White Widdow/Night By Night/Degreed Camden Underworld 07-03-15

With HRH AOR now only a week away there are a plethora of bands making the journey over to these fair isles at this time.

This gig was a casing point with Degreed from Sweden joining Night By Night and White Widdow from Australia in playing a few extra shows in the UK.

I saw Degreed support Vega at the Borderline a couple of years ago and they continue to grow very nicely.
Currently recording album number 3 this gave them an opportunity to showcase a couple of numbers from the forthcoming cd and the music was impressive.
Here is what they played in their 45 minute set.

A Little Bit
Black Cat
Kill Your Darlings
Captured By The Moment
The Scam
We Don't Belong
Inside Of Me
Human Being
Arms Of Misery

Robin Ericsson's melodic tone impressed and the set flew by.The 2 new songs fitted in well with Kill Your Darlings known amongst the crowd as the band had released a demo of it recently.The Scam could be the title track of the new album too.

Steve Perry's Captured By The Moment had any AOR fan in heaven and the bands guitar heavy leanings work well with the heavy synthesizer sound of Daniel Johanson and at times throw a progressive feel into the proceedings.

Looking forward to the new album and one of the best of the many new Swedish bands around.

Night By Night were originally the headliners but due to vocalist Henry Rundell leaving only 3 days before the gig they had to find a new man fast.
Stepping into the breach was Daniel Leigh from New Device and as he had only had time to learn 6 songs a shorter set was necessary.

I think he did a fantastic job as anybody who wouldn't have known the circumstances would never have known.His slightly aggressive tone to his voice fitted the music perfectly and the twin lead guitar team of Ben Christo and Tom Daniel impressed too.


All 6 songs from their well received debut cd out last year were greeted like long lost friends with huge riffs and choruses with the crowd joining in too.

Ending with a romp through Aerosmith's Love In An Elevator brought an end to an impressive 35 minutes and lets hope the band move on quickly as they are one of the UK's brightest hopes.

White Widdow have toured the UK before back in 2012 with Ten and have recently released a new cd in the shape of the excellent Crossfire.

A heavy keyboard influence reminds you of the days in the 80's when AOR ruled the roost although that's not to say there wasn't plenty of excellent guitar work from Enzo Almanzi.

Led by Jules Millis on vocals who looks like he was seperated at birth from a combination of Danny Vaughn and Steven Tyler.A very charismatic frontman who's vocal style fits the style of music well.

Here is what they played in 55 minutes.

Caught In The Crossfire
Strangers In The Night
Angel
Do You Remember 
Below The Belt
Frontline by Aviator 
Fly Me Away
Change Of Passion
Restless Nights
Broken Hearts Won't Last Forever
Unchain The Night by Dokken

All the 4 new songs from Crossfire fit the mould led by plenty of keyboards and  huge choruses.
Obscure song of the night went to Frontline from Aviator's 1986 debut cd and you can see the band are a major influence on White Widdow.
Technical issues led the way with a borrowed keyboard from Degreed helping the way.With their's stuck in Greece along with Xavier Millas's clothes too it was no surprise when a snapped guitar string and no replacement meant one borrowed from Tom Daniel but not after Change Of Passion had been played guitar free.

With an encore of Dokken's Unchain The Night finishing the night on a high it brought to an end a good evening with a few technical issues that everyone took in their stride.

With a paying crowd of barely 150 the only concern as the bands strength of character shone every brighter.