BILLY BRAGG, Kim Churchill @Symphony Hall, Birmingham 24/11/13

It’s odd what brings people to gigs. If it hadn’t been for RTM’s hatred of socialising we might not have seen Billy Bragg in the first place. We had just started a new job in November 1999 and were desperate to get out of the works Christmas do the following month. It happened to coincide with a Billy gig at Warwick Arts Centre, so we went with a mate and a love of the Bard of Barking began.

We were musing on this tonight as support Kim Churchill tells the story about why he ended up here. He was at a folk festival in Canada and asked someone for a lift to the stage, that someone was one Stephen William Bragg, who obliged and asked him to come out on tour.

The New South Wales Folkie is a worthy – and welcome – addition. The young singer/songwriter is doing this type of thing with a really interesting twist. He sings a song called “Smile As He Goes Home” which is about his Grandad’s funeral, but is celebratory and heartwarming, this mixes with “Bathed In Black” which is psychedelic and heavy. He ends all this with a take on “Subterranean Homesick Blues” this, like the rest of his set, is well worth checking out.

So Billy Bragg then. What is left to say about him? It is thirty years this year since his incendiary debut mini album “Life’s A Riot With Spy vs Spy” came out, and throughout that career he has done everything with an honesty and a sense of humour that sets him apart from the crowd.

RTM saw him back in June when he gave a brilliant show in Stratford – Upon - Avon. He is exactly the same tonight, and indeed seems totally re-invigorated by the “Tooth And Nail” album he released earlier this year. Apparently recorded in a matter of days in America with hot Producer Joe Henry, it is not only the best record he has put out in years and years, but has taken Bragg – and his fine band – into something of a country vein. In typical fashion, he bats this away with self-deprecation, claiming he has turned into a “radical Kenny Rodgers, “ and plays “You Woke The Neighbourhood” from his  1991 “Don’t Try This At Home”  album as if to prove he has always been country anyway.

The set is broadly the same as the one a few months ago, but does include “California Stars” which is touchingly dedicated to Wilco’s Jay Bennett, who sadly died two years ago and “A New England” returns to end things.

Bragg jokes that it doesn’t matter what songs he plays, because over 30 years people don’t come to listen to sing anyway. Whilst those who don’t know his work might focus on his politics (no bad thing and RTM remains in agreement with most of his manifesto) this neglects the fact that he is fabulous songwriter – one of the finest this country has ever had – who is capable of writing a visceral “Never Buy The Sun” but juxtaposing this with a quite brilliant “Handyman Blues,” a tale of why men shouldn’t attempt DIY.

During the course of his two and a quarter hours onstage Bragg tells us that he isn’t bothered about the 30 year anniversary, but what is worth celebrating, he says, is that fact that after all this time a room full of people in Birmingham still want to watch him.

If he surprised, he needn’t be. He is Billy Bragg and he deserves all the audience he ever gets. 

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE @NIA, Birmingham 21/11/13

We lost touch with Queens Of The Stone Age a good few years ago. We liked the first couple of albums, saw them live, then about 10 years passed. This is staggering in itself, but ye gods if it isn’t 15 years since that debut record. However, perhaps even stranger (and this probably shows how out of touch we are with modern music around here than anything else) is just how huge QUOTSA have got while we weren’t looking.

This gig, like all the others on this tour, is in a great big arena, and there are very few spaces to be had. Frontman Josh Homme could be forgiven for smiling smugly in the direction of his former Kyuss band mates, who mustered a decent crowd for their show up the road last month, but nothing remotely like this.

Actually smugness seems to be the last thing on Homme’s mind at this point, he is rather more concerned with the fact he is full of cold, which isn’t exactly great when you have 10,000 people to entertain for 90 minutes.

But he is nothing if not a pro, shaking off the lurgy with a smile and the phrase: “I love Birmingham, it’s a great town, so I am just gonna play my guitar till I can’t play it no more.” What that in practice means is a show that starts with “You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire” but then smashes straight in to “No One Knows” and then “The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret” which is a one-two of hits that is right up there with any arena bothering act.

In fact, QUOTSA rely on songs rather than the effects of many arena band, although a big screen does show elaborate animations during “Monster In Your Parasol” and is used to effect throughout.

“Fairweather Friend” is played with a slight speech from Homme who says the song is about having someone you thought was a friend and they turned out to be anything but (a nod to the bitter fall out with his former bandmates perhaps?) while the show finishes with a three song encore that not only includes “Feelgood Hit Of The Summer,” which means that thousands of people get to sing THAT chorus, but ends with “Song For The Dead” which contains more false climax’s (all puns intended) than Motorhead playing “Orgasmatron” (all puns intended).

A night that was far more enjoyable than RTM expected, and one which Homme himself neatly sums up. Spotting a lady on a gents shoulders, who lets her hair cascade, he says: “That’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. All I have ever wanted to do was make music that made people let their hair down.”

And there is nothing wrong with that.  

KARNIVOOL, Tesseract @Institute, Birmingham 20/11/13

Things have changed in the Tesseract camp since we last saw them. Not only have they got rid of singer number four Eliot Coleman (himself a replacement for Daniel Tompkins), the newly fronted by Ashe O’Hara band has released a new record called “Altered State.” The album sees them move even further away from the Djent scene, which seemed to be almost entirely invented by Metal Hammer anyway, and into something altogether more interesting and challenging. 

So it is that the first three songs they play tonight are from the “…State” album, and they sound just as good live as they do on record. In our opinion the band sound much better with a singer that is, well, singing, and the riffs sound even more monstrous than before. That is not to say they forget their roots totally – and indeed neither should they, as previous record “One” was excellent too – and there is plenty of what O’Hara terms “old Tesseract” to keep the huge crowd entertained. The frontman is apparently struggling with a bad throat, although you wouldn’t know it, as he navigates his way through a superb 40 minutes. With a (hopefully) settled line up and seemingly limitless ability to write interesting songs, you really can expect big things from Tesseract. 

Back in 2010 we took our places at Sonisphere on the day Iron Maiden played. The opening act was some Aussies who we had never heard of, called Karnivool. They were really very good indeed. 

Now, here we are seeing them for the first time since then. In 2013 they have a new album “Asymmtery” to plug. They begin with a couple of songs from it, “The Last Few” and “A. M War” and over the course of the next hour and three quarters, they exemplify what follows, expertly played, brilliant and a just little bit more exciting than you might have expected. 

And yet, we shouldn’t have been surprised. Beardy, unassuming blokes they might be, but that doesn’t quite tell the story. You see, Karnivool are genuine big stars in their homeland – “Asymmtery” was number one down under – thus when you are used to playing arenas, you can knock out a gig to 500 people in Birmingham in your sleep. 

Not that Karnivool give the impression that they are phoning it in, if anything, they seem humbled that so many people have turned up, which rather fits in with their image. Singer Ian Kenny is absolutely the least rock star looking rock star you have seen, and happily there seems to be a convivial atmosphere between the bands, with Tesseract Drummer Jay Postones joining in stage right on “Sky Machine.”

In fact, the only things that set Karnivool out as a massive band are their massive songs. Huge guitar lines and great big choruses abound – not least of which is “Simple Boy,” which is arguably the pick, although really, the whole set is of the highest order. 

The band returns – somewhat sheepishly – for an encore and “New Day” rounds things off in suitably massive style. “Thanks Birmingham,” says Kenny. “It’s been brilliant tonight.” To be fair, he’s not wrong. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves. 

SCORPION CHILD, Blues Pills @ Queens Hall, Nuneaton 16/11/13

Something of a United Nations, Blues Pills are a decidedly retro Swedish-American-French foursome that have been recently touted as something interesting to rank alongside other groups who have their sound rooted in the 1970s.

Pills are less to do with the Stones-y type vibes of the likes of the Temperance Movement and Blackberry Smoke, though, and instead take their key from something altogether more like Graveyard, Horisont, or Kadavar (and indeed share a label – in Nuclear Blast – with a couple of them).

Their standout difference is singer Elin Larsson, a slightly built young woman she may be, but when she wails her vocals, it creates a feeling not unlike a young Janis Joplin. She really is that good. “Little Sun” – apparently written about her best friend – provides a fragile moment of balladry, which like the rest of their set, is expertly done, while “Devil Man” and Black Smoke” have enough soaring riffs and good, honest soul to keep everyone interested. On this evidence, Blues Pills provide a thrilling panacea.

In truth, though, the glorious support was a just a bonus. Whoever opened we would have been here for Scorpion Child. If you have heard their stunning debut album, you will know why – if not get on board, because these boys are quite something.

They kick off with the first five songs from the record, “Kings Highway” sees singer Aryn Jonathan Black scream “the tension, the tension” like some latter day Robert Plant, while second tune “Polygon of Eyes” sees the slightly built front man switch into full on Ronnie James Dio mode.

Those two songs do rather adequately sum up the band, this is classic rock the way it was not only meant to sound, but rather the way it should sound right now. There is nothing original on show here but it is exactly what is required – a twin guitar attack from lead man Christopher Jay Cowart and his foil on rhythm, Tom “The Mole” Frank, who are more than ably backed up by a rhythm section that is tight as anything there is.

Child  deserve more credit than usual for this, given that they are from the country stronghold of Austin, Texas. If this doesn’t come across in the sound, it certainly does in Black’s easy Texan charm. Spotting a young lad in the crowd with a Cult hoodie on, he smilingly explains that they took their name from a Cult song – dedicates the next song to him and away we go, with another brilliant riff and some more soaring vocals.

If you have one of the albums of the year, you can do a lot worse than play it as your live set, and that is effectively what Scorpion Child do tonight. They are called back for an encore and have the decency to be surprised. They need not have been it was well deserved. After it, the instruction from the stage is simple: “It’s Saturday night, let’s get drunk.”

Some do, the rest of us can glory in as real “I was there” moment. Scorpion Child are back on March for a Metal Hammer sponsored jaunt with the mighty Monster Truck, under the banner of “Lords Of The Riff.” Miss it at your peril.

ALICE IN CHAINS, Ghost, Walking Papers @Birmingham Academy 13/11/13

Late replacements on this bill – the opening duties were originally slated to be performed by Joey Jordison’s Scar The Martyr – Walking Papers are due on at an early start time. Happily most of the crowd are in place to see the start – and what a show it is!

When they emerged last year, most of the interest in the band centred  around two of their members – Duff McKagan and Barrett Martin – having illustrious pasts, then people heard the album and realised that this was not some novelty side project, but an excellent band in their own right. In truth, McKagan and Barrett are the least visible on stage, with singer/guitarist Jeff Angell and Keyboard player Ben Anderson providing most of the sound interest, with Anderson’s swirling organ playing a prominent role. The band are much heavier live, with “Two Tickets And A Room” sounding formidable. During set closer “Red Letter” Angell marches into the crowd, and the atmosphere is uproarious. As opening acts go. It really does not get much better than this.

A couple of years ago you couldn’t pick up a metal magazine without seeing a story about Ghost. The masked monks of Sweden, who were they, who was in the band, was it James Hetfield? Was it Dregen, or assorted death metal glitterati? We now know that the singer used to be in glam chancers Crashdiet and it is the belief of RTM that strip all the myth and nonsense away and they ain’t that good. “Ritual” rocks and rolls in all the right places but “Stand By Him” sounds exactly like ZZ Top. The problem is that where once there was spectacle and mysticism there is a group singalong of “Monstrance Clock” and with this new conventional attitude Ghost are just another daft rock band, without great songs.

RTM has seen Alice In Chains before. There was a tremendous sense of excitement when we went to Manchester a few years ago to watch them on the comeback tour. Whether it was a case of fevered anticipation not quite meeting what happened in reality, who knows, but it wasn’t that great a night.

Oddly, the “Black Gives Way To Blue” album which they were touring was a triumph, but the new record “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” is not a huge favourite, so tonight was just another gig. That is until Alice In Chains started, because tonight they were everything we wanted four years ago. They were quite spectacular from the minute that “Again” kicks things off, giving way to an incredible “Check My Brain”.

There are lighting issues, with the big screen not working throughout, but this just means that AIC are relying on their songs. Luckily they have some incredible ones - not least of which are “We Die Young” and a crushing “Man In A Box”.  In fairness too, the “...Dinosaurs” album songs sound better than they do on the record, as “Hollow” perhaps the pick.

William DuVall has slotted into Layne Stayley’s shoes superbly, and without trying to copy his predecessor’s unique sound, it is still unmistakably AIC, largely this is down, you suspect to Jerry Cantrell, who sounds invigorated here as do the rhythm section of Sean Kinney and a lively Mike Inez.

The encore includes “Would?” before “Rooster” ends things, its soaring chorus giving the gig an ending it deserved. This was a night to remember that grunge never really existed - all it ever was a collection of great rock bands, some good ones and some rubbish, just like any other metal scene.  Tonight Alice In Chains proved that they were very much in the former category.

MOTT THE HOOPLE @Symphony Hall Birmingham 11/11/13

As a kid growing up there were a lot of albums that had cover versions on. Be it Great White, Thunder and even Bruce Dickinson, there were covers of songs written by I Hunter and M Ralphs. Who were these people? Who were the geniuses that wrote “All The Way From Memphis” and all the others? 

These were innocent day’s pre-Google and it was hard to fathom, until we heard of this band with a fabulous name Mott The Hoople. These were the men who sounded in parts like the Rolling Stones with a Hammond Organ and at other times like Bob Dylan at his most tender. And they were brilliant. (OK The Great White one is a cheat as it was “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” which was Ian Hunter solo – but RTM didn’t know that then, we just knew that as a 14 year old we loved that track)

After their split in the mid 70s they have only played together just a few times, at the Hammersmith Apollo four years back. It was with a great sense of excitement, then that RTM and just about anyone else who loves British rock n roll (and the band could only be British – no other nation could write the line “you look like a star/but you’re still on the dole” the way they did in “….Memphis”)  greeted the news that four of the original members, minus the sadly ill drummer Dale Griffin, who is replaced by Martin Chambers of The Pretenders, were back to play five shows. 

There is a sense of excitement as the band take the stage and then….well….it sounds terrible. In fairness the sound does improve in time for a rip roaring “One Of The Boys” but that number is ruined by lighting issues. “As usual something has gone wrong” smiles Hunter, who looks incredibly spritely for a man in his 70s.

It is a faltering start, but “The Moon Upstairs” improves things and “Sucker” retains its menace, sounding incredibly heavy. However, there is still a problem. Despite the brilliant songs on show – including a snippet of The Kinks “You Really Got Me” -  the show feels just a little flat. It doesn’t feel like the triumphant celebration of Brit rock that you thought it would, and there seems to be something missing. 

After a messed up opening, “Honaloochie Boogie” still remains an almost perfect pop song and the rest of the gig is wall to wall classics. “The Golden Age Of Rock N Roll” which contains the key line “you gotta stay young, if you never grow old” and seems to sum up the whole attitude of this gig, gives way to “...Memphis” which is suitably incredible, still sounding like the best song the Rolling Stones never wrote and a pub rock knees up all at once. 

The band are back for an encore and Ian Hunter appears to have picked up on the somewhat quiet vibe: “Right from here on in, enjoy yourselves, have a good time,” he says. And to be fair it is impossible not to when “All The Young Dudes” starts up. By now the band are joined by assorted children and grandchildren on backing vocals and finally it has clicked into gear. “Roll Away The Stone” and a poignant “(Do You Remember) The Saturday Gigs” closes things down with Hunter and the band waving goodbye to the crowd, echoing the song’s last line. 

This was by any stretch of the imagination a great gig, but it wasn’t the gig of the year contender we were expecting. By the end of the week, though, with the teething problems ironed out, you would guess that Mott would be one of the best live bands in the world again, but they weren’t quite that tonight. 

BIG COUNTRY @River Rooms, Stourbridge 6/11/13

We never expected it to end like this.

The microphone is passed around each member of the group who talks to the audience.  Crowds don’t like this sort of thing usually, as anyone who has witnessed the stampede for the exits when Lars Ulrich starts this at Metallica gigs will testify. But then it’s Bruce Watson’s turn.

An original member of the band, what is he going to say? Something profound? Something cheesy? Maybe, but what he actually does is this: He surveys the front row and says to a fella “christ, you have better tits than my wife…you certainly have better tattoos!”

We do this stuff better than Americans, don’t we?

Strangely this most British of reactions is in keeping with this most British of bands. Like a lot of the best groups, Big Country have a definable sound, whether it is “Return” from the new album, or “Look Away” from their glorious past, you can listen to it and know instantly who it is.

Big Country deserve credit for many things, not least of which is the dignified way they have handled their comeback, but also their approach to touring. They have been out nonstop this year and this tour is taking them all the way from Lands End To John ‘O’ Groats, but finally they deserve praise for their absolutely brilliant “The Journey” album – their first for 14 years.

With Mike Peters of The Alarm handling vocal duties they have safe pair of lungs who knows exactly how to front this band. Between them Country have got together a collection of songs that not only respects their legacy, but can also see them looking forward to the future.

“…Journey’s” lead track “In A Broken Promise Land” – which is dedicated to former lead singer Stuart Adamson tonight -  is one of six songs they play from it, it is perhaps the best, but all of them are excellent and go down well with the packed crowd, who helpfully are not just here for some sort of nostalgia trip.

There are plenty of old tunes though, and in particular “Field Of Fire” gains an astonishing reaction from the audience, before the encore, which includes “Last Ship Sails” and the ubiquitous “In A Big Country” are received with equal rabidity.

Which brings us back to mics being passed around. In addition to Murray’s offering former Simple Minds man Derek Forbes, who now handles Bass duties, is wearing a kilt when he tells us he is a Black Country boy at heart, but perhaps the best way to sum this up – given what happened to Adamson and how Peters battled Leukaemia -  is simply these two words, uttered by most of the members: Stay Alive.

Life affirming and brilliant, this is probably what you should take away from this evening, give or take an unexpected ending.

SKID ROW, UGLY KID JOE, Dead City Ruins @Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton 2/11/13

You can only take your hat off to bands like Dead City Ruins. Any band that finds their way over here all the way from Australia deserves our support – especially when it seems they have done things all by themselves. They deserve credit too for another thing: they are one of the very few bands from down under who don’t sound like some AC/DC facsimile. Rather these boys have a Thin Lizzy-playing-Iron Maiden vibe about them, and if singer Jake Wiffen looks like he might mug you down a dark alley for a sandwich, then that just adds to their rock n roll appeal. Keep an eye this mob, they might be worth it.

When RTM saw Ugly Kid Joe were the co-headliners for this thing, our first reaction was “blimey, are they still going.” We hadn’t been the biggest fans of UKJ back in the day if we are honest and didn’t know they had reformed. Consequently we weren’t that bothered about seeing them.

So after some dreadful gangster rap plays them on, the band kicks in.  We are barely paying attention when singer Whitfield Crane marches out onstage and bows. After that, it has to be said, all hell breaks loose and Joe are quite unexpectedly brilliant.

“Neighbour” gets everyone singing along, as does “Milkman’s Son” and although the mawkish and horrible “Cats In The Cradle” is a low point for us, they are soon playing a couple of tracks from their new EP “Stairway To Hell.” “Devil’s Paradise” is sleazy fun and “I’m Alright” has a real Bon Scott era AC/DC feel about it. Before long they are playing “Everything About You” – the one you know from “Wayne’s World” and it sounds excellent. If ever a band proves why you should go and watch a support it is Ugly Kid Joe.

We have written many times about our never ending love for Skid Row. It is coming up to 22 years since they changed our lives forever when we watched their gig at the NEC Arena. We can still remember the very second their show started with the opening riff of “Slave To The Grind and however many gigs we’ve been to since, it’s never been with quite as much excitement.

This is their second time on these shores this year and they play the same set as back in March. And whilst you can be swept along on a tide of nostalgia once, to keep coming back there has to be something still there. Happily there really is.

The band are evidently extremely proud of their new EP “United World Rebellion Vol 1” and well might they be too. A track from it – “Let’s Go” kicks things off, before it is “Big Guns,” Makin’ A Mess” and the still menacing “Piece Of Me,” during which singer Johnny Sollinger sounds like he really is “sleazin’ in the city, looking for a fight.”

Rachel Bolan and Dave “Snake” Sabo – who along with Scotti Hill give this band the legitimacy of having three original members – both give what you assume are genuinely meant thanks to the crowd and the whole thing is largely magnificent.

Indeed, if there are a couple of small criticisms they are that the short set means there are only three tracks from “Slave to the Grind” and the guitar duel in “Monkey Business” disrupts what is a truly magnificent song.

Ultimately though, this is not a night for moaning, it’s a night to remember why you loved music in the first place, and if neither they – nor most of the audience – are, as the closing song says “Youth Gone Wild” anymore, it does no harm at all to occasionally transport yourself back to a time when Park Avenue really did lead to Skid Row. 

VISTA CHINO, Monster Truck @Institute Library, Birmingham 31/10/13

Back in July RTM stumbled across a record by a band called Monster Truck. “Furiosity” it was called and it was just one of those things the musical obsessive finds every now and again. You don’t hold out much hope for it, then you stick it on.

The album is beyond stunning, it rivals Clutch’s “Earth Rocker” as the album of the year so far – apt really because essentially they are what Neil Fallon’s boys would sound like if they had a Hammond organ. Truck are making waves in their native Canada, where their “Old Lion” single is number one and the album sits at 13 in the Billboard charts. And if nothing else it proves just how far we lag behind our friends from overseas in the taste stakes.

It was, therefore, with a genuine frisson of excitement that we saw that the Monster boys were opening for Vista Chino. So while there are 500 people crammed in here tonight dewy eyed over the return of what is effectively Kyuss, we are ready to anoint what is genuinely our new favourite band around here.

And by god, they do not disappoint us. Singer and bass man Jon Harvey stands in the middle of the stage belting out the songs, while guitarist Jeremy Widerman does his best Janick Gers impression, twirling round like a lunatic. For 40 minutes they keep us transfixed and if you have heard the record you know why, whether it is “Old Train,” “Boogie” or “Undercover Love” they all sound absolutely magnificent, while closer “Call It A Spade” is so good that you forgive them for not playing our favourite song “Sweet Mountain River.” The Truck are monstrously good, get on board and tell them we sent you.

After that, to be frank, we could have gone home and been perfectly happy with our lives, but Vista Chino are a pretty exciting proposition in their own right. They had better be because there is an inordinate wait before they take the stage.

Half of the men on stage are staples from Kyuss, one of the most critically acclaimed stoner rock bands of all time. They briefly returned as Kyuss lives, before that dissolved into a lot of lawsuits and rancor. So John Garcia and Brant Bjork regrouped, released the “Peace” album as Vista Chino and have added Corrosion Of Conformity bass genius Mike Dean for this jaunt. Not that you would recognise Dean given since we last saw him, last year at Bloodstock, he has grown a magnificent perm.

The set is heavy on Kyuss numbers as you would expect, but they do kick off with “Adara” from their own record. It is riff heavy, of course and Bruno Fevery’s guitar work is to the fore throughout, but we are soon into the band that made them all famous, with “One Inch Man” rampaging out of the speakers.

John Garcia is not a particularly outgoing frontman, indeed he seems content to wrestle with his mic stand throughout, and all is going swimmingly until they lose guitar around half way in. For a band that needs its riffs as much as Chino, this is a bit of a blow and they do lose a little momentum, which never quite returns as the second half of things is punctured by some lengthy jams. The encore of “Planets 1 & 2” brings us back to Chino, but Kyuss finish us off with “Whitewater” and “Odyssey” and the set is brought to a rattling conclusion.

In the context of our world, though, Vista Chino were just a bonus – as far as we were concerned they were here to support Monster Truc