Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons, w/ Fury, and Valhalla Awaits
The Corn Exchange, Newport 10/05/2024
Live Review by Simon Black
Photography by Mike Evans
The Corn Exchange is a brand-new venue in Newport, and a welcome addition to the scene here in South Wales, especially with so many venues around the country facing really challenging times right now. Perhaps if a few more people dragged themselves out more often, instead of watching Eurovision, we wouldn’t have to worry about such things… Not that that’s any kind of competition tonight. With Cardiff only a few miles down the road, this place fills a perfect sized niche for acts on their way up who are too big to play in Fuel (which let’s face it, feels rammed to the rafters with a hundred people in it) and The Tramshed which feels like a barn with less than 700 punters in. With a capacity of 500, but a sensible layout similar to the Tramshed (so a nice high stage and a decent size bar at the back) and some effective acoustics, this place has a lot of potential and location wise with its own public car park and a few yards stroll to all the decent boozers this venue looks like it might score a goal or two tonight.
Valhalla Awaits are a local act that crossed my radar with their “Perdition” EP a year ago, so I was delighted to finally get the chance to see them play live. The graveyard slot on a 3 act show when everyone is still over the road in the pubs is never easy, but the band had a healthy supportive crowd in attendance, and stepped up to the mark well. Despite being squeezed onto the front of the stage with several sets of gear laid out, the band put as much energy and enthusiasm into their performance as you can when you have half an eye focussed on not falling off the front of the stage, and played with a rigour and gusto that was punching well above their weight. Front man Andrew Hunt is blessed with a cracking set of pipes, and his stage confidence nailed it tonight.
Like many independent acts nowadays, the band have taken the waterfall strategy of building with a series of EP’s to their name, but these guys have all cut their teeth in other acts, so flow well and their performance impressed tonight. The delivered professionalism in spades with a slick and punchy show that garnered an enthusiastic response from the audience, many of whom clearly regretting their decision to have just one more pre-show beer somewhere else. Definitely a goal in the net boys…
https://www.facebook.com/ValhallaAwaitsband
Fury are one of those bands who epitomise for me how unjust the state of the music industry is for underground acts, who deserve to be playing bigger halls like this more regularly. They’ve been going since 2011 (with only front man Julian Jenkins remaining from their original line-up), but in recent years the current line-up has forged a formidable reputation as one of the strongest live acts around, and tonight was absolutely no exception. In recent times they are probably better known for the well-earned appointment of their bassist Becky Baldwin to the 4-string slot for Mercyful Fate, but things like that can kill an act in their tracks when the schedules for arena fillers destroys the ability of the band to share a key player (just ask Hell what Andy Sneap moving to Judas Priest did for their momentum, made up for him though they are). At the moment though there isn’t a clash, and tonight was about an incredibly tight and cohesive band who have worked damn hard at building a following through graft not letting up at all.
From the moment they hit the stage this superbly well-oiled machine delivered the goods. I was attending with a bunch of friends who don’t often come out for gigs unless it’s a fairly big-name band, and because I’m reviewing they got dragged in for the full event, and all came away fundamentally impressed with the show from both the support acts. If Valhalla Awaits scored a back of the net goal, then Fury’s turned a football into a fireball that burned a hole straight through the net, with an incredibly slick and full-on performance. They’ve toured this neck of the woods as headliners in their own right at the postage-stamp sized Fuel, but this showed me tonight that they should be headlining this sort of size venue in their own right. Judging by the audience response, that may just happen if they keep this up…
https://www.facebook.com/furyofficial
The last time I saw Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons was at Cardiff’s Tramshed as the local opener for Black Star Riders, and although there was plenty of love for them in the room then, they were a man down in the guitar department that night, so I was looking forward to them playing a local show as headliners, having only caught them either at festivals or support slots before. You never know what you are going to get on the set list when these boys rock up, and it can swing from quite a Motörhead-centric list to more of their original stuff depending on the crowd. But with three full length albums under their belt and the current one, “Kings of the Asylum” being an absolute belter, they don’t need to rely on the past legacy for a headline show in the way they might at a festival or in the past.
To be honest, they could have stood up there playing the spoons and the love would still have poured out from the crowd, because again, they’ve earned it through sheer grind. And touring, a shit ton of touring in fact. It feels like this band seem to be touring pretty much all year round, showing that the work hard, play hard ethics Lemmy lived by still have a place in the music scene today. Set list wise it was about two thirds of their own stuff, with the new album front and centre with the remainder crowd pleasers for the many, many folks in Motörhead shirts (although to be fair there’s no shortage of them at any gig, and quite right too).
The band are as tight as it comes tonight and blessed with an excellent sound mix allowing all the players to be crisply heard, although like the best Rock ‘n’ Roll, the fluidity and interplay between them feels thoroughly organic. Frontman Joel Peters may still be a recent addition for many of us who have seen them before, but to be honest he really does fit like a velvet glove, with more smoothness and subtlety when needed, but still able to tear the roof off with something blunter like “Killed By Death”.
By this point in the evening though, I think it’s safe to say that the football turned fireball has gone full on cannonball and taken the net, the goal and a sizable chunk of the car park behind with it, because that was a fabulous gig. And that’s what made tonight so special, as all three of these hardworking acts proved that British Hard Rock and Metal is alive, vibrant and still going strong.
https://www.facebook.com/PhilCampbellATBS
LINKS:
Venue:
Promoter:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Simon Black and Ever Metal. Photography the property of Mike Evans. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.