Fozzy or Sean’s Mum ?

First up onto the small stage is Liverpool based band Nineteenth Century. “Hello Nottingham” shouts lead singer Wane “Show us your hands” a roar goes up from the crowd and they go straight into their first track ‘New Vibration’

With a distinctive sound that is a cross between The Doors and The Rolling Stones this band really get the crowd warmed up as they move to their second song ‘Shake’ As they work their way through this upbeat track one member of the audience comments “Will the real Mick Jagger please stand up” and as Wane gyrates on stage it is hard not to agree with this comment, in the most flattering sense, as his body movements and style are very close to the early Stones.

“Fuckin’ nice to see you, are you ready for a party? Tonight’s going to be a great evening ‘cos everyone is a star” he says to the crowd before they go into ‘Star’ There is a real party atmosphere in the smallest of Rock City’s rooms ‘The Basement’, that extends out from the stage, right to the back of the room, with everyone bouncing up and down and joining in with the band. “Nottingham, lets see your hands in the air for the best Rock ‘n’ Roll night this side of the Atlantic” screams Wane before they deliver “Hell to L.A”

There is a lot of love from the crowd to this band and their own enthusiasm for what they are doing is clearly spreading around the room as they move through their set list. “Your fuckin’ ace Nottingham, what are you?” shouts Wane before the crowd scream back “Fuckin’ Ace” then he says “You shouldn’t swear, there are under 14’s in the room. Are there any under 14’s in the room? You win a prize from Forever Never, they are giving prizes out and if you are under 14 it’s your lucky night” there is lots of laughing from the crowd (who apparently are now ALL under 14) the laughing subsides and the band play their tribute song ‘Studio 54’ which is a very catchy track with some extreme guitar playing from Paul and Simon, great drums from Wils and excellent sounding vocals from Wane.

This is quickly followed by ‘Feel it, Heal it’ and ‘Ocean of kings’ which are both introduced with the same good humoured banter with the crowd before hand. “Is Rock ‘n’ Roll alive in Nottingham” asks Wane and the crowd answer him with a unanimous cheer of “Yeah” before he says “This track is called ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll is alive’” This is a really good closing track that is full of energy and great lyrics that are delivered absolutely note perfect.

“ Nottingham, that was our last song. Lets see your fuckin’ hands in the air for Nineteenth Century. Goodnight you have been fucking great Nottingham, Thanks. Forever Never are on next and if you want to make me very happy you can buy one of the Cd’s or Dvd’s we have for sale”

“Good evening Nottingham. We are Forever Never from Essex. Lets get nicely warmed up for Fozzy. This song is called Aporia” announces Renny as the band explode into their opening song. They are bouncing around the stage and head banging while almost screaming out the hard rocky lyrics to this excellent track. “Lets see some hands in the air” he announces and the crowd go wild, bouncing around and rocking along with them.

“How are you people feeling this evening? The last song was called Aporia, it’s the title track from our new album, which is out on 20th March, you can get it from HMV etc. This next song is called ‘New Arrival’ it’s currently on our Myspace page (www.myspace.com/forevernever)” he says before the band play the song. This is another thunderous track and there isn’t a still body in the room as the crowd are banging along and enjoying every moment of this outstanding performance.

“Thank you very much, that was good, saw some moshing there. Who’s ready for some more dancing?” the crowd reply to Renny and make it very clear that they definitely want more “When I say dancing I mean just hit the shit out of each other” he laughs “This song is called ‘Drowning’” The pit is going wild to this monster track and everyone is trying to get as close to the stage as they can.

“Ok, this next song is going to be our first video and it’s called ‘As I lie’ you can buy it out the front on our Ep, it’s got 3 songs on there” says an already hot and sweaty Renny. This track starts nice and soft before crashing into life and really shows the versatility of Renny’s vocals as they switch from the melodic to the screaming.

“On the first two nights of this tour this track went well, but I think tonight you guy’s can beat that, this track is called ‘0707’ and I need you to join in with two words, it’s our name backwards, so I need you to shout Never Forever” the crowd oblige and scream back the words to him “Peachy, so join in boys and girls” giggles Renny before delivering the track. The crowd sing their bits in the song and there is as much energy in the room as there is from the stage as they all shout “Never Forever” in all the right places. This tracks lyrics are strong and meaningful (as is the case with all of Forever Never’s songs) and when mixed with the masterful instrumentation from the band, this track is one that will make people sit up and think.

“Man, you kick Birmingham’s ass and Liverpool’s ass in one swoop” laughs Renny “This is our last song so help us out by buying our merch outside or on our Myspace or the website. This song is ‘Silent elegy to the living’. This track is slightly more mellow than the previous ones and is a perfect ending to a really exciting set from these rapidly rising ‘Melodic Metal’ stars.
“Thanks very much” says Renny “I think you had better start chanting for Fozzy now” The crowd chant ‘Fozzy’ back to him while punching their fists in the air and giving the ‘Devil Horns’ salute to this great band.

Forever Never may not be the headlining band tonight but they have given a true headliners performance for the crowd. They have a huge army of fans that is growing with every performance, and this is mainly due to the fact that they have a different approach to metal music than the ‘norm’ and the main difference is the fact that they are all top class musicians and Renny’s vocals are some of the best you will hear. This man can actually sing! Usually ‘Metal’ bands singers are just capable of screaming and shouting but Renny really does prove that he can deliver anything with a crystal clear tone, even his ‘screaming’ is in tune. Within the next 12 months everyone will know who they are and they will at long last be given the recognition they truly deserve.

The room is plunged into silent darkness and the chant of ‘Fozzy, Fozzy’ thunders around the room. The two outstanding support bands have done an excellent job of pumping the crowd up ready for tonight headliners. The band take to the stage and start to play suddenly the stage lights come on and Chris Jericho (aka Fozzy) runs onto the stage “Are you ready for Fozzy?” he screams and they hammer into the first track of the night. He is jumping up and down and swinging from the lighting rig almost kicking the crowd then dropping back down to stand on the monitor and singing his song.

The chant of Fozzy, Fozzy gets louder as he announces “This is a song called ‘Enemy’, let me see your hands in the air, come on sing ‘Enemy’, let me hear you sing.” Again he swings out over the crowd as he sings the song. Chris may not be the best singer in the world but he definitely loves his music and his fans and his performance gets a definite 10 out of 10 for entertainment value and crowd participation alone.

As the song finishes the chanting starts again until Chris says “Hello Nottingham we are Fozzy and we are glad to be back here with you crazy mother fuckers. We have been here in the UK five times in the past 12 months and Rock City was the first venue we played. Now get ready to go crazy tonight” with this they go into the next song and Chris is reaching out and touching the crowd and spraying water over them. He continues his swinging from the rig routine as he sings and the crowd are reaching up trying to grab hold of his feet, at this point the fans are almost coming over the top of the safety barrier just trying to touch their hero.

Chris and the band really were in top form and the songs and showmanship carried on along the same lines for a while until Chris announced “ It’s turning into a sweat box, it’s nasty and it’s dirty and that’s everything a Fozzy gig should be. In honour of you I wrote a song called Nottingham shreds the panties of Sean’s Mum” This lead to the crowd all chanting ‘Sean’s Mum, Sean’s Mum’ at the top of their voices as they sang a rather short and probably made up on the spot, song that lasted about 30 seconds. With the end of the song came the repeat of the ‘Sean’s Mum’ chant. Chris was laughing hysterically as he said “That’s the first Sean’s Mum chant we have ever had at a Fozzy gig, but not the first time Sean’s Mum name has been chanted in this city and not the first time by an unruly mob. Now lets do a real song, we do have some you know, it’s not just love songs about Sean’s Mum” With that they did another track that the crowd sang along with and clapped and cheered loudly at the finish.

“Does anyone not own that ?” Chris asks and there is a faint ‘No’ from the back of the room “ Well go and buy it, it’s been out for 4 fuckin’ years ! and the guy who said no sounded like a pirate” laughed Chris and with that the room erupted into a very loud ‘Pirate, Pirate’ chant and everyone was in hysterics both on and off stage. The banter continued along with the rare burst of music, until Chris introduced Mike Martin before the whole band left Mike alone on stage to play an absolutely blinding guitar solo that had the crowd mesmerised for nearly 10 minutes.

Chris and the band returned to the stage after their break and said “Holy shit” this lead to a mass ‘Holy shit’ chant and this was followed by a ‘Martin’ chant, a ‘The Duke’ chant and a ‘Sean’s Mum’ chant just for good measure. It seemed that everything Chris said was followed by a massive chant. In the next five minutes we had ‘Woo hoo’ ‘Hey, hey’ ‘Fozzy’ and ‘Y2J’.

Eventually the band were allowed to play another song but there was never a dull moment as they tried to finish their set. The whole band seemed to be loving every second of the banter with the crowd which included an episode where ‘The Duke’ split his trousers, this of course led to lots more chanting and even more rude comments.

The set list must have been cut very short due to the sheer amount of ‘crowd interaction’ time tonight and even thought they were on stage for well over an hour they only managed to play about 12 tracks. But anyone who has been to a Fozzy show before would tell you that’s it’s not just about the music, it’s about the love of the band and the bands love of their fans. It’s easy to see why they keep coming back for more and will do for as long as they want to continue doing the shows for the fans.

This really was an excellent night entertainment from three quite different bands, but each one brought their own special piece of magic to the show and each minute was a sheer pleasure to be part of.

Sean’s Mum will hold a very special place in the heart of the fans in Nottingham for ever more.