Archive for January 2012
Great Review of Roadhouse Live at The Cambridge Rock Festival – 21/1/12
What I like about festivals is the diversity of the music and bands. What followed next was a full-on twin guitar assault, as close to Southern Boogie as you can get north of the Thames Delta!. I am referring of course, to Gary Boner’s Roadhouse, complete with old mucker Danny Gwilym on the other side of the stage. Add Mandie.G on the vocals, Bill Hobley on bass and Roger Hunt on drums, into the mix you have a stunning set of original material, save the amazing rendition of ‘Roadhouse Blues’.
Logistics meant that Mandy carried the weight of vocal duties, but as she told me it gave her a rare chance to take the limelight and she did not let herself or the Band down, especially on her ‘House of the Rising Sun’. Gary introduces each of his own song in an alomost apologetic manner, as they mostly deal with death, disease, voodoo and the devil, thats the blues I suppose!. But you can see the Band enjoy every minute, smiles in abundance. Showcasing material from the recent ‘Dark Angel’ release, their set is mind blowing, amongst other plaudits, but to me above all they entertain – a lesson other Bands should learn. Unfortunately for the two ‘headline’ acts. Three Piece Suite and Mr Pink, they had to follow such a rousing set, akin to after the Lord Mayors show.
Roadhouse Live At The Bulls Head Barnes – Monday 12th Dec 2011
So onto our famous, annual Xmas bash at the Bulls Head. Gail force winds and pouring rain made travel conditions trecherous, which took the edge off of what was a very respectable sized crowd.
With an all star cast of friends appearing on the night, the weather cost us the amazing Jules and Lorna Fothergill, however, the late addition of Drew Barron to the bill went a good way to making up for that. First up was the amazing Drew, playing with the legendary Dr Noel Brown. Both guitarists having survived a 4 year spell in Roadhouse they, along with John Scott on the bass gave us a great opening set.
The amazing talent came and went, with more incredible music from Robin Bibi, John O’Leary, Pete Sargeant, Tim Matthewman on the bass, the crowd rose up to these amazing performers.
The Roadhouse set demonstrated how much Ria Hallwood has grown into her role of Roadhouse vocalist. Her voice is deep, powerful and so many people commented on her gorgeous tone, for many she really stole the night.
Joining us for her first ever version of ‘The Big Easy’ was Rachel Clark. Rachel joined Mandie on the vocals for a nice version of ‘Slip Away’ in which Danny played a great solo. Bill and Roger held the whole set together. A special thanks to Roger who drummed the whole night away!.
The set list was thrown out of the window due to demands from the audience for ‘Dark Angel’. I’m pleased to say that we did the song some justice and I was personally pleased with my guitar solo…….
A cast of thousands occupied the stage to finish the night (brilliantly managed by John O’Leary)….Merry Xmas to all the lovely people who made the effort to come to this show, they were not dissapointed…
Gary