Friday night we took
ourselves to The Pemberton Arms, Cold Hesledon, for our very
first visit to what can be described as an excellent venue for live
music, courtesy of an invitation from Andy and Paula who,
where credits due have put on some awesome gigs in the past for this
pub and as Paula said ‘we love live music and a good night out’
WitchKraft were tonight’s guests to
play in a very spacious setting, Val has seen these lads many times
before over several years with numerous line up changes and tonight was
no exception to yet another line up change.
The band consists of four
members Andy vocals (ex Full Circle) and the newest
member of the band and also his first visit to The Pemberton Arms.
His vocal talent shone through some difficult songs together with his
pulsating energy making an entertaining front man, very much like ex
front man Gordy from way back when. Lloyd (drums) and
also son of bassist Garry, an old head on young shoulders, commanding a
solid powerful back line beat, with an angelic face but plays like the
devil possessed, Garry (Bass) the wizard of the pack, his
tight line bass playing gives a rocking rhythm. Mal (Lead
Guitar) This Voodoo Doctor makes you spellbound with his magical power
of guitar seduction and facial expressions, he plays his guitar with
all consuming Ritchie Blackmore passion, hypnotising the audience into
watching him all night long. We must say he is without doubt one of the
very best lead guitarist on the North East live music circuit.
The set consists of the
best of the best of classic rock, from AC/DC ‘High Voltage’ ‘Whole
Lotta Rosie’ this bands influence definitely comes from Deep
Purple, tracks such as ‘Highway To Hell’ ‘Woman
From Tokyo’ ‘Strange Kind Of Woman’ ‘Into The Fire’ (this had one
of the regulars from Murton rocking like a volcano – keep on rockin
mate!!!) Nice to see the punters
really enjoying themselves, other tracks from Coverdale/Blackmore ‘Mistreated’
makes the hairs on our necks stand to attention, Free’s ‘Fire and
Water’ and of course Andy just had to dedicate one for Val
‘Mr Big’ but what made the night complete for us was WitchKraft’s
version of Deep Purple’s ‘Black Night’ which draws you to
the potency of Mal’s excellent guitar playing and a true crowd
favourite that had everyone up on the floor
The magic wand of WitchKraft
certainly put a spell on us?
It was nice to bump into
the lads from ‘The Note’ who had said they have had so many
emails since our review of them some weeks ago, keep on rockin’ and a
big thank you to Andy and Paula for the invite keep up
the good work your doing a grand job!