Meltdown and Metalworks Rock the Polish

The Polish Club in Pogmoor, Barnsley rocked to the sounds of two proper rock bands on Saturday the 14th April. A twin pronged assault on the senses saw two of the North's best bands perform on the same bill...and boy did they perform!

We arrived slightly late, much to my own disappointment as Meltdown were performing their incredibly good set  and they had already played Bad to the Bone, a personal favourite of mine and a song they play so well, they just blow me away ! My own fault that I missed it. No matter, as we went to the bar, the lads were back on full throttle finishing their Thin Lizzy interlude and into Whitesnake's Crying in the Rain, a song they breezed through with Liam's vocals doing a great job.

As I looked around the bar there were so many friendly faces appreciating the band, I found myself just a tiny bit giddy! A fine rendition of Sweet Child O Mine rang around the room to please the packed Polish Club before the band blew my sense of probability by completely mastering the legendary Freebird. There's not many bands who can play this well but Meltdown totally nailed it. There's only Mr Chief, Aynt Skynyrd, and Vamp who does this song justice but Meltdown did the business on Saturday night...oh yes!

How do you follow that? Easy...you play Comfortably Numb! The first solo by Carl Wragg was superb with Carl riding his emotions through his fretting fingers.....beautiful, then emerging superstar Jack Rowe took us out (of our minds) with a fantastic solo which included some skilful sweeping of the fretboard as well as the normal emotion packed notes which make this song so wonderful. The band were excellent and I should mention Andy on the drums for his craftsmanship, what a great performance!

After a very short interlude where I had the pleasure of meeting many of our friends, a contingent from Mr Chief, as Marcus was on sound engineering duties and to great effect, Julie Chief of course, Lynne from Barnsley Ents, and Diane Parkin, web blog editor and rock fan. Good friends indeed.

Without any delay it was the turn of the awesome....and I mean awesome , Metalworks, one of the North's most powerful real rock bands. There's no pop inclusions with this band, they simply rock!

With Marcus of Mr Chief back on the desk and a recorded intro, the band exploded on to the stage through Inside and The Chain (Fleetwood Mac) barely taking a breath and into a great version of Paranoid which began the heavy period of the set. Chris and Mick played guitars so well together on this classic Sabbath offering, Chris's solo taking us through the pentatonic scales on his twin humbuckered Fender. Gary is the ultimate frontman with effortless vocals and an envied pose, so natural, so rock, so bloody good as well! He's great!

I said this was the start of the heavy stuff and the band launched into Metallica's Master of Puppets with the rhythm section working so well together, Gary's vocals again in complete control, and the heavy metal riffing from Chris and Mick. The band went straight into the Diamondhead via Metallica song Am I Evil which had one or two of us chanting "yes I am!". I saw Diamondhead do this live many years ago and Metalworks captured the spirit of the song so well and delivered it in the same way....powerfully!

The band lightened up to play Word Up, a favourite of mine, with Gary having just the right tone once again, he's so versatile! Lighter still and not one of my fave's was Teenage Kicks which seemed slightly out of place to me, but not to anyone else. Again I couldn't fault the delivery which was note perfect and to be honest much superior to the Undertones original.

Cheese rock followed in the shape of Feel Like Making Love....I love cheese rock so I was well impressed with Gary giving the vocals a slightly more raw but pleasing edge to Paul Rodgers Bad Company version. The band played this really well and Chris S put a very nice solo into the song.

Gary looks like Robert Plant with his long flowing locks and his mannerisms so his rendition of Rock'n'Roll went down really well and the band did the song a lot of justice, with superstar percussionist Chris Reynolds doing the Bonham bit. Chris is a very powerful drummer. (In fact at the RotN Convention Chris totally annihilated a drum mic!)

I'd heard this song a million times but Enter Sandman always goes down well with the crowd and Metalworks rendition was excellent  as usual. As the dying tones went down the sound of an air raid siren heralded the beginning of the Black Sabbath anthem, War Pigs! With the chanting of the crowd along with Gary's lead the band went into a fabulously heavy rock interlude, illustrating all that is good about Black Sabbath. What a great song, brilliantly executed by this fabulous band.

The familiar chords of The Scorpions' Rock You Like a Hurricane struck up and I love The Scorpions, one of my favourite bands. This band rocked through the song with pace and style, so pleasing for a Scorps fan! Gary's versatility came through with the next song. Bon Scott mode and Gary was away again with Highway to Hell, another superb rendition powerfully delivered to the Polish Club fans. What next though?

Well here we go again with Never Again, We All Die Young, and a very welcome inclusion of Velvet Revolver's Slither, perfectly played and with a great riff to lead us into the wonderful Ronnie James Dio/Black Sabbath classic, Heaven and Hell.This is such a good song with great backing vocals from Chris R, a highlight of the already superb set. The applause hardly died down when the band launched into Billy Idol's Rebel Yell, a strange inclusion, but a good inclusion. Again with Chris R's backing vox and I think Mick's too, this was the penultimate song of an incredible nights rocking entertainment!

The crowd asked for more ...and they got it in the shape of an encore of what else but....Whole Lotta Rosie! Always a favourite, Metalworks put a gilt edge on the song then retired from the stage to huge applause and cheers, so well deserved. What a great band.

Tonight was one of those memorable nights with friends, enjoying two great bands in a friendly underated and largely undiscovered venue. It's a venue that needs supporting more, like many in our area but run by a great team of enthusiasts. Long may this venue prosper and continue to organise fantastic mini festivals like this one.