Ten/Serpentine/White Widdow Review Birmingham Roadhouse 30-5-12


A new venue for us this one in the wilds of Birmingham but with a quality 3 band line up well worth a look.

The 250 capacity Roadhouse was very good. You wait in the outer room whilst the bands were sound checking and also saw Gary Hughes talking to his fans although that meant walking past some fans to people he had actually been interviewed by earlier!!!!

First up were White Widdow all the way from Australia who haven’t been bitten by the AC/DC bug!! Playing a keyboard led melodic AOR style the band were building on their appearance at last years’ Firefest and last years’ follow up cd “Serenade”.

Dealing with a poor sound especially vocalist Jules Millis who is a cross between Steven Tyler and Danny Vaughn. To start with every time he sang yours ears vibrated!! Ouch!!

Guitarist Enzo Almanzi came across well on the slightly heavier songs and with the sound improving their set went down well with the crowd.

Here’s what they played:

Reckless Nights      
One More Day         
Strangers In The Night      
Cross To Bare          
Serenade     
We Got The Wings
Show Your Cards   
Do You Remember 
Broken Hearts Won't Last Forever           

Next up were Serpentine who were again building on last years appearance as Firefest’s opener.

With Matt Black (vocalist) now established as Tony Mills successor live and on the upcoming cd number 3 this is a band on the up.

Playing a great mix from both of their cd’s their 50 minute set went past in a flash. Here’s what they played.
           
Deep Down (There's A Price For Love)
Lonely Nights          
Philadelphia
In My Blood  
Heartbreak Town    
A Touch Of Heaven           
Dreamer        
Whatever Heartache          

Really attacking the stage and with a better sound too there is a real confidence here. Black’s vocals and stage presence and real sense of humour between songs were excellent. His chemistry with Chris Gould on guitar only adds to it. With a harder edge to earlier the songs sparkled. Great choruses and some fabulous interplay between Black and Gould this is top quality.

With great back up from Gareth Vanstone on bass, Roy Millward on drums and Gaz Noon on keys hopefully cd 3 and maybe a great support slot could really push this band to the top. Excellent.

I’ve loved Ten from day 1 way back in the mid 90’s but due to their tour dates being very Northern England or Japan I’ve never had the chance to see them live.

After seeing at first hand Gary Hughes’s rock star behaviour and with a signed photo available that was at least a decade and a half old I was a little concerned and with the venue only half full too.

On they all came some we knew,Gary’s faithfull help in John Halliwell on guitar and Steve Mckenna on bass and some we didn’t.

With the revolving door policy we had Max Yates on drums, Darrel Treece-Birch on keys and Dan Mitchell on guitar.

Eventually Gary came on in the tightest pair of trousers which left little to the imagination in fact his first foot on the monitor moment nearly took my eye out!!

Over the course of 85 minutes we were treated to 5 songs from the recent rather good “Stormwarning”cd and 6 golden oldies from their large back catalogue.

With their epic sound struggling a little in the mix it was good to hear that Gary still has an excellent voice although singing in a slightly lower register.

Here’s what they played:   

Endless Symphony
Spellbound  
Ten Fathoms Deep 
After The Love Is Gone      
The Robe     
The Hourglass And The Landslide         
Love Song    
Book Of Secrets      
Centre Of My Universe
Red    
The Name Of The Rose


Favourites for me were the AORtastic “Hourglass”and a song that I thought I would never see in “Red” that was quite wonderful. It was difficult to pick a best as all of it was top quality.

For a band that don’t play very often they were tight and kick up a bit of a storm with Dan Mitchell at the front. Maybe a little too much guitar widdling and I know guitarists like to pull faces but I don’t need to see your tonsils and tongue piercing at every opportunity!!
The crowd lapped it up and as time wore on you realised this was a rather special evening.

I loved the fact we had an encore with a difference. As Hughes didn’t take them off and just said that was a waste of time and went straight into the monumental “Name Of The Rose” which was a great way to end.

With a new cd due in October and an appearance with Tyketto at Firefest hopefully this can see a rise in the Ten legacy that really should be a lot bigger than it currently is!!

At £12.50 what great value 3 excellent bands and let’s hope we can see more of this sort of thing in the future.

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