For someone who spends most of his time writing reviews on here berating the fact that more people should get off their arses and support local bands/promoters, to turn around and say he'd wished he stayed home tonight I guess smacks a bit of hypocrisy, but then tonight was not your typical everyday type of gig. Even on the drive up to the venue I still couldn't quite believe that one of my favourite bands from the Eighties were playing a small town in Wales famous only for its long demolished viaduct that once featured in the Gregory Peck/Sophia Loren film 'Arabesque'.

To get "L.A. Guns", (whichever version) playing at a local bikers pub is certainly kudos to the venue and their promotion team.  The tickets also being very reasonably priced, meant that this show was sold out well in advance, but it also meant that once inside the venue tonight it resembled a fricking sauna and to get even a half decent view of the stage you had no option but to go on the Patriot Inn weight loss programme and sweat like a mutha stage front and centre, and that was BEFORE the first band had even played a note.

Never one to let a hot room put me off my hot rocking though I moved to a small side room for a few cooler moments to where the band merchandise was being sold, only to bump into the one and only Alex Kane who as I found out, was back in the UK playing guitar in tonight's opening band Venrez.  Wow...now that was an unexpected surprise, so I quickly returned to the main room gathered the troops and prepared for some of Killer Kane's usually caustic powerpop.... only to witness one of the worst band's I've seen this year, nah scrub that one of the worst band's I've ever seen, period!!! OK I've since come to appreciate that the band's mildly psychedelic glam trip might not be everyone's cup of tea, but tonight singer Venrez's laconic sub Axl drawl was enough to send even a die hard fan running to the hills (and there are plenty of them around here I can tell you).  Maybe it was jet lag maybe it was the drugs (Doug) but I simply expected more from musicians of this calibre...Next!

Just back from yet another successful trip Stateside and a set at this year's Rocklahoma Festival, Flamenco Rock 'n' Roll specialists Gyspy Pistoleros are a band I've been keen to catch live for a while now.  Mainly because many people have told me that this is where they are truly at their best, and as the Pistoleros studio outputs have always left me wondering just exactly what it is they are looking to do musically, I was hoping that this was finally going to be my chance to bite the bullet and accept the Pistol boys into my life. 

Kicking things off with a spaghetti western intro tape, 'Hello We're L.A Guns...Phil Lewis' version" wasn't perhaps the smartest comment this year from singer Lee Pistolero, as the guys quickly fandangoed their way into 'Shotgun Kiss Is Ay Que Dolor' and the crowd was soon moving, with even some of the sternest critics of the band muttering "fair play, I kind of get this now".  Sadly I still didn't get it and as one hispanic song blended into another it took the band's overblown cover of 'Living La Vida Loca' to once again get me smiling, even though Puss and Donkey's version is still much better if you ask me.  Not that this effected the band's impact on the Patriot faithful mind you, they loved every minute of it as guitarist Iggie Pistolero soon found out finishing the band's set from the dancefloor.  All in all I'd say Gyspy Pistoleros made a fair few new friends here tonight, meanwhile in the H Bombz camp el jurado está todavía fuera..

And so my friends we come to the part of the show that probably 99.9% of us were here to witness tonight, that of course being Tracii Guns' version of L.A Guns featuring the ever awesome Jizzy Pearl on vocals.   You might recall that I caught up with the band at last year's Hard Rock Hell Festival and there I was pondering the question that due to visible onstage friction between certain band members if that particular line up of the band would actually last? Well, tonight my Uber Rockin' amigos, we welcomed two new band members to the L.A Guns fold, with Doni Gray (yup that's ex Burning Tree - Doni Gray) and Jeremy Guns on drums and bass respectively, so I guess that answers my previous question doesn't it?  That's not that I could actually see either of them mind you because by the time the band took to the stage via a relaxed jam of Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love' all I could really make out from my vantage point was Jizzy Pearl's head bobbing in and out of the wall of human flesh that surrounded the stage.  In fact that well-worn comparison to Bryan Yuzna's 'Society' never seemed more applicable than here tonight.

Set wise the ever present 'Electric Gypsy' and 'Never Enough' were delivered with suitable aplomb along with the odd track from the band's 1999 Jizzy fronted album 'Shrinking Violets'.  The trouble was I starting to have a real feeling of déjà vu, as I'd seen this all before back in December, and you see without Phil Lewis this is simply not L.A Guns in my eyes.  So never mind how excellent a replacement Jizzy is, the simple fact is without Phil, Tracii has a huge hole to plug.  With that in mind, coupled with the intense heat and the fact I couldn't really see anything meant I reluctantly ended up leaving way before the end tonight, and hence the ironic quality of my opening comment should now be apparent to one and all.

On leaving though I did witness members of a certain support band in "deep discussions" with some of L.A Guns crew, something that would later see said support band ousted from the tour after just one night....Hmm interesting.

So whilst this was a night to remember for very many here tonight (and a night the venue will hopefully have many more of in the future), this was one to be instantly forgotten by yours truly for oh so many reasons I don't really think I need to elaborate on here.  I just have to accept the fact that whilst some people will still like this version of L.A Guns they are simply no longer that band of Hollywood Vampires I once loved.