Friday March 10th 2006 - Alexanders Palace  

Friday 10th March saw the well-established and extremely professional Alexanders Palace take to the stage at Bellhouse. This band are probably the most established band to play in the area and attract hundreds of fans - its easy to see why!

I've seen Palace a few times now and each time the set rarely differs but to be fair the set is fantastic and played at a very high standard fronted by the powerful and instantly recognisable voice of Alexander Edwards. The first spot opened with Bon Jovi's hit 'It's My Life' followed by Toto's classic 'Hold The Line'. The atmosphere was overwhelming, the club packed with people stood round the edges, everyone singing along and generally having a great time... and so early in the night too!

Alex's unique voice is easily most suited to songs by Journey and the whole band brought the classic 'Dont Stop Believing' to a new level! Another Journey track followed from the Trial By Fire album - 'Message of Love' this song is fantastic and Palace really made a good job of it. Next up was Santana'a 'Shes Not There' followed by the Eagles all time favourite 'Hotel California'. These two songs saw more of the band taking active roles playing some fantastic solos on the guitar as well as good bass and keys work with great beats from the bands new drummer. Filling the seat of the amazing Danny Needham must have been a difficult thing to do but this guy sure is making a good job of it!

They ended the first set with Meat Loaf's 'Bat out of Hell' - I love seeing this played live especially the intro and outro. It takes real musical ability to pull it off and although tuning seemed to be slightly out, they did it perfectly. Although they weren't on for as long as normal bands, the whole of the first half was a no-nonsense professional performance.

The second set was just as good, opening with 'Summer of 69', 'Walk This Way' and Free's clubland classic 'Alright Now'. By now, Alex had the audience eating out of his hand - they were really getting into it and clearly everyone was having a great time. More tracks came from Robert Palmer and Bryan Adams before the audience singing kicked in mega for 'Born To Be Wild' and 'Livin On A Prayer' to end the last spot.

As always, the band were welcomed back on stage for an encore of U2's recent hit 'Vertigo'. A shorter than preferred encore but you know what they say about leaving people wanting more! The club was really buzzing from such a spectacular performance - predictable every time and yet they still have the ability to keep you gripped. Overall, a superb night from an extremely professional, no-nonsense band!

Carl Wragg (Editor Bellhouse Road Club website and Sheffield Agent for Rock of the North)