For a quarter of a century, Revelation Records have released a string of fantastic punk/hardcore records. The label was the first home to hardcore legends Sick Of It All, and throughout the late eighties and nineties released unmissable records by Youth of Today, Sense Field, Orange 9mm, Into Another and far more besides.
Between June 7th-10th at The Glasshouse in Pomona, California, four gigs were staged to mark their anniversary, featuring key bands associated with the label’s past and present. Sets were played by Gameface and the ever-reliable Sick Of It All, with three of the four shows headlined by the reformed Gorilla Buscuits, and the fourth headed by the reformed Youth Of Today.
While the shows featured some great punk/hardcore talents, there was also a surprise in store. One of the best cult bands in Revelation’s history, Quicksand, reunited for a one-off performance on June 10th. A side-project headed by Walter Shreifiels, their 1993 full-length debut is a genre classic.
Below, you can view quality fan filmed footage of the Quicksand reunion (June 10th), Gameface (June 7th) the June 6th set by Into Another and Gorilla Biscuits (June 8th). Also provided are links to some of the great moments from the Revelation catalogue.
Whether long or short, Def Leppard’s live sets are often spot on. Their last London show in 2011 was no exception, as armed only with a video screen, great songs and no gimmicks, the Leps had the near impossible task of following Motley Crue’s larger than life show, which came complete with pyros, a revolving drum kit and a truck-load of attitude.
For those at that particular show, it seemed the attitude which fuelled the Motley Crue set was not just confined to the the stage. From REAL GONE’s position, we’d witnessed a drunk man making a nuisance of himself throughout the Crue set, which actually led to another audience member grabbing him around the throat and then punching him square in the face, leading to bloodloss! The Def Leppard fans were, in contrast, as genial as the band themselves.
On Wednesday June 6th, 2012, Def Leppard took a step back from the large venues and played a short set in front of an intimate crowd at Hollywood’s House of Blues. The seven song, 25 minute set was followed with a half-hour Q&A session, which can also be seen below.
As a bonus, the bottom embedded link contains 90 minutes from Def Leppard’s huge homecoming show at Don Valley Stadium, Sheffield, 1992.
Read a review of Def Leppard’s often overlooked debut ‘On Through The Night’ here.
Although overlooked by millions, Robert Lawrence Welch Jr had relatively a lengthy musical career. He came to relative prominence as a member of Fleetwood Mac in during the first half of the 1970s. In 2012, his life came to an end after he committed suicide. He was discovered with a gunshot wound to the chest.
Welch’s talent and invaluable contribution to a string of Fleetwood Mac discs released between the “wilderness years” of 1971-74 should not be ignored. While those albums are rarely seen as classics, in tunes like ‘Sentimental Lady’ and ‘Hypnotized’ he proved a great songwriter of adult pop, while other material like ‘Bermuda Triangle’ showcased a darker side to his work. Across five albums (none of which received at UK release in the 70s), Welch’s stamp on the Fleetwood Mac sound is pivotal, moving the band away from the blues and further towards the AM radio adult pop with which they would conquer the world. On his last work with the band, ‘Heroes Are Hard To Find’, Welch was the sole guitarist and chief songwriter, penning eight of the album’s eleven cuts.
After moving on from Fleetwood Mac in 1975, Welch headed a short-lived power trio named Paris, which saw him working alongside ex-Jethro Tull bassist Glen Cornick and ex-Nazz drummer Thom Mooney. Closer to hard rock than anything Welch committed to plastic previously, their quasi-angry arrangements were perhaps a knee-jerk to Welch’s time with the Mac; a pair of albums released in 1976 sold poorly.
Kicking off a solo career in 1977, Welch returned to familiar musical territory with ‘French Kiss’, a well-received collection of radio friendly tunes which owed a great deal to Welch’s time in Fleetwood Mac. The album yielded a couple of relatively successful singles in the title cut and a re-recorded ‘Sentimental Lady’ (the latter featuring Mick Fleetwood, Christine and John McVie). The album was a big hit in the US, reaching #12 on the Billboard Chart. While Welch never achieved such success again, his solo career continued, and between 1978 and 1983 he released another five studio albums. At this time Welch’s career was hampered by drug problems, but after getting clean he chose to work as a songwriter, only returning to recording in 1999. His first work after the hiatus was an experimental jazz release. Other releases included two volumes of re-recorded solo and Fleetwood Mac material.
Bob Welch was survived by his wife of twenty-seven years and leaves behind a legacy of work still awaiting discovery by many.
By the middle of 2012, Soundgarden fans had much to celebrate. Not only had the reformed band played a few festival shows and proved they sounded as good as ever, but there was also a new album on the horizon. Although nearing the end of the previous year Chris Cornell had suggested that the new album would appear in the spring, by June 2012 no release date had been set.
Fans had, however, already been given a taste of what to expect with the new single and video for ‘Live To Rise’ from the ‘Avengers Assemble’ soundtrack and hopes were set high. Strange, then, that for their seventy minute appearance at Germany’s Rock Am Ring Festival, the band chose not to play the track or, indeed, any of their upcoming material.
While it could be argued their Rock Am Ring set is a little unbalanced in places (let’s be honest, ‘Down On The Upside’ is hugely under represented and ‘Beyond The Wheel’ isn’t really an appropriate finishing statement!), the thirteen song set explores back catalogue in a more than appropriate manner, even finding time for a couple of earlier relative obscurities for the hardcore fan.
Below, you can watch the complete set, professionally shot for a German broadcast. Some consolation for those outside Germany and for those Germans who were not present on the night.
As the centre piece for their 2012 festival shows, metal titans Metallica have chosen to play their multi-million selling 1991 self-titled release in it’s entirity. The fact that ‘the black album’ is now twenty-one years old is enough to make many self-respecting rock fan feel the pangs of age, but the album itself has weathered the years rather well.
Such a revisitation of the past is surely interesting for Metallica too. The album features material which has been absent from the live sets for some time, or in some cases – ‘The Struggle Within’ and ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ – has never been played live before.
With a selection of successful ‘black album’ shows already under their belts, on June 2nd 2012, Metallica took the stage in Germany at the Rock Am Ring Festival for another tour-de-force two hour set.
The complete performance can be seen below. As a bonus, we’ve also included an embedded link to Metallica‘s headline slot at Rock Am Ring in 2008. Enjoy!
