Wustock at Christopher Whitehead's Language College
Congratulations to Alby Samuels and the rest of the Worcester Rock City guys for staging the first-ever Wustock promotion at Christopher Whitehead Language College in St John's, Worcester. A lot of effort had gone into transforming the main hall and surroundings into a genuine rock venue for the day - and this great new venture ran very smoothly from start to finish.
The bands kicked off mid-afternoon, so it was a shame to miss Morning Glory and I only caught the last few chords from East Of The Sun, who'd clinched their slot via the Battle Of The Bands a couple of weeks ago.
A great set followed, as always, from Jasper In The Company Of Others - featuring guest drummer Joel sitting in for regular Jim who was away on holiday. The recently-signed foursome are doing absolutely the right thing at the moment - gigging in as many different venues across the Midlands as possible and spreading the word that they're a good-time outfit guaranteed to get the crowd warmed up with great numbers like Say It's Greener.
This is actually the third time that This Wicked Tongue have played a support slot to this main act of the evening. The Tina V-fronted foursome exude increasing confidence every time I see them and the new numbers like If This Is Me and Your Hands, My Heart are quality ditties and sure-fire crowd-pleasers. We're hoping for great things this year for This Wicked Tongue - and they'll have earned it with their relentless gigging schedule.
It was great to see Malvern's finest Tallulah Fix on really great form with their blunge-some numbers like So Good, Dark As They Come and AWOL. They're an unique rock 'n' roll act of stunning quality that really deserve a far wider audience - but as I mentioned to them, this'll only happen if they take the plunge and commit to touring full-time. There's many other bands in a similar position - it's a big step to give up the day jobs totally - but if you can find a half-way compromise maybe. When you're such a promising act as Tallulah Fix - I reckon it's worth a punt.
They haven't gigged that much in the last year or so - hardly surprising, really, as Scarlet Carmina frontman Alby and bassman Will have been quite busy with other projects. Alby with his various Rock City ventures and Will with the likes of Jasper and Robinson. But it was great to see a long-overdue set from the soft-rocking foursome with quality numbers like Bad Night For Love and Devils & Serenades - and judging by the screams from about half of the excellent crowd that had gathered by mid-evening, they went down pretty well!
This was the first time I've seen the incredible Neil Ivison-fronted Misers for a while - and the first after their new line-up without the keyboards of Adam Barry and since that famous advertising campaign on the sides of buses. However they still remain one of the finest pure rock 'n' roll acts to emerge from our region with cracking numbers like Call Me, Fine Line and the classic gospelly Shuffle My Feet, Lord. It was great to see one of our acts of quality in such fine form.
This was a great event, tremendously well-organised with all the refreshments and facilities needed to keep gig-goers sustained for a marathon all-dayer. Of course it was a 'supernatural delight' to catch a fine set from headliners Toploader - showcasing newer numbers like Letting People Know alongside their hits like Achilles Heel and Dancing in The Moonlight. The Sussex foursome have undergone a resurgence in recent years - reforming the original hit-making outfit after a few years break - and they certainly seem to still have a good hard-core of fans who knew all the words to their songs. This was a great finish to a successful and well-attended first Wustock - well done guys!
03 Dec 2012