My Love of Music

I absolutely love music, I could listen to it all day every day. In fact I usually do as when it's not playing through a speaker of some sort it just carries on playing through my head.

I was brought up in a house that loved a real variety of music and I have pretty much taken that on board. With my sister it was The Beatles and Wings, my brother got me into everything from Bowie to Steve Harley to Pink Floyd. My first album was Out of the Blue by ELO which I bought through a 'club book' from the next door neighbour, and first single was Since You've Been Gone by Rainbow. I went from the NWOBHM to the heavier side of metal, to Thrash, Death and Black Metal all whilst still chasing technical but melodic tunes. I suppose all roads lead to Prog as it seems to cover everything, sometimes at the same time.

Take the last few gigs for instance, I went to the Sheffield Corporation, a fine venue for bands of all sizes to see. This was a Thrash gig with the 35th anniversary of the album 'Opressing the Masses' by Vio-Lence. Exhorder and Kuazar (Paraguay) supported

I then went to a splendid gig in Hull last week with the double prog header of Haze and Trilogy, bands who combine considerable musical talent with the ability to write a very listenable tune, yet have been generally overlooked by the wider public, possibly as their music contains no swearing, rapping or autotune.

A few days later I went back to the Corp to see a Death Metal set from Dominion of Ashes, Terminal Sun and Rannock. Dominion of Ashes are a fledgeling local band who came across very well live with a powerful performance. Terminal Sun have just come off the back of releasing an excellent debut full-length album 'All That Will Burn Is Already On Fire' after a couple of EPs and so have plenty of material to pick from. The band are really tight and go down well as always. Rannock I had never seen or heard of before just a week ago but having a listen to a few songs online prior to the gig left me really looking forward to seeing them. I was quite frankly amazed at the skill of each of the members, it's not unusual to see a 5-string bass guitar nowadays but the lead vocalist and lead guitarist both had Ibanez 8-string guitars which they played with incredible technical skill.

This just goes to show that music can always throw up some surprises, and I love the variety that is out there (hint: look beyond the charts!). Actually on my way up to the last gig above I was listening to Henge who will be supporting Gong (another excellent band who have been around for decades) in Sheffield in October. Henge came highly recommended and I can see why as they are a really entertaining listen, very different!