RUNNING ORDER:
CONTAGIOUS [ 12:40 - 1:10PM]
PUSH [1:30 - 2:30PM]
SEVEN WISHES [ 2:50 - 3:45PM]
DAMNED NATION [ 4:10 - 5:15PM]
DANNY DANZI [ 5:40 - 6:45PM]
24K [ 7:05 - 8:15PM]
SAVANNAH [ 8:40 - 9:50PM]
VAUGHN [ 10:15 - 11: 45PM]
Z Rock is an annual event based in Wigan,England. The gig
showcases some of the finest melodic rock and AOR bands
around today. After a five hour train, journey myself and
Rhiannon met our friend Nancy outside Maximes in Wigan
thirty minutes before the doors were due to open, the cue
at this time was not very long and there are mostly women
cueing up waiting to go in, dressed up in all sorts of
high heeled shoes, mini skirts etc... And thats a cool
thing, as normally an event such as this very rarely
pulls as many women in, it's only 11-30 and there must be
75 women cueing up, probably all eager to rip the shirt
off Danny Vaughn's back he, he.The weather today was very
very hot, and once inside the venue it got a bit
uncomfortable being far to warm.Once inside we met up
with a few old friends and a few new friends, so it's a
bif hello to Carl Noonan, Graham Hatton, Mike, Robert,
Elaine, the guys and girls from Ireland, Mike Newdeck,
Rob Evans and Mark Ashton who turned up with Bob Catley,
as well as other familiar faces.
Z -2000 fires off with
Contagious, a new UK based band featuring former TEN
keyboard player Ged Rylands and hot new vocalist Glenn.
Now Glenn (as he is simply known as) is a very powerful
singer, sporting blue jeans and a white vest the band
belted into the Dokken and Europe inspired "Take Me
Higher" and an excellent cover of UFO's "Lights
Out", but the set in general suffered because the
songs lacked identity, which could possibly be due to the
poor sound quality, another cracking song was
"Streets Cry Freedom", Glenn's vocals have a
distinctive Joey Tempest and Don Dokken style, but it's
early days for this band as they have only been together
a couple of months.
Denmark's PUSH, played eleven
songs, main man Marty Peeters sported a blue shirt, alien
sunglasses , a cowboy hat and reddish trousers, after
"On The Run", "Almost Pornographic"
and "Here's ToThe Magic" the crowd seemed to
loose interest in the bands White Lion tinted material,
the best song of Push's set was one of their earlier
songs "Soul On Fire" which was in the style of
Dangerous Toys and Every Mother's Nightmare. I stopped
Marty for a chat a little while later, and to be honest
the guy is just interested in himself and has a huge ego
problem, so because of this attitude and after all the
email chats and interview and reviews we did here at
Strutter I am unfortunately no longer very enthusiastic
about the band, which is a pitty as the rest of the bands
that played were all great down to earth people, Damned
Nation's Roger Jern and Magnus Jonsson came over to our
table and had a few beers with us, so did Danny Vaughn
and Michael Clayton, Mr.Vaughn has no ego what so ever
and is quite intelligent and fun to talk to, we talked
about the Flesh And Project mainly and other non musical
reacted subjects, such as a modeling role for Rhiannon
and Nancy on his next record, which left the girls very
shy and embarrassed.
I did chat briefly with the
drummer from Push and he was cool. I also had a quick
chat with Earle from Savannah, Earle is very passionate
about his music, he informs me that Savannah may be going
to Japan to play a handful of dates with Michael Sweet
formerly of Stryper, Michael is also producing the new
Savannah record.
Sweden's new heroes Seven Wishes were on next, they
walked onto the stage, these Swede's are massive dude,
I'm 6ft 2" so these guys must be almost seven feet
tall, they were dressed in gear that you'd have found
David Lee Roth wearing in the eighties. The band played a
fiery set of songs from their current self titled debut,
plus they included a super cover of Dokken's
"Unchain The Night", Seven Wishes were one of
the best bands of the day and a band to watch out for.
Later that day I chatted to the band outside, they
suddenly decided to take some pictures of myself and my
girlfriend with them, which was unusual, they were very
nice people and not a hint of the ego factor about them,
anyway look out for an interview soon with
these guys.
Fellow Swede's Damned Nation were
greated with a huge cheer, the band played cuts from
their new album "The Grand Design",including
"Hiding Away From The World",
"Fortuneteller", "Going Crazy",
"Stone Cold Woman" and "Hands Of
Time". The new songs are excellent, and we also got
to hear excellent renditions of "When The Truth
Becomes A Lie", "Calling Your Love Line",
a marvelous "Life Is A Mission" and many others
all of which gained an healthy cheer from the crowd, the
band were only let down by the sound quality which was
not their fault, otherwise they rocked big time!!
New Jersey's Danny Danzi was the
star of last years Z Rock, since then, the little guy has
created a huge buzz , when he came on, the crowd went
nuts as he tore into songs like "Dirty Mean And
Nasty", "Come To Me", and Danzo's key song
"Lost Without Your Love". Dan's guitar playing
is faultless and impressive, with a backing team of Steve
McKenna, Ged Ryland from Ten and Alan Culke from new Z
signings Arabia, the crowd simply sang along and chanted
cheers of enthusiasm at Danny. During "Pop Goes The
What" Danzo erupted into an Eddie Van Halen style
guitar jam, Alan Culke then teamed up with him for a very
amusing guitar duel. Danny is a great guy and a great
performer. I have come to the conclusion that Danzo is
one of the nicest musicans I have ever met.
Following Danny Danzi was
Canadian's 24K, this is the first UK performance for
highly respected singer/songwriter Phil Naro who was also
joined by Von Groove's guitar shredder Mladen. 24K were
very tight and songs like "Meeting This Way"
play like a mix of Whitesnake and Von Groove. Phil
himself is a superb frontman, possibly influenced by
Steven Tyler. He gave a 100% performance, but the songs
just didn't do him the justice. I get the feeling that
24K would be better playing in an open air festival than
a venue such as Maximes. Phil really does his best to get
the crowd going, he includes some of his older songs, but
the crowd seem to loose interest in the band, it's only
when 24K burst into Von Groove's "Once Is Not
Enough" that the crowd start to singalong and
support the band the more enthusiastically.
The reaction for Savannah as they walked onto the stage
was awesome, the place went nuts. Savannah played five
new songs which show the bands style maturing. Lead
singer Earle Lord is a classy frontman, he carries each
song with so much passion and energy and carries the
crowd with ease as songs from Savannah's debut album
drive the crowd mental, but it's the crowd fave "Two
Young Hearts" the ballad "Useless Alibi's"
and the delicate "Left Out In The Rain" that
come out tops. "Left Out In The Rain" open up
with an into tape of thunder and lighting which works
well as you can feel the whole sound rumbling through the
venue. To this day "Two Young Hearts" still
remains a classic of the modern genre of melodic rock
bands. A superb live band.
Finally it was time for the main
attraction, Vaughn, the ex- Tyketto boys kept the crowd
waiting for a little while and then Mr.Vaughn himself
appeared, the atmosphere was electric, it was as if the
nineties had never happened. Danny has always been able
to pull the women into his shows, and it's nice to see
loads of the gals here at Z Rock this year. Sporting a
colourful shirt and dark trousers, Danny is joined by
Michael Clayton, Jaime Scott and new band mates P.J.
Zitarosa, and Kyle Cummings. The band played twenty
tracks in all kicking off with "Bad Water" from
their new album "Soldiers And Sailors On
Riverside". Also from the new album we heard the
bass thumping "Shadowland",the title song
itself a funky Stevie Salas-ish "Stone Monkey"
the excellent "Is That All There Is",
"Gandy Dancer" and "Paradise Ain't
Home". This song is a live stunner with Danny
handling harmonica duties.
The crowd singalong like fools to every song and there
are several guys in the audience sporting inflatable
guitars which seems to amuse the band, various speeches
about the current rock climate are made and it really
felt as if everyone the venue unites as the band rip into
"Burning Down Inside", "Wings",
"Standing Alone", "Seasons" and
"Nothing But Love". For the encore we get a
suprise oldie in the shape of Waysted's "Heaven
Tonight", now of course the crowd goes shit crazy,
singing along like a rowdy football crowd, Danny hasn't
played this in years, finally before the lights go down
Vaughn end the set with their trump card and classic
"Forever Young" everybody again singsalong like
idiots and it's here that you realize that Z Rock 2000 is
one of the best gigs to hit the UK in the last five
years. A great day filled with the cream of tomorrows
stars, next years Z Rock has already been pencilled in
for May 6th 2001, headlining will be new signings Von
Groove with Prisoner and Dream Hunter also being
confirmed to star.
Z -2000 fires off with
Contagious, a new UK based band featuring former TEN
keyboard player Ged Rylands and hot new vocalist Glenn.
Now Glenn (as he is simply known as) is a very powerful
singer, sporting blue jeans and a white vest the band
belted into the Dokken and Europe inspired "Take Me
Higher" and an excellent cover of UFO's "Lights
Out", but the set in general suffered because the
songs lacked identity, which could possibly be due to the
poor sound quality, another cracking song was
"Streets Cry Freedom", Glenn's vocals have a
distinctive Joey Tempest and Don Dokken style, but it's
early days for this band as they have only been together
a couple of months.
Denmark's PUSH, played eleven
songs, main man Marty Peeters sported a blue shirt, alien
sunglasses , a cowboy hat and reddish trousers, after
"On The Run", "Almost Pornographic"
and "Here's ToThe Magic" the crowd seemed to
loose interest in the bands White Lion tinted material,
the best song of Push's set was one of their earlier
songs "Soul On Fire" which was in the style of
Dangerous Toys and Every Mother's Nightmare. I stopped
Marty for a chat a little while later, and to be honest
the guy is just interested in himself and has a huge ego
problem, so because of this attitude and after all the
email chats and interview and reviews we did here at
Strutter I am unfortunately no longer very enthusiastic
about the band, which is a pitty as the rest of the bands
that played were all great down to earth people, Damned
Nation's Roger Jern and Magnus Jonsson came over to our
table and had a few beers with us, so did Danny Vaughn
and Michael Clayton, Mr.Vaughn has no ego what so ever
and is quite intelligent and fun to talk to, we talked
about the Flesh And Project mainly and other non musical
reacted subjects, such as a modeling role for Rhiannon
and Nancy on his next record, which left the girls very
shy and embarrassed.
I did chat briefly with the
drummer from Push and he was cool. I also had a quick
chat with Earle from Savannah, Earle is very passionate
about his music, he informs me that Savannah may be going
to Japan to play a handful of dates with Michael Sweet
formerly of Stryper, Michael is also producing the new
Savannah record.
Fellow Swede's Damned Nation were
greated with a huge cheer, the band played cuts from
their new album "The Grand Design",including
"Hiding Away From The World",
"Fortuneteller", "Going Crazy",
"Stone Cold Woman" and "Hands Of
Time". The new songs are excellent, and we also got
to hear excellent renditions of "When The Truth
Becomes A Lie", "Calling Your Love Line",
a marvelous "Life Is A Mission" and many others
all of which gained an healthy cheer from the crowd, the
band were only let down by the sound quality which was
not their fault, otherwise they rocked big time!!
New Jersey's Danny Danzi was the
star of last years Z Rock, since then, the little guy has
created a huge buzz , when he came on, the crowd went
nuts as he tore into songs like "Dirty Mean And
Nasty", "Come To Me", and Danzo's key song
"Lost Without Your Love". Dan's guitar playing
is faultless and impressive, with a backing team of Steve
McKenna, Ged Ryland from Ten and Alan Culke from new Z
signings Arabia, the crowd simply sang along and chanted
cheers of enthusiasm at Danny. During "Pop Goes The
What" Danzo erupted into an Eddie Van Halen style
guitar jam, Alan Culke then teamed up with him for a very
amusing guitar duel. Danny is a great guy and a great
performer. I have come to the conclusion that Danzo is
one of the nicest musicans I have ever met.
Following Danny Danzi was
Canadian's 24K, this is the first UK performance for
highly respected singer/songwriter Phil Naro who was also
joined by Von Groove's guitar shredder Mladen. 24K were
very tight and songs like "Meeting This Way"
play like a mix of Whitesnake and Von Groove. Phil
himself is a superb frontman, possibly influenced by
Steven Tyler. He gave a 100% performance, but the songs
just didn't do him the justice. I get the feeling that
24K would be better playing in an open air festival than
a venue such as Maximes. Phil really does his best to get
the crowd going, he includes some of his older songs, but
the crowd seem to loose interest in the band, it's only
when 24K burst into Von Groove's "Once Is Not
Enough" that the crowd start to singalong and
support the band the more enthusiastically.
Finally it was time for the main
attraction, Vaughn, the ex- Tyketto boys kept the crowd
waiting for a little while and then Mr.Vaughn himself
appeared, the atmosphere was electric, it was as if the
nineties had never happened. Danny has always been able
to pull the women into his shows, and it's nice to see
loads of the gals here at Z Rock this year. Sporting a
colourful shirt and dark trousers, Danny is joined by
Michael Clayton, Jaime Scott and new band mates P.J.
Zitarosa, and Kyle Cummings. The band played twenty
tracks in all kicking off with "Bad Water" from
their new album "Soldiers And Sailors On
Riverside". Also from the new album we heard the
bass thumping "Shadowland",the title song
itself a funky Stevie Salas-ish "Stone Monkey"
the excellent "Is That All There Is",
"Gandy Dancer" and "Paradise Ain't
Home". This song is a live stunner with Danny
handling harmonica duties.