Hard at work on their second album, UK rockers Fahran have a bunch of confirmed live dates just over the horizon and going deep into the summer.
Alongside three appearances at the Isle of Man TT Races, there are opportunities to catch the band somewhere near you:
In terms of consistency Love/Hate kind of fizzled out after the release of the somewhat under-rated ‘Let’s Rumble’ in 1993. The band soldiered on for another six years (with varying line-ups, issuing another three records), but despite best efforts from those later years (and the band almost blowing Gilby Clarke off stage in London during a 2002 tour), for most people, Love/Hate will always be best-loved for the tunes on 1990’s ‘Blackout In The Red Room’ debut.
In 2012, session drummer JK Impera’s eponymously named band released ‘Legacy of Life’, a solid melodic rock offering also showcasing the talents of much-loved guitarist Tommy Denander and European vocalist Matti Alfonzetti (best known to most as the frontman of Myke Gray’s Jagged Edge in the early 90s). With a first class guitarist and a great singer (who rarely gets his due for having a voice that’s held up extremely well over the years), the project had the right ingredients to please many classic rock fans. While the songs were of a tried and tested formula, most of the material was strong – and Alfonzetti’s voice just gave the band an extra edge, often missed from so many other “second-tier” melodic rock acts.
Back in the late 80s/early 90s, White Lion released a couple of great albums in ‘Pride’ and ‘Mane Attraction’. By more modern standards, the production on ‘Pride’ is a tiny bit trebly (okay, maybe a lot trebly), but it had the songs to back up any technical shortcomings. A couple of ‘Mane Attraction’s songs were noticeably weaker – and they even padded out the disc with a re-recording of ‘Broken Heart’ (the original can be found on their 1987 release ‘Fight To Survive), but in many ways, it was a perfect swansong. Vocalist Mike Tramp’s follow up project Freak Of Nature attracted a solid fan base, but the more alternative leanings in the band’s sound turned off some more “traditional” rock fans, leading to decline in record sales. His later solo album ‘Capricorn’ was more than decent, but by this point Tramp’s sales figures were practically non-existent compared to former glories. In that respect, it’s almost understandable as to why by 2008 Frontiers Records would want Tramp to release another White Lion album.
Recently, the Gibraltarian hard rock band Breed77 had a major change in their ranks when long-serving vocalist Paul Isola stepped down from his duties as frontman. His replacement, Portuguese singer Rui Lopez has already appeared at a couple of dates, but now fans in the UK will be given the opportunity to see him again when the band take to the road for a full tour to end the year.