Old Fire Station, Bournemouth
Fashionably late as usual I got to the Old Fire Station at 7.15 and just caught the tail end of Voodoo Vegas’s set.
God only knows why they were on so early. Bournemouth’s premier rock and rollers had the small crowd clapping along to “King Without A Crown” and sadly that was all I saw. Always good live and as I haven’t seen them in a while I was looking forward to watching their whole set. They were on so early that guitarist Nick couldnít even make the gig due to work commitments.
I’m not sure who booked the “Skinny skulls” as second support to Toesland but their quirky geek rock couldn’t have been more out of place sandwiched between the Classic rock styling of Voodoo Vegas and Toseland. I did like the reggae Johnny Cash mash up though. But I, along with most of the crowd (apart from a few fans and friends/family) were just killing time, waiting for the headliners.
Superbike champion James Toseland has always been into music even before his racing days. After making friends with Little Angels singer/songwriter Toby Jepson, they got together to write a song and immediately hit it off and started a productive writing relationship.
As they kicked off their set it became pretty clear that it wasn’t just a band put together to satisfy an ego trip of someone who has been forced to abandon a sport he made his name in. This was someone who was pouring all his drive and passion into a new career and was determined to win, as is the case with most athletes. Hopping from Mic to keyboards and back again he got the audience involved and delivered a great show. Even when there were issues with the keyboards not working, he had cheerful jokey stage banter as he messed around with cables and got it to work. His band are top notch as well and donít just stand around letting him take centre stage, they were jumping and spinning about adding to the experience. This was a full on rock gig and Toseland is a band to keep an eye on in the future.
Highlights for me were: “Life Is Beautiful”, “Commin’ to Get Ya” and “Renegade”. Toesland are asking fans to pledge for their debut album and judging by the strength of the songs they played live is going to be killer. To pledge go to www.pledgemusic.com/toseland and play an important part in getting the music made.
Set List
Toseland
Gotta Be a Better Way
Burning the System
Singer in a Band
Emergency
Just No Way
Kingdoms
Life Is Beautiful
Comin’ to Get Ya
Good Eye Blind
Crash Landing
Encore
Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting (Elton John cover)
Renegade
Tie Your Mother Down (Queen cover)
Whole Lotta Rosie (AC/DC cover)
Videos
Band Links
http://www.toselandmusic.com
http://www.skinnyskulls.com
http://www.voodoovegas.com
Words and photos: Dan O’Gara.
