and Dave Kusworth records reviewed before they hit the shops as well as Thomas Silvers much anticipated solo album.

 

Not wanting to finish on a downer we look forward to the coming week where you have to keep it RPM online because we’re bringing you The Hip Priests and He Who Cannot Be Named live and where else are you getting that and Junkyard bookending Cowboy Junkies?  Nowhere that’s where. Also, we have albums from Honest John Plain, Australians Civic, New York Sick OF It All and Europeans like Youth Avoiders and Fertile Hump.  So remember to keep it RPM online and as Lux would say Stay Sick.

 

 

Eric Martin/Matt Seddon – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club – 24th October 2018

Eric Martin/Matt Seddon – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club – 24th October 2018

Ben Hughes.

Eric Martin, the voice of Mr. Big. The last time I saw this guy live would’ve been a Mr. Big show in 1991 I reckon, at Newport Centre with The Throbs supporting.  Now that was a mismatch of two bands for a tour if ever there was one. One of the biggest commercial rock bands of the time with a bunch of sleazy New York miscreants with a love of the New York Dolls and Alice Cooper. Damn, I loved The Throbs, but that’s another story.

Mr. Big was a massive band then, you can’t deny the power of ‘To Be With You’ as a hit single. And while times have changed, this is an intimate gig for a singer/songwriter who can still pull the crowds with his band and as a solo artist.

 

I wasn’t even going to go to this gig, but somehow, in some crazy turn of events, my best buddy Matt managed to blag the support slot tonight at The Brudenell in Leeds.

Now, Matt was the frontman of a Britpop-era band from Grimsby called Twist, who “coulda been contenders, Charlie!” They had the looks, they lived the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, but more importantly they had the songs, good songs that stand the test of time to this day. Imagine jangly Americana influenced Britpop, coming on like Love or The Byrds, fuelled by too much weed, good speed and spot-on vocal harmonies. The only band I can remember who was doing that at the time was The Montrose Avenue. Sadly for them, it wasn’t to be and as with so many great bands, they split before their time.

Giving up music for 20 years, Matt is back with his former band member and songwriting partner Paul Gorry, making music in the band The Badrocks, whose sound is more influenced by the dark countrified tales of Alabama 3 and Nick Cave. Matt is now in the process of testing these songs out in a live environment.

Now Matt will tell you himself he is no guitar player, but when you have great songs, a proper good voice and the conviction to perform to your best, it’s amazing what you can pull off.

Mixing up his recent countrified influenced songs such as the drug-fuelled opener ‘All I Want’ and recent single ‘Watching Me’ with older choice Twist cuts such as ‘Charlie’s Girl’ and ‘The Pin-Down Song’ it seems to go down a treat. The crowd knows none of the material of course, but interestingly they are not talking to each other, they are actually listening, and each song gets a great response with polite applause.

Ok, I’m slightly biased of course as I have watched him write and re-work these songs over the past 12 months, but after seeing the crowd response tonight; I would say I’m not the only one who thinks he has something good going on.

 

Eric Martin is a man who definitely has something good going on. Mr Big still pull the crowds on a regular basis, he himself is big in Japan and he still looks way younger than his years. Whatever it is he’s taking, I want some of that!

This intimate acoustic tour sees him joining up with guitarist David Cotterill from the metal band Demon. A strange collaboration you may think, but actually, the pair complements each other perfectly. The duo both play guitar and David provides backing vocals in a set that covers Martin’s solo material and of course the hits of Mr Big.

You could call Eric Martin an elder statesman of rock ‘n’ roll these days. He regales us with stories and jokes about his travels from back in the day (or even last week) between songs, as he sips on his beer and gets David to tune his guitar.

I am unfamiliar with the solo material, to be honest, but the likes of ‘Fragile’ and newbie ‘Back In Blue’ sound mighty good to these ears. We are here for the Mr Big hits though and he does not disappoint. ‘Green Tinted Sixties Mind’ goes down as well as you would expect, even if he does forget a verse, and ‘Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy’ (minus any drills) is a personal highlight.

As an introduction to ‘Shine’ (from the Richie Kotzen era of Mr Big), Eric tells us about playing a gig in Richie’s hometown and how he rang him up, as there is actually a statue erected in his honour there!

Each night on this tour, the duo are joined for several songs by guitar player Simon Kaviani and some female vocals courtesy of Mel Tem, who even gets to sing a verse on ‘that’ song, you know the one, right? There are covers too. I forgot that Mr Big covered ’30 Days in the Hole’ it’s a great choice of cover, as is Cat Stevens ‘Wild World’, a song that is perfectly complemented by Eric’s voice.

 

To be fair, it’s a great set and Eric Martin is much more entertaining than I thought he would be. Humble, down to earth and quite amusing for a 57-year-old American rock star. Seriously though, he still has the voice and the energy of a man half his age and the songs are a testament to his legacy. The crowd came to hear the hits and I feel they got far more than they expected.

Buy Eric Martin Here