os adjunto una crónica de la gira de presentación de metropolis, realizada por un buen amigo mío. está en inglés, pero creo que vale mucho la pena . recordad que teneis el babelfish o algunos otros traductores de internet que os traducen páginas webs o textos enteros :
Metropolis Tour 2010
Sheffield O2 Academy – Thursday 20th
May 2010
It was great to
see the reformed FM at Firefest a few years ago but the promised new album
& tour never materialised and another Firefest headline appearance ensued.
The new album “Metropolis” arrived a couple of months ago and was a great
return to form by one of the UK’s premier AOR
bands.
So to the tour and
the opening night in Sheffield. Support came from local Sheffield band Psi Phi, who
play a blend of Prog Funk Fusion & AOR, and the reformed Airrace.
I first saw
Airrace 26 years ago when they supported Def Leppard and then not again until
last year’s Firefest. Since then I have caught them a further couple of times
and they just seem to get better with every performance. Like the majority of
groups that have reformed from the eighties, they seem to be having a real
blast. The majority of tonight’s set was taken from their brilliant debut album
“Shaft Of Light” first released back in 1984. “Promise To Call”, Do You Want My
Love Again”, “Open Your Eyes”, personal favourite, “First One Over The Line”
and set closer, the awesome “Brief Encounter”. Two new tracks were also played
that are due to appear on a new album later this year which judging by these
two should be pretty good. Lead singer Keith Murrell still has a brilliant
voice and with his, now, short hair bares a passing resemblance to Top Gear
presenter Richard Hammond!
After a few
initial technical hitches the FM hit the stage to rapturous applause and
launched into their set with “Wildside”. Any nerves that the band might have
had having been away for so long would have been dismissed by the audience
reaction to the classic “Face To Face” sung by the 300+ crowd. Another track
from one of the greatest AOR albums “Indiscreet” followed in the form of “That
Girl”. The sound for a small venue was near to perfect and for once not too
loud.
It was hard to
tell who was enjoying themselves more, the band or the crowd as more classics
followed: “Don’t Stop”, “Only The Strong Survive”, “Blood & Gasoline”.
Three new tracks
followed from the excellent “Metropolis” album: “Hollow”, “Over You” & “Flamingo Road”. These songs
fitted in perfectly with the old classics. Steve commented on the fact that
“Hollow” had even been getting airplay on Radio Two courtesy of Ken Bruce!
The crowd were
kept in full voice with “All Or Nothing”, “Closer To Heaven”, “Burning My Heart
Down” & “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”. At the start of the latter
someone shouted to Steve, “Aretha!” to which he replied, “I wish!” To be honest
that was the highlight of that song for me and I certainly would not have
missed it had it been excluded from the set.
The band left the
stage for a few minutes to return to more adulation. New guitarist, Jim Kirkpatrick,
played the solo “Metropolis” before the band played the awesome “Frozen Heart”
arguably the song of the evening. A pumping version of “American Girls” was
followed by set closer “Bad Luck”.
A triumphant
return by the AOR maestros and a great way to start their tour. Personally, it
could only have been better if they had replaced “I Heard It On The Grapevine”
with my favourite FM track “Dangerous”.
Metropolis Tour 2010
Sheffield O2 Academy – Thursday 20th
May 2010
It was great to
see the reformed FM at Firefest a few years ago but the promised new album
& tour never materialised and another Firefest headline appearance ensued.
The new album “Metropolis” arrived a couple of months ago and was a great
return to form by one of the UK’s premier AOR
bands.
So to the tour and
the opening night in Sheffield. Support came from local Sheffield band Psi Phi, who
play a blend of Prog Funk Fusion & AOR, and the reformed Airrace.
I first saw
Airrace 26 years ago when they supported Def Leppard and then not again until
last year’s Firefest. Since then I have caught them a further couple of times
and they just seem to get better with every performance. Like the majority of
groups that have reformed from the eighties, they seem to be having a real
blast. The majority of tonight’s set was taken from their brilliant debut album
“Shaft Of Light” first released back in 1984. “Promise To Call”, Do You Want My
Love Again”, “Open Your Eyes”, personal favourite, “First One Over The Line”
and set closer, the awesome “Brief Encounter”. Two new tracks were also played
that are due to appear on a new album later this year which judging by these
two should be pretty good. Lead singer Keith Murrell still has a brilliant
voice and with his, now, short hair bares a passing resemblance to Top Gear
presenter Richard Hammond!
After a few
initial technical hitches the FM hit the stage to rapturous applause and
launched into their set with “Wildside”. Any nerves that the band might have
had having been away for so long would have been dismissed by the audience
reaction to the classic “Face To Face” sung by the 300+ crowd. Another track
from one of the greatest AOR albums “Indiscreet” followed in the form of “That
Girl”. The sound for a small venue was near to perfect and for once not too
loud.
It was hard to
tell who was enjoying themselves more, the band or the crowd as more classics
followed: “Don’t Stop”, “Only The Strong Survive”, “Blood & Gasoline”.
Three new tracks
followed from the excellent “Metropolis” album: “Hollow”, “Over You” & “Flamingo Road”. These songs
fitted in perfectly with the old classics. Steve commented on the fact that
“Hollow” had even been getting airplay on Radio Two courtesy of Ken Bruce!
The crowd were
kept in full voice with “All Or Nothing”, “Closer To Heaven”, “Burning My Heart
Down” & “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”. At the start of the latter
someone shouted to Steve, “Aretha!” to which he replied, “I wish!” To be honest
that was the highlight of that song for me and I certainly would not have
missed it had it been excluded from the set.
The band left the
stage for a few minutes to return to more adulation. New guitarist, Jim Kirkpatrick,
played the solo “Metropolis” before the band played the awesome “Frozen Heart”
arguably the song of the evening. A pumping version of “American Girls” was
followed by set closer “Bad Luck”.
A triumphant
return by the AOR maestros and a great way to start their tour. Personally, it
could only have been better if they had replaced “I Heard It On The Grapevine”
with my favourite FM track “Dangerous”.
| Metropolis tour 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Wildside | ||||||||||||
| Face To Face | ||||||||||||
| That Girl | ||||||||||||
| Don't Stop | ||||||||||||
| Only The Strong Survive | ||||||||||||
| Blood & Gasoline | ||||||||||||
| Hollow | ||||||||||||
| Over You | ||||||||||||
| Flamingo Road | ||||||||||||
| All Or Nothing | ||||||||||||
| Closer To Heaven | ||||||||||||
| Burning My Heart Down | ||||||||||||
| I Heard It Through The Grapevine | ||||||||||||
| Encore:- | ||||||||||||
| Metropolis | ||||||||||||
| Frozen Heart | ||||||||||||
| American Girls | ||||||||||||
| Bad Luck | ||||||||||||
| Line up:- | ||||||||||||
| Rating: | Steve Overland - Vocals, Guitar | |||||||||||
| Mel Goldsworthy - Bass, Backing vocals | ||||||||||||
| Sound: | 9,5 | Pete Jupp - Drums, Backing Vocals | ||||||||||
| Performance: | 10 | Jem Davis - Keyboard | ||||||||||
| Stage-Set | 7,5 | Jim Kirkpatrick - Guitars, Backing Vocals | ||||||||||
| Set-List: | 9 | |||||||||||
| Audience Reaction: | 10 | |||||||||||
| Personal Enjoyment: | 10 | |||||||||||
| Overall: | 93% | Support: Airrace / PsiPhi | ||||||||||