PARADISE ASYLUM – The Phoenix Rising EP

Paradise Asylum released their debut EP ‘The Storm Queen Cometh’ in 2013. The release was recorded on a meagre budget and vocalist Carla Warnes sang fairly flat throughout, but a couple of tracks demonstrated a can-do attitude that showed that even when they got it wrong, the band clearly loved playing together. Subsequent releases trod pretty much the same path.

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SALVATION JAYNE – Moves That Make The Record Skip EP

They’ve built a loyal following on the live circuit and have put in some hard yards at festivals. They can count ex-Clash drummer Nicky “Topper” Headon and sometime AC/DC tub-thumper Chris Slade among their fans. However, in the grand scheme of things, UK rockers Salvation Jayne aren’t so well known at the time of their EP release ‘Moves That Make The Record Skip’. This probably says something about the huge amount of music we now have at our disposal rather than the band’s actual talent, since had this EP been released back in the early 90s when The Black Crowes and Kiss of The Gypsy were making waves, you certainly would’ve heard Tommy Vance and Fluff Freeman talking about these guys on a Friday and Saturday night in radioland.

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REAL GONE GOES OUT: King’s X, Islington Assembly Hall, London 14/06/2017

The Islington Assembly Hall always feels like a venue of two moods. The stage and balcony areas have a feeling of old theatre about them, much like the Empire at Shepherd’s Bush and fitting for a Grade II listed building. In other respects, visiting other parts the venue feels like stepping into a parochial town hall, albeit a rather large one. It’s easy to imagine a large table set up on a weekday afternoon with a man banging a little gavel, making announcements about Mrs. Jones’s award winning marmalade before alerting the neighbourhood watch team to a potential catastrophe regarding a missing moggie. On this evening, that feeling isn’t quite as strong as when Snakecharmer took the Assembly Hall’s stage in 2013, and even less so as the house lights dim.

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