Old Fire Station, Bournemouth
The New Wave of Classic Rock scene in the UK is positively blossoming, with a plethora of great bands creating a huge following of adoring fans. Bands Like Those Damn Crows and Massive Wagons are leading the charge, however, there are many bands kicking at their heels for places on the next level. Two such bands are tonight’s offering at the Old Fire Station in Bournemouth. Headliners, West Midlanders Stone Broken are three quarters of the way through their “Come Closer” tour in support of their most recent album “Revelations”. The band have had a couple of shows in the area before, they played the Teddy Rocks Festival in May 2019 and supported the Black Star Riders at the O2 Academy in October 2019. Tonight the band arrive in Bournemouth and the place is packed with only a handful of tickets available on the door for the spontaneous punters.
Before the headliners, we have the popular Welsh band Scarlet Rebels, who are no strangers to much of the audience as over the last couple of years the band have been very proactive with the release of their two albums and a handful of gigs here on the South Coast. They feature Wayne Doyle (Lead Vocals/Guitar), Chris Jones (Lead Guitar), Gary Doyle (Drums) and Wayne Esmonde (Bass). Kicking off “I’m Alive” the band do their best to warm up this rather sluggish Sunday night crowd. Slowly but surely they start to reel people in with their twin guitar melodic sound and their commendable efforts are soon rewarded by the audience’s reaction. Chris in his red snakeskin boots shows off notable skills with a wondrous six-string display and animated drummer Gary puts in an energetic performance, ably complimented by Wayne with some impressive bass lines.
Frontman Wayne coerces the crowd with a series of fun instructions to get everybody warmed up and involved, with no one in the place exempt from clapping along unless you are holding two drinks. The band’s creative abilities are clearly their strength and they have some great rebel rousing tunes that have the ability to uplift all who hear them. An anthem song for these modern tough times “These Days” has some hard-hitting, relatable lyrics and the uplifting “Save Me” gets everyone in the place singing along with the infectious chorus. These four guys have great chemistry together and have shown themselves to really be contenders to step up to the next level, only time will tell.
After a quick and efficient changeover, Stone Broken takes to the stage and gets a really warm welcome from the Bournemouth crowd. With Rich Moss (Guitar/Lead Vocals), Chris Davis (Lead Guitar), Robyn Haycock (Drums/Vocals) and Kieron Conroy (Bass) they kick off with the album title track “Revelation”. The sound in this place is not always the best; however tonight it is spot on and the mix of the two guitars, rhythms and vocals is perfect – much respect to the soundman for getting it just right.
The band all seem genuinely stunned by the great audience reaction and you cannot help but warm to them with their modesty, there are no egos here. They have an armoury of great tunes from all of their albums including “Stay the Night”, “Heartbeat Away” and the new track “Black Sunrise”. In the later track, Rich confessed to making a rare mistake on the lyrics and openly apologised.
It is a great pleasure to stand and watch these guys in action, especially Chris’s exquisite guitar skills and the always-smiling Robin’s quality drumming. The highlight of the evening is Rich’s acoustic solo version of the beautiful song “Wait for You”, a track that everybody in the room knows too well. The emotive lyrics are sung willingly loud and proudly by the crowd, making for a really memorable moment that each person can take home and cherish. This is followed by a couple of lesser-known reworked acoustic songs and Robin joins the band at the front of the stage with some electronic drum pads and adds some nice vocal harmonies to the tracks.
Their Rock Radio play-listed new song “Stronger” gets a welcome airing displaying the band’s ongoing creativity, that their label as one of Britain’s fastest rising Rock entities is showing fruition. For the final number “Not Your Enemy” Rich hands his guitar to a roadie and shows a different side to his performance. This frees him up to provide some more intimate interaction with the audience and some really impressive vocal delivery. Maybe this could be the way forward for a few more numbers to add a further dimension to the shows. This spells the end to what has been a terrific evening full of many highlights and the crowd loudly show their appreciation as the band takes their bows.
Set Lists
Stone Broken
Revelation
Stay All Night
Heartbeat Away
Black Sunrise
Let Me Go
Save Tomorrow
This Revival
Over The LIne
Wait For You
Stronger
Worth Fighting For
The Devil You Know
Not Your Enemy
Scarlet Rebels
I’m Alive
Take You Home
You Take My Breath Away
Let Your Love Go
These Days
Save Me
Let Me In
Heal
Videos
Links
http://www.stonebroken.com
https://www.scarletrebels.com
Words & Media by David Chinery
Photographs by Lynn Frances photography.
