Never Mind The B*llocks, Here's A Gig Review

Good evening readers! Seeing as I haven't yet gotten round to making the next part of my music challenge, I thought I'd treat you all to another gig review this evening, seeing as I haven't done one in ages.

On Friday I took my Mum to see The Sex Pistols Experience, a tribute to the prominent punk band of the late 1970s. I'd first heard of the group about a year or so ago, when my friend's Dad went to see them at the same venue. After telling my Mum about it (& that Eddie Tenpole was support), she expressed a great interest, so when I saw they were back in town again (5 days after her birthday, in fact), I told my Mum & got us tickets as part of her birthday present. Enjoying the music of the Sex Pistols myself & being a fan of live music, I thought it would be a good night- & I was correct!

The Sex Pistols Experience in action!

Much like when my friend's Dad went to the concert, The Sex Pistols Experience (who I'll be referring to as SPE for short from now on) were suppoerted by Eddie Tenpole. I had only heard two of his songs briefly- 'Who Killed Bambi?' & 'Swords Of A Thousand Men'- so I wasn't really familiar with his music or persona. My Mum was very excited to see him though, so I had the feeling he would have been good- & he was amazing! In fact, I think I enjoyed him more than the SPE! He had a fantastic stage presence & kept the audience entertained both with music & humour & his guitar playing was brilliant- incorporating both rhythm & melody into his strumming.

Eddie Tenpole- absolutely brilliant!

Now onto the main act- the SPE themselves! Fantastic set, unfortunately as I was not around to see the actual Sex Pistols live I cannot give a comparison to the actual band, but to me they did a pretty good job! Their Johnny Rotten looked menacing throughout- he even had a staring contest with Mum at one point! The band possessed a great energy & kept the audience engaged- much like Eddie Tenpole they used humour as well as the music, making amusing remarks to audience members who called out to them.

Overall, it was a good night. I hadn't listened to any Sex Pistols music in a while, so was great to hear it again! (Plus it turns out I know more 'Never Mind The Bollocks...' lyrics than Mum!) It was also great to hear the music of Eddie Tenpole- will definitely be giving his music a re-listen in the near future!

And that's that. Stay tuned as I return to the music challenge next week, fingers crossed I'll be showing you all a little something!

Thanks for reading! :D

Tales of the Haunted Youth- Seeing Ghost Town Live

Good evening readers, welcome back to Music Monday & my second detour from the challenge. In today's post come another gig review, this time for a band called Ghost Town who played in a city close to my home town.

Allow me to start with a brief introduction to the band & how I got into them. Ghost Town are an American 4-piece electro-rock band, consisting of Kevin (vocals), Evan (electro), Alix (guitar) & Manny (drums). I got into them a couple of years ago when my friend Tom played me their song 'You're So Creepy'. After that, I gave some more of their songs a listen & purchased their 'Party In The Graveyard' album & 'Bare Bones EP'. Although I haven't followed the band that closely in recent times, I do enjoy their music so thought it would be a great opportunity to go & see them play live, seeing as they were coming close to where I live.

Now onto the gig itself. I went to see them last Wednesday (4th June) with my best friend, Laura & it was great! Prior to the show there was a signing in a HMV close to the venue, which we both attended. I was quite surprised at the turn out as Ghost Town aren't what I would deem a well known band, but there were a fair amount of people there which was good. Me & Laura bought copies of their new album, 'The After Party', to be signed once our turn to meet them came. It was nice meeting them, was very brief but we got to hug them & say "hi"- they're really nice guys. We did have a photo taken with them but it was done by a professional who hasn't yet put any of the signing photos on Facebook.

My signed album. Band members from L-R- Alix, Manny, Kevin & Evan

After the signing, we had a wander round the shops before heading to the venue as we had an hour to kill. Once at the venue & once inside, we visited the merch stand & I got the 'Tentacles' t-shirt of theirs that I'd wanted for ages, as that's one of my favourite songs of theirs. It also happened to be the song they played second in their set, which I was very pleased about!

Overall they did a really good set, the venue they played at was small & there was a good crowd which became alive with energy once the band started. Said energy was spread by the band, who were great to watch & had a fantastic stage presence. It was fun being in the crowd, jumping around & singing along, although I did have to give up on jumping at one point as I had my hair clipped up, which knocked on a ledge I was stood near.

As well as 'Tentacles', they played other older songs such as 'Wasted' (which they opened with), 'Off With Her Head' & 'You're So Creepy'. They also played a couple of newer tracks which I didn't know as well, but 'I'm Weird' was stuck in both mine & Laura's heads afterwards. I'd say this is my favourite of the newer songs.

Once the set ended, the crowd was yelling for an encore, which thankfully happened- & it was acoustic! This was a nice touch, with Kevin asking everyone to sit on the floor whilst they played the final two songs- 'Skeleton' & my other favourite, 'Game Freak', which was brilliant acoustic!

Overall, a brilliant gig, very energetic & fun- me & Laura both enjoyed ourselves very much! I'd recommend giving Ghost Town a listen, if you're into rock with some electro, almost dubstep-esque beats with lyrics relating to the supernatural & paranormal, you'll enjoy their music. Here's a link to their music on Spotify.

And here are some photos of them live:

There we go folks, I hope you've enjoyed tonight's post! Thanks for reading! :D

"Stockholm Sweden, Rock Home Leadin'"- My Story with Blowsight & Seeing Them Live

Hey there readers! First Music Monday where I'm deviating away from the challenge I set myself, but I deviate away for a great reason. I'd like to use this post not only to give a review of the concert I attended on Friday, but to also tell you all a little bit more about my favourite band, Blowsight.

So to start off- who are Blowsight?

Blowsight are a 4-piece band from Stockholm, Sweden, consisting of Nick Red (vocals, guitar), Seb (guitar), Mao (bass) & Fabz (drums). They describe their music as 'PopMetalPunk'- if I recall correctly from an interview I read once, it's because it has "the catchiness of pop, the harshness of metal & the raw sound of punk", a combination that works splendidly in creating some truly amazing songs! I'd say they're a versatile band as well- some songs have a more rock sound, some are slower, plus they sound great acoustic as well!

The band, from L-R- Fabz, Nick, Seb & Mao
(Image is not mine, I take no credit)

And how did I get into them?
For this little section let's take a step back in time to March 2010 (this I know thanks to Facebook timeline- I posted a status on the day I discovered them & decided to look it up). A 15 year-old me is sat in her room & has just opened Spotify to see that what looks to be a metal cover of 'Pokerface' on her recommendations list. I guess it's metal because the image alongside it is a skull, who I later learned is Skully- Blowsight's logo. Wanting to hear a good rock/metal cover of said song, I gave it a listen & it was one of the greatest things I'd ever heard- better than Gaga herself if I may say! It was that brilliant that I gave it a listen a second time before checking out what other music Blowsight had done. At the time, they only had the one album released, 'Destination Terrorville', which I listened to & thoroughly enjoyed- I remember having their song 'Thought of Bride' in my head for a few days after! A month or so later I purchased the album & that's where it all began. From there came the release of single 'Bandit For Life' (which is where the fans got their name the 'Bandits' from- it's also where the first part of the title from this blog is from), their second album 'Dystopia Lane', the 'Shed Evil EP', their third album 'Life & Death' & their latest single, 'Winter Show Mercy (Thank You)', which was released to raise money for homeless charities. I remember fondly awaiting & then listening to each new album/track & immediately loving it- from the stories told within the songs to the lyrics I found myself relating to & the fantastic sound of the music!

Now you know the back story, let's continue with the story of how I got to see them live:

Again, we go back to 2010, where the band played in the UK in a city not far from where I live. As you can imagine, I was thrilled, however, I was in a play at the time & the date of the concert clashed with the final rehearsal, meaning that I, unfortunately, missed them. From that day, I promised myself that if they were to play in my country again, I would be there, even if it meant travelling a bit, I'd go. In fact, as I saw where their various live shows were over the years, I decided that I'd be more than happy to travel over to the continent to see them. I did consider going to Germany to see them last year with my Mum, but instead my whole family took a holiday.

Which brings us to the present & the tale of this weekend's adventure. It began a couple of weeks before the concert, where I saw on Facebook that the band were playing live in Stockholm, with the date conveniently being on the Friday before I weekend I had booked off of work. Seeing this made me feel excited, as I wanted to visit Sweden anyway as well, so why not go over there & see Blowsight? At first, it was just a wild thought in my mind as I didn't really have the money, but thankfully I got my halls of residence contract cancelled so I had some extra money in my bank account, and what a better way to spend it than on going to see my favourite band play live? :D

To begin, I had to get tickets. I'd seen the cost & worked out in English money that they were pretty cheap, so I asked on the event page where I could buy the tickets from. I was told by the event's organiser, a very nice man who I later met named Joakim, that they were available on the door of the event. As I was travelling from England, I asked if I could reserve tickets. I then received a message from him saying that if I was travelling all that way to see the band, I could go on the VIP list & not have to pay, which was amazing news! I would have been more than happy to have paid, but seeing as I now had tickets reserved in this way- the trip was a must! I booked flights & found a hotel near the concert venue & job done!

Now let's skip forward to Friday & the concert itself. Blowsight were, & are, amazing live & the show itself was fantastic! The venue, Enarena Globen, was small-ish & allowed for quite an intimate show, which was nice as it allowed me to stand right near the front. Blowsight were one of the headline acts for the night & played third after Suffix & Overworld (the other headline act).

Blowsight's set was brilliant, beginning with 'This Pain' & followed by 'It's Me You're Looking For'. From the minute they walked on stage they had great energy & presence which radiated into the audience, keeping them hooked. They performed each song excellently & really engaged with the audience- it was great to be a part of it & to sing along surrounded by fellow fans. There was a brief line-up change for the song 'How I Get What I Deserve', where Mao's place was taken by Miche, the bassist of a band called Degraded & a guitarist from another band (whose name I cannot remember) joined too. Another element I really enjoyed about the live show was the added mini-soundtracks before certain songs, such as 'SheDevil' & 'I Wish You 666'- these gave a great atmosphere to the songs & really added something to the live experience. Towards the end of the show they played their Pokerface cover, which was brilliant to hear as it's the song that introduced me to the band, along with 'Bandit For Life' & 'The Simple Art (Of Making You Mine)' as the finishing track, which left the audience on a high & chanting for more. Overall- absolutely fantastic- would definitely go & see them play again! (My promise in England still stands- they come here, I'll be there!)

Some of the shots I got of them. :)

Another amazing thing about the night was that I got to meet the band as well! I spoke to them both before & after the show; Nick recognised me whilst I was sat down prior to their performance & came over, we greeted each other with a hug & he spoke to me & my companion (who, as much as I'd love to, I can't name for various reasons) for a good few minutes before heading off. Joakim had also arranged for me to go upstairs to where they were before their performance, where I properly met Fabz, Mao & Seb as well & we sat talking to them for a bit about various things, such as the Swedish language & how beautiful the weather was in Stockholm. It was brilliant meeting them, they're such lovely people & it was a pleasure being in their company! We took photos & hugged, I also got a signed Skully sticker & one of Fabz's drumsticks as well as buying myself 3 more of their t-shirts. To add to this, during the set, Nick changed language to English (he was speaking Swedish in the breaks in between songs) to thank myself & my companion for travelling all that way to see them, then said the next song, 'Standby Button', was for us. It was a pleasure- I have loved the band & wanted to see them live for the past 4 years, so the opportunity to do so was incredible & I was happy to have travelled all that way.

Me & Blowsight. :D

Signed Skully. :)

I'm really thankful for this opportunity. Thankful to Joakim for organising the event & for adding me to the VIP list & to Nick, Fabz, Seb & Mao for the concert & the awesome music- & to all of them for being really lovely people that I'm so glad to have met! :D

And that concludes the story of how I finally saw Blowsight live & met them, but my story with the band doesn't end there. As their song goes, "I'm a Bandit for life!", that I shall be & am proud to be & shall continue to enjoy their music!

As well as enjoying their music myself, I recommend them to all- which includes you my good readers! Click on some of the links above, go on Spotify (or YouTube if you don't have a Spotify), & discover the awesomeness which is Blowsight! You won't regret it! :D