Roadhog
The Sandown, Liverpool
20.12.13
The Roadhog Beasts return to Liverpool
Roadhog – Liverpool
Links:
Genre: Rock
Biography:
“Hot rockin' four piece classic rock covers band. Proper, live, bone
crunching music and a dynamic show”
I Just fancied transporting myself into the past with classics bands
such as Foreigner, UFO, Priest, Purple, Lizzy and others so I got myself down
to the Sandown – (helped along by Kevo the bands Guitarist!) and really got
into the past with a twist from the present.
Man Mountain Graham
Neil in a world of his own
Mack - the sticks
Kev, Mack, Graham & Neil
Kev - the fingers
Roadhog have been racing around
the country visiting such places as the Hindley Arms, Hindley
4th December, The Fleece in Ashton in Makerfield, 6th December, and
tonight at The Sandown in Wavertree. Of course it has been a while since I used
the transporter and thought it was about time I visited my roots once more and
couldn’t miss out on the opportunity of seeing Roadhog play in Liverpool, after all it doesn’t happen very often
and sadly it’s the last gig of the year for the band.
As with most local gigs the show of people was less than impressive
but despite this Roadhog did an
amazing first forty five minute set and all without a sound engineer and just
one sound check – this is literally no nonsense rock played at its very best by
four of the very best.
Graham
Kev
Kev, Mack & Graham
Graham and Neil
Most bands I know would kill for a forty five minute slot and the
rest wouldn’t have enough songs to fill a forty five minute slot – although Roadhog don’t play their own songs the
ones they do play are classics and enjoyed by the people who enjoyed the tracks
played by the masters first time round and still have the vinyl to prove it.
Roadhog didn’t just play forty five minutes either – add another hour and a
half to that set and you come to a staggering two hours and fifteen minutes of
pure unadulterated rock washed down with Graham’s wicked banter - half of which
unrepeatable to a none rock crowd I might add, but failure to have fun at one
of their gigs is an impossibility.
Kev
Kev and Neil
Solo imminent
Clearly suffering from Anorexia
Fast fingered Kev
Mr Grumpy
The stage wasn’t even a stage until the band made it one. The amount
of gear assembled left people stunned as to how it would all slot together in
such a small space, but these guys have the experience so it was nothing to
them.
They not only went without a sound engineer, but brought their own
PA and light show as well as bringing twenty five songs to life in their own
unusual manner and made each song their own.
Soulful
Kev - Hell knows what Graham is doing with that Mic?
Kev doing a tour of the venue
Roadhog is not a tribute band Roadhog
is a no nonsense rock band who deliver classic tracks with a twist of their
own and clearly enjoy what they do whenever they do it.
Last night was no exception. The crowd as small as it was became
engaged in the tracks and also gave thunderous applause at the end of each one –
the guys who hired the band clearly Floyd and Hendrix fans lapped up the tracks
of their choice and scrutinised each note from behind the bar – again enjoying
the set and who could blame them?
Neil the band’s bassist came in for a lot of stick last night but
played along superbly at the mercy of Graham, whilst Mack the band’s latest
addition on drums (who joined in September), sat at the back of the room and
ingeniously missed being the centre of attention of Graham’s quick wit. Kev
managed to grin his way through Graham’s attack when he tried to highlight the
fact Kev liked ‘Crack!’ highly amusing indeed! But what is a band without
banter? And banter with a twang of good
ole none Scouse Ashton in Makerfield style sounded even better!
One of the punters, a totally mad Aussie remarked Graham looked a
bit scary – but I soon put him right and said Graham is indeed a pussycat to
which Graham responded on stage ‘Pussycat? Meow’ the man mountain has spoken!
The tracks from the first set that stood out for me were ‘Sharp
Dressed Man’ ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ ‘Comfortably Numb’ and ‘Sweet Home
Alabama’ and as Graham the band’s towing inferno of hair put it “We are just
easing you into the first set, the second set will be much more in your face!”
and he wasn’t wrong!
With a short interlude – just enough time for the band to down a
pint and catch their breath the second set fired up with ‘Riverboat Song’ and
then into ‘Hot Blooded’ one of my all-time Foreigner tracks, (Yes I love
Foreigner (s) (Cue in house joke here!) but the surprise track Roadhog played was ‘Word up’ an
original by Cameo. (Cameo appeared on Top of the Pops back in 1986 with this
R&B/Funk track that caused quite a stir when the lead singer Larry Blackmon
wore a large wet look red codpiece) However Graham minus the codpiece put his
own slant on the proceedings whilst Kev’s guitar sounded anything but R&B
but an amazing track none the less. One of those classic moments that clearly
defined Roadhog as being a three
dimensional inspiration.
Also note- worthy here was the track ‘The Green Manilishi’ That was
originally written by Peter Green and recorded by Fleetwood Mac but rockers
know it to be an old Judas Priest track back from the late 70’s. The Priest’s version of course being a lot
heavier than the original which was a lot more spaced out However Roadhog’s rendition of ‘The Green
Manilishi’ was outstanding! (And a personal favourite of Kev’s – being a
staunch Priest fanatic) I promise I will not say another word about Priest
here!
‘Hell ain’t a bad place to be’ ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Lights Out’ were also
played superbly by Roadhog although
I was surprised they didn’t do their rendition of ‘War Pigs’ which I heard them
play a while back and their version was in my opinion much better than Sabbath’s
original with a lot of twists in it, and they didn’t do ‘Wishing Well’ either,
but as Kev said “We try and rotate the tracks as much as possible” – but I can’t
complain about the lack of memories Roadhog
brought to the forefront at The Sandown last night – it was truly a memorable
gig.
It would not have been right not
to have shouted for more and so the band went on to do more classic favourites
such as ‘Whisky in the Jar’ ‘Spirit in the Sky’ ‘Fox on the Run’ and finishing
with the superb ‘Born to be Wild’ all this with no sound tech, and no support
acts – just Roadhog at their very
best!
10/10
Set List:
Set 1
Sharp Dressed Man
Sunshine of your Love
Feeling Good
I just wanna make love to you
Another brick in the wall
Gimme Shelter
Comfortably Numb
Sweet Home Alabama
Battleship Chains
Tush
Fire
Set 2
Riverboat Song
Hot Blooded
Gimme Three Steps
Cat Scratch Fever
Word Up
The Green Manilishi
Hell ain’t a bad place to be
Paranoid
Lights Out
Encores
Whisky in the Jar
Spirit in the Sky
Fox on the Run
Born to be Wild
Members:
Kevin McGinn – Guitar/Vocals
Graham Lee – Vocals
Paul Mack – Drums
Neil Humphrey - Bass
