A Night To Remember
With The Witchwood in Ashton-Under-Lyne only a week in the past the guys were well rehearsed and ready to make their debut at Whittles on King Street in Oldham. The set list was pretty much the same as last week but was tweeked a little in case anyone turned up at Whittles who had attended The Witchwood. The venue is a Public House that has great facilities, friendly staff and a healthy sized stage to accomodate most bands. Tonight was slightly different as it was a two set 10pm start with the 'earlest' finish time stated as 12:30am. Because of this a couple of additional tracks were agreed on to act as encores if requested so the final set list was as follows
Kill The King
Man On The Silver Mountain
(Inc Blues & Guitar/Keyboards Solo)
I Surrender
Stone Cold
Love’s No Friend
Burn
Gates Of Babylon
Mistreated
Perfect Strangers
Still I’m Sad
Starstruck
Catch The Rainbow
16th Century Greensleeves
Stargazer
A Light In The Black
Since You’ve Been Gone
Child In Time
Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll
Neil Priddey dropped by again with his partner in crime Lisa (great to see you guys again) and we also had Paul Gilligan in attendence - Paul helps out putting forward bands for a few Festival events so the timing to put on the immense set the band produced couldn't have been better.
Burn was put in place of Jealous Lover in the first set to beef things up a bit and it did just that. The first set started with a thunderous version of Kill The King leading nicely into Man On The Silver Mountain which helps create the On Stage album feel and finished with a faultless renditions of Burn, Gates Of Babylon and Mistreated. Simon (sound engineer) had found a nice balance and it was loud - really loud. Andy once again recreated a haunting note perfect intro into Gates Of Babylon, Wayne's vocals were bang on again, Pete was in full entertainment mode with endless showboating moves on display, Barry was firing on all cylinders with some ripping solo's and Mick - well cudos to Mick - The whole evening with the introduction of a couple of additional tracks was to stretch him to the limit but from start to finish he didn't drop a beat and was hitting hard.
The second set was power all the way - the only let up being Starstruck. Apart from the opening Deep Purple tribute in Perfect Strangers it was a wealth of Dio's finest. Still I'm Sad (a favourite of mine), the iconic Stargazer, A Light In The Black and thrown in the mix yet another perfect rendition of the On Stage version of Catch The Rainbow. If anyone reading this hasn't seen the band then listening to Barry perform this track is worth the trip alone - sheer class.
The band finally came off stage at 12:45am and finished with three encores - Since You've Been Gone, a glorious version of Child In Time with Wayne's screaming vocals and a guitar solo to savour for years to come and signing off with the classic Long Live Rock N Roll.
The band keep going from strenght to strenght so make sure you see them soon. Next stop is a Rockers Reunited event in Torquay and then another new venue when they visit Eleven in Stoke-On-Trent. All details can be found on the website or on Facebook.
