Quickies - Austin Gold, Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts, and Dirty Honey

Lend me your ears, citizens - it’s time to catch up with a triple whammy of rocking sounds that I’ve got on board with recently.
 
Austin Gold – Ain’t No Saint
 
Crikey – suddenly we’re on to the fourth album by English melodic hard rockers Austin Gold, and the blighters still haven’t managed to break through to the level they deserve.  Shurely shomething wrong, I say, after getting my ears around Ain’t No Saint.
Title track ‘Ain’t No Saint’ is a mini-epic that sets out their stall big time.  The intro teases with subtle shining-on-crazy-diamonds guitar and keys, leading into a tense, pulsing section with breathy vocals from main man David James Smith, before fairly exploding into a crunching riff

Austin Gold - mean, moody, and melodic

embellished by swirling keys from Adam Leon, Smith’s urgent vocals and trilling lead guitar then cranking up even more pressure.
‘The Wire Defines’ follows, another bracing whack to the shell-likes, but a stylish one. Borne in on a tough riff and waves of organ, it then reveals AG's more melodic side on the AOR-styled verses, before crashing into a shout-along chorus.  Dave Smith is one of those standout singers who really grabs your attention, and between that, the surging organ and searing lead guitar, they have moments of Magnum-like grandeur.
Chief songwriter Smith is an avowed Beatles-nut. So there’s an undercurrent of Fab Four melodic sensibility on the likes of ‘Not Enough’, with its tender vocals, spangly guitar, and elegant harmonies, and also in the verses of ‘Hang Fire’, a bright and bopping affair on which those lighter verses give way to blasts of organ colliding with a big, tumbiing riff, until Smith’s wiry guitar break goes stratospheric over James Pepper’s snapping beat.
They can slow things down too, as the conversational ballad ‘End Of Our Song’ demonstrates, Smith impressing with restrained and sensitive guitar work before it gets impassioned to close.  And ‘Return’, which closes the album proper, is another widescreen outing combining flutters of bluesy guitar, aching Floyd grandeur and late period Beatles.
Picking out some other rocking highlights,  ‘Down & Outs’ is organ-drenched, with an anthemic, clap-along riff, good quiet-loud dynamics, and Smith showing off his terrific vocal range, backed by equally impressive harmonies. And if ‘Hold The Anchors’ makes a humble entrance, it then lets loose with a strident, crashing riff, soon matched by another huge chorus, with an intriguing lyric about having to make a stand in the face of challenges.
There are three bonus tracks if you want to splash out on the deluxe version, on which they seem to have experimented with a few different bells and whistles to good effect.  Which is encouraging, though there really should be enough in the ten tracks of the main album to get Austin Gold the attention they merit.  If you like hard rock of the diamond-sharp variety, seek it out.
 
Ain’t No Saint is out now, and can be ordered here.
 
 
Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts – Rogue To Redemption
 
Take a pint of Cheap Trick, a shot or three of Thin Lizzy guitar stylings and Phil Lynott phrasing, a dash of Brian May pomp and circumstance, and a sprinkling of glam rock glitter – et voila, you’ve got something close to the sound of Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts!
The Cheap Trick resemblance reverberates right from the start with ‘Take The Long Way’, in so far as Tuk Smith’s voice is a dead ringer for Robin Zander, and he also deploys some twittering, ‘dream policing’ synth sounds.  More importantly though – even more important than the Lizzy-

Tuk Smith - he may not look glam, but he sounds it

like guitar harmonising turn – is that it’s simply a great song, with the first of numerous irresistible choruses, and typical Smith lyrics like “C’mon shoot me with some truth, I know hearts ain’t bulletproof.”
Then Smith and his pals Nigel Dupree (drums) and Matt 'Pony Boy' Curtis (bass) show that was no fluke with ‘Glorybound’ , its throbbing verses exploding into a mountainous, magnificent, roar-along chorus.  And they follow that with an imperious ‘End Of An Era’, which starts with a Brian May-toned guitar line, and is imbued with the bitter-sweet spirit, if not the sound, of Mott’s ‘Saturday Gigs’.  It features some needle-sharp Smith guitar punctuation and a neo-glam rock anthemic chorus that is - of course - a killer.
And so it goes on, across all nine tracks and 32 minutes, with Smith spewing out lyrics of underdog romance, like Rocky getting up off the canvas round after round until he can scream for Adrienne, all set to a rollicking, glam-tinged garage rock soundtrack.  ‘Little Renegade’ conjures up another stonking chorus, over a riff that rings like the bells of, er, St Trinians.  Oh, alright - Notre Dame.  ‘Blood On The Stage’ is a plaintive mash-up of ‘Wonderwall’ acoustic strumming and Def Leppard getting love bitten.  (It’s worth remembering that Leppard’s Joe Elliott is also a glam-rock fan.)  And ‘Rogue To Redemption’ comes with a Lizzy-like stop-time riff and more guitar harmonies, verses in thrall to Phil Lynott phrasing, and a soaring chorus.
It’s all topped off with the glam-rock romance of ‘When The Party’s Over’, a simple descending riff laying the foundations for another Cheap Trick-meets-Mott The Hoople thriller.
I’m reminded of the lines in the eponymous album by Boston’s The Peppermint Kicks (another rock'n'roll reference point): “I write the songs that try to please you, Something stolen, something borrowed”.  Tuk Smith is on the same page - a rock’n’roll magpie, cheerfully plundering the sounds of his heroes to spectacular effect.  If I’d got hold of Rogue To Redemption when it was released back in August, I’d probably have drooled over it at greater length.  Still, you’ve got the message now, right?
 
Rogue To Redemption is out now.
 
 
Dirty Honey – Can’t Find The Brakes
 
Can’t Find The Brakes is a year old this month.  Sorry about that n’all, but it only crossed my path the other month, when I came across the opening track ‘Don’t Put Out The Fire’ on YouTube, and decided it had enough blues-rock soul’n’guts about it to warrant further investigation.
Listening to ‘Don’t Put Out The Fire’ now, it still justifies my enthusiasm.  It’s got a bluesy opening, a funky strutting groove, and vocalist Marc Labelle adds equal servings of soulfulness and raunch.  With ear-grabbing descending chords underlining a well-hooky chorus, it’s a butt-shaking belter.

Dirty Honey - hello to you too, chaps

Pic by Richie Davis

They keep up the good work on ‘Won’t Take Me Alive’.  Here, as on much of the album, there’s less of a Paul Rodgers soulful rock sound, as Dirty Honey make more like Aerosmith. And to be fair, the quasi-Zeppish funkiness of the twisting’n’turning riff, over more tasty grooving from Justin Smolian on bass and Jaydon Bean on drums, notches up another winner, especially with the bonus of some sinuous guitar lines from John Notto.
They don’t keep up the strike rate from gun to tape though. ‘Roam’ is a pretty stereotypical rock ballad with a big chorus, though Notto does give it some depth with an evocative guitar solo shot.  A better slowie vein is the acoustic-centred ‘Coming Home (Ballad Of The Shire)’, with its tasteful melody embellished by some neat twists, and moody post-chorus guitar.
They’re better when they rock, methinks, with a likeable early Aerosmith vibe to ‘em. So ‘Get A Little High’ has a bit of a Zep-leaning stutter to its verses, paired with a simple chorus, while Notto's slippin’n’sliding guitar interpolations and Smolian’s elasticated bass add extra seasoning.  ‘Can’t Find The Brakes’ is short and sweet, bouncing energetically around another good spiralling riff.  And ‘Ride On’ has a cowbell-tapping, blues-rocking energy to go with its lurching riff, clattering along pleasingly with a top-down, wind-in-the hair vibe.
On closing song ‘Rebel Son’, the longest track on the album, they aim for something more elaborate, piquing interest with good changes of pace and push-and-pull tension, but all in all it feels like the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
Dirty Honey have got a lot going for them.  Labelle is a strong vocalist and front man, and the musicianship is great all round.  When they’re good they’re really very good – they just need a bit more consistency.  Keep an ear out for ‘em.
 
Can’t Find The Brakes is out now on Dirt Records.

Quickies - Elles Bailey, Robert Jon & The Wreck, and Austin Gold

Elles Bailey – Shining In The Half-Light Deluxe Edition
 
Okay, so I’m gonna do something a bit odd here, and review half an album.  How come?  Because I reviewed the original release of Shining In The Half-Light last year, that’s why.  So you can go read that review, though I'll just reaffirm what I said then - that it’s the best album of Elles Bailey’s career so far.

What about these bonus tracks that put the Deluxe in this Deluxe Edition then?  Are they just outtakes’n’filler swept up from the studio floor?  No, dear reader, they are not.  What you get for

Elles Bailey posing in the half-light

Pic by Rob Blackham

your money includes two brand new songs, two newly recorded covers, and live-in-the-studio versions of five tracks from the original album.
The first of the new tunes is ‘Spinning Stopped’, a delicate twirl of folkie Americana whose stripped back tones wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Bailey’s Ain’t Nothing But album.  The lyrics combine a mother’s fascination with her new child, a meditation on the world-stopped period into which that child was born, delivered with subtlety and warmth.
‘Hole In My Pocket’ is a more muscular affair, even if it opens in controlled fashion.  Matthew Waer adds supple bass lines to offbeat drum patterns from Matthew Jones, while Joe Wilkins delivers sparse flourishes of bendy guitar.  Bailey’s vocal is assertive, gradually supplemented by more of those delicious backing vocals that adorned the original album.  And then – crash, bang, wallop!  They put their collective foot down and give the thing a proper seeing to, just to make clear they can rock.
The covers also come in two different flavours.  It seems like a bold move to cover anything by the maverick genius John Martyn, but Bailey and co take his wistful, acoustic ‘Over The Hill’, and propelled by bristling electric guitar from Wilkins and waves of organ from Jonny Henderson they turn it into a joyfully rhythmic, muscular animal – hell, danceable even!  By way of contrast, the cover of Creedence’s ‘Long As I See The Light’ is contemplative and downbeat, with Bailey nailing the vocal to render unnecessary any comparisons with John Fogerty, while Henderson adds piano embellishments and Wilkins digs out a scraping slide solo.
To be honest, I’m not sure that the five live takes explore much territory beyond the originals – seems to me that Bailey might have been better revisiting a few songs from her back catalogue, armed with all the learning she and her chums have done since.  Because make no mistake, the new stuff here shows that Bailey and her band have matured big time over the years, and now ooze confidence as they go about their work.  
I’m looking forward to seeing Elles Bailey live tomorrow night – and I'm hoping she plays ‘Over The Hill’!
 
The Shining In The Half-Light Deluxe Edition is released on 17 March, and can be ordered here.
 
 
Robert Jon & The Wreck – One Of A Kind EP
 
Robert Jon & The Wreck like an EP – they’ve released a few of them over the years.  And maybe it’s a particularly good idea these days, to get some fresh material out between albums, to go alongside continued touring.  Of course, it’s got to be quality “product” – and One Of A Kind, produced by some time Stones knob twiddler Don Was, is just that.

I know, it's only wreck'n'roll, but I like it!

Pic by Trees Rommelaaere

They open up this quartet of tracks with ‘Pain No More’, a dynamic thing that veers between surging, pulsating passages and dialled down verses, with some squealing slide thrown in along the way.  It’s not got the strongest chorus they’ve ever produced, but given their songwriting standards that’s a bit like saying a second hand Porsche is nothing to get excited about.
They put that right on the catchy ‘Who Can You Love’, a lower key song with a dialled down vocal from Robert Jon Burrison, subtle injections of twanging guitar, and trademark quality harmonies on the chorus.  It’s a bit too countrified for my taste mind you – what I really wanna hear from these guys is high quality wreck’n’roll.
And that’s exactly what they deliver on the remaining two tracks.  ‘One Of A Kind’ wades in with staccato riffing and rat-a-tat vocals, boosted by slithering, serpentine lead guitar from six-string whizz Henry James.  It’s a punchy, emphatic adrenaline rush of a tune – but if anything it’s bettered by the closing ‘Come At Me’.  Throbbing bass and twisting and turning, twinkling guitar lines drive the verse – and then it explodes into a scruff-of-your-neck chorus, followed by a wild guitar solo.  Then they smack you around the head with that chorus a couple more times, before heading for the exit.
One Of A Kind is a like a weekend city break to some city that never sleeps – short, intense, and highly enjoyable.
 
One Of A Kind is out now on Journeyman Records, and can be downloaded or streamed here.
 
 
Austin Gold – Those City Lights
 
I don’t often venture into reviewing straight-up hard rock on this site, even though it’s why I first got bitten by the music bug – one of the reasons being that not much of the new stuff I hear floats my boat.  But I’m happy to make a brief exception for this latest release by English band Austin Gold, because they refresh the musical parts a lot of modern rockers don’t reach.

David James Smith - subtlety personified

Their main man David James Smith brings a lot to the party, with a clear, powerful voice and bags of range, suggestive of Toby Jepson, some damn fine guitar work, and serious songwriting chops – and the rest of the AG crew live up to his example.
Think Thunder maybe, or a less angry Wayward Sons perhaps.  Those City Lights is melodic hard rock, with plenty of light and shade.  So ‘Mountain’ is a soaring rush of energy akin to some kid with a parachute chucking themselves off, well, a mountain.  ‘Morning Light’ is a sensitive breather, which is much needed amidst the forceful gale blowing elsewhere.  And ‘Real You’ is an demi-prog extravaganza packed into five and a half minutes, incorporating hop, skip and jumping drum rhythms, big guitar motifs, ethereal, stratospheric backing vocals, chocolate box piano, and more besides.  You could liken it to Magnum at their very best.  Well, I could, anyway.
Oh yeah, and Smith is a declared Beatles nut, which may seem strange when he wasn’t even born when the Fab Four called it a day, but as it emerged when I interviewed an earlier line-up of the band a few years back, his dad’s music tastes have been a big influence since he was a kid.  So on a song like ‘Get In Line’, and elsewhere besides, you can hear distant echoes of late 60s rocking Beatles.  Mind you, with the blend of guitar and keyboards, you might equally compare them to modern day Uriah Heep (if that doesn’t sound like a contradiction in terms).
Whatever.  If you like your hard rock to have a healthy dose of sophistication, Austin Gold could be just the band for you.  Go experience Those City Lights, and see what you think.
 
Those City Lights is out now, and can be ordered here.

Here Comes The Sun - Blues Enthused meets Austin Gold

It's not so much an interview as a conversational concoction, really.   Austin Gold are a band who've been getting some attention in the 'New Wave of Classic Rock' space that's opening up, since the release of their debut album Before Dark Clouds last year. It’s the morning after the night before, when they delivered a set supporting King King at the Whitley Bay Playhouse that drew a roar of approval from a full house, and now the band members gradually assemble for a chat after scoffing their fry-up breakfasts in the Beefeater on the seafront.

Rhythm guitarist Jack Cable is first to turn up and park himself across the table, and gets the ball rolling by explaining how the band originated in two separate outfits back in 2014, playing at a blues night in the North Street Bar in their hometown of Peterborough.

Austin Gold - no getting away from Dave Smith's Beatles influences

“Dave put together a band,” he says, referring to lead guitarist and singer Dave Smith, “and another friend of ours Dan Collins put together a band.  Chris Ogden, our drummer, and myself were in Dan Collins’ band – I was playing bass, and Dan Collins was on guitar.  And in Dave’s band there was Dave and our keyboard player Russ Hill, along with another couple of musicians, and they were called Red Wine Blues. Dave decided that he was really enjoying it, but he wanted an extra guitar – so he asked me.  So I was in both bands, playing bass in one and guitar in the other. Then Dan decided he didn’t want to do it any more, but Dave was really getting into it.  He said, ‘I think I could write some tunes for this, I think it could really work.’  Then our drummer left, and the obvious choice was Chris.  Eventually our bass player left as well, and we knew of Lee Churchill from things he’d done before with groups of friends.  And then we’ve just kind of gone on from there, with Dave writing some songs and us doing more and more of our own stuff."

Are you following all these musical chairs?

 “It’s kind of the natural progression that everyone goes through,” Cable says of their development, “where you start feathering in the odd original, around blues covers.  And then the blues covers seem to fade away a little bit, and the covers become a little more choice.  So some of our favourite things to play now are Wings, like ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, and we do Python Lee Jackson’s ‘In A Broken Dream’ – that, I think, is my favourite cover to do.”

Along the way, he adds, their current monicker came into being.

“The name came about because we felt we had out grown our original name which was Red Wine Blues. Obviously we aren't really doing blues covers anymore. Dave has an old Rocktron guitar pedal called Austin Gold and we thought the name suited us quite well so we went with it.”

Now the interesting thing for me is that this evolution away from blues covers has resulted in a distinctive, more melodic sound.  So where has that come from, I wonder.

“Well, Dave’s the songwriter,” Cable says. “Dave will come in with what we call the nucleus of a song, so anything to do with lyrics or melody lines is all Dave.  That’s him all day long.  So he’ll bring a song to the band, and we’ll play through it, and within a couple of hours we’ll have all written our own parts around what Dave’s doing.

Austin Gold go for a monochrome look

“But the influences are stretched quite far and wide,” he goes on, “because every member of the band has a different musical background.  In age there’s quite a broad spectrum there as well.  Our drummer Chris is 25, and our keyboard player Russ is 50.  Just 50,” he emphasises.  “So there’s quite a gap. Russ is a huge Marillion fan, and Deep Purple and things like that.  And Dave was born in the 70s, and his dad really pushed him down the Beatles, Eagles, David Bowie road, that kind of stuff.  Lee, our bass player, is much more hard rock based.  The previous band he was in was called The More I See, which was heavier – the original guitarist was in The Prodigy, so you can imagine it was quite heavy stuff.  And then I actually come from a producer’s background so I’m listening more for interesting sounds than I am for killer guitar licks.  Which is maybe why mine and Dave’s guitar playing works so well together.”

It’s a point well made, I think, by a couple of trilling guitar lines Cable delivers on ‘Roadside’ and ‘See The Light’ that counterpoint the main riff.  Before seeing them live I’d been convinced I was hearing a synthesizer, but it turns out to be the way Cable conjures an unusual tone with the aid of a fuzz box.  But sometimes a key contribution is not to play something, it seems. 

“Part of the ethos of the band has always been space, give each other space.  Because there’s five of us, it’s hard to all be heard unless you give each other space.  So that’s the kind of players we all want to be, is humble in our approach.  So if Dave’s playing something that’s full on, and got lots of movement, lots of playing, then I don’t need to.  There are even big parts in songs that we have where I’m not playing at all!  Do I care? No, why would I?  It’s serving the song.  It’s a bit of a clichéd thing to say, but it’s true.”

Serving the song is a sentiment that’s music to my ears, as it were.  I wish that more people did it.  Cable reckons in their case it’s a function of Dave Smith’s writing style.

“I think because of the way Dave writes melody lines, not just vocally but also for solos, he’s sort of putting himself in a situation where he has to play the solo pretty much how it is on the record, because the guitar solos are almost as memorable as the chorus lines.  And Dave loves a big hook, and that’s what it’s all about. He likes a big chorus.”

The end result is a sound that doesn’t make for simple comparisons.  Listening to their album Before Dark Clouds I’ve often asked myself who they remind me of, and not found easy answers. Luke Morley of Thunder’s ‘other band’ The Union sometimes springs to mind, and going backaways even the likes of UFO.  But the band that Austin Gold sound most like is – well, Austin Gold. And they don’t fit the typical blues rock template.

“No,” Cable agrees. “It’s hard to put a label on what we actually are!

“Melodic hard rock?” I suggest.

“There you go – I like that.”

As the rest of the band roll in and join us, the conversation turns to the previous night, and the surprise they got coming onstage to be greeted by a full house, when they were expecting to find about 50 people in their seats.

“Well when I’ve been to gigs it’s been like that,” says Dave Smith.  “Everyone stays in the

Dave Smith - Seventies rock revivalist

bar, and then when the main act come on they come in.”

“I came out to check about 15 minutes before we went on,” says drummer Chris Ogden, “and it was deadly silent in there.  But yeah it was great, really good.”

So was supporting King King a learning experience?

“I think we’ve learnt loads just in the last day alone,” says Ogden.  “They’re much further on than we are, and seeing how they work, how their show works, is great.”

“One interesting thing,” says Cable, “is that we do gigs down in London, where you have no idea who else is on the bill, and a lot of the time who’s on the bill has nothing to do with what you’re playing, so there’s no inspiration from them. Whereas when you get to do a show with a band like King King, it inspires you to bring your A-game a bit more. I personally thought last night we were on our game, and that was mostly because we felt inspired to go out and do the best we could.”

“And there’s the style of music,” Dave Smith adds.  “We knew we were playing to a type of audience where - we’re not dissimilar to what they do – kind of under the umbrella genre of blues rock, but we knew they’d be at least receptive.”

Cable laughs.

“Except we’re not blues rock any more – we’re melodic hard rock!”

“We’ll have that!” Smith nods.

“That’s what I said,” says Cable.

“But I thought it really worked last night,” says Smith, “and afterwards the boys were really supportive.”

“Yeah they’re great guys,” agrees bassist Lee Churchill.  “They said they really appreciated the show, and were just very normal, down to earth, friendly guys.”

“They were really happy to chat,” adds Ogden, “and take any questions we had.”

“There was a lovely moment when we were all standing at the side of the stage watching their show,” recalls Smith, “and me and Lee were standing there and at some point Alan Nimmo came over to get a drink, and he shook our hands and said ‘Great show lads’” – said with a Nimmo-esque thumbs up and wink – “in the middle of them playing. He’s like ‘Everything alright?’”

“It was funny when we were unloading the van,” says Russ Hill.  “There’s like a big ramp you have to get up.  And Alan obviously looked at me and thought, ‘He’ll need a hand.’  So he pulled me up, like woof – he’s a dead strong fella!”

“He’d obviously seen your advanced age,” says Cable, chancing his arm

“Yeah that’s what I thought,” Hill laughs.  “He thought ‘Here’s the old boy.’”

Since Dave Smith is now in the company, it seems like time to get his take on the band’s sound, given that he’s the main writer.  So what’s inspired him?

“Well, how long have we got?”

“Not long – you’ve got another gig to get to.”

“Okay, to summarise – massive Beatles nut from a kid, ELO, Bowie, Gerry Rafferty – so although we’re more guitar-based, it’s the chord structures I love in that stuff.  We’re really into Bonamassa – we like heavy stuff like the Foos, Audioslave and that.  So it’s a mixture.  We’re getting a tag at the moment of 70s rock revival-ish, and that’s cool – Bad Company, massive Pink Floyd fans as well, and there are some moments where what we do comes over a bit Floyd.  And then we like Tom Petty as well.”

“Cheers!” says Cable, presumably the leading Tom Petty fan in the band.

“Thank you,” nods Smith in acknowledgement.  “So a mixture really, and in terms of the writing it tends to be the music first – sit down with the guitar.  And then that dictates where the lyrics go.

Cable and Smith - almost, but not quite, entirely unlike Skynyrd

It’s an open-ended question really, I could go on and on!”

“I think one of the best things,” says Ogden, “is we’ve never sat down and had a chat about what genre we want to do.  We just write the song and it goes where it goes.  And then since the album came out we’ve been put in so many different genres.”

“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword that,” Smith suggests.  “Because sometimes it’s like ‘Well what are you?’  People are ambivalent about not knowing the genre. But then, that’s not how we work. There’s a track ‘Home Ain’t Home’, where it’s quite dark, and a Beatles workout, or we do something straight like ‘See The Light’, which is just a straightforward four to the floor – “

“- Americana,” says Cable.

Eh?  Now, of all the styles I might ascribe to Austin Gold, Americana is not one of them.  It turns out what they mean is a hint of Southern rock, suggested by the impressively intertwined guitar face-off Cable and Smith go for on set closer ‘See The Light’.

“Yeah, which isn’t on the album,” says Cable.  “It’s something that at one show in particular I thought – that would be a perfect moment for a little Skynyrd-type guitar thing.  So we talked about it at one rehearsal, and then it’s been in ever since.”

The comparison still tickles me though, because as Skynyrd impersonators I reckon they’d make a very good Wishbone Ash.  Austin Gold are a band whose sound seems to me as British as the North Sea backdrop to the photographs we do before parting company.  In a good way, I should stress.

We finish up with some chat about them recording a new album later in the year, for release in 2019, and forthcoming gigs and festival appearances they have scheduled.  But as Cable says, their immediate future is to get some more support slots like this one with King King, to build their audience on the strength of the current album.  Here’s hoping they get them – they’re a band that deserve to be heard.

King King, Austin Gold - Playhouse, Whitley Bay, 11 May 2018

On it.  On it, on it, on it.  King King were totally on the money tonight.

Maybe Alan Nimmo had a premonition.  Coming onstage he looks out at the seated audience before a note has been played and says with a grin, “I hope you lot are gonnae get on your feet tonight.” And like a flash they are, even before he can add, “I cannae be doing with this sitting down shit.”

Next thing they’re off and running with an air-punching rendition of ‘(She Don’t) Gimme No Lovin’’, and anyone sitting down after that would surely have been a masochist.

Alan Nimmo, having an okay night by the look of it.

This was a performance that underlined two things about King King.  One is that they have special gift, one not all bands have, of creating a truly communal experience with their audience.  It’s apparent from that opening, and from the immediate response to Nimmo’s quick instruction for them to get their hands clapping on the following ‘Waking Up’, and all the way through to the joyous, celebratory singalong on the encore of ‘Let Love In’.

The second thing is that they’re not standing still, trotting out the same set month after month. Tonight’s show features a new, quiet intro to ‘You Stopped The Rain’ as a precursor to a bit of audience input, though the best bit is the wowser of a solo Nimmo cranks out at the end of the song. Similarly Jonny Dyke produces a delicate new piano intro on ‘Rush Hour’ that fits the song beautifully, and Nimmo prefaces ‘Long Time Running’ with a teasing bit of guitar riffery.

More to the point though, the way all the gears click into place tonight it seems like the false starts, personnel change and anxieties of the last couple of years have now been put to bed.  New material like ‘Broken’ is now fully bedded into the set.  Meanwhile Jonny Dyke on

Just in case you'd forgotten who the lot with the guy in the kilt are.

keys, who according to Nimmo describes himself as “the most irritatingly positive member of the band”, seems entirely at home.  His solo on ‘Long History Of Love’  hits the mark now – for all I know he’s playing exactly the same notes as the last time I heard it in Edinburgh, but tonight it feels like he’s tapping into the emotional core of the song, while Nimmo’s closing solo is as ever doubled in intensity by the interaction with Wayne Proctor’s drumming.  And speaking of Proctor, he powers a bone-crunchingly tight version of ‘Lose Control’.

If Alan Nimmo still has any concerns about the state of his voice then they’re not apparent, as he applies himself to every song with gusto and an often beaming fizzog.  Dyke’s backing vocals with Proctor now sound more grooved in too, and together with Nimmo the two of them deliver the necessary punch to the chorus of ‘Long Time Running’.

The closing pillars of the set hit the bullseye too.  Lindsay Coulson brings the requisite bottom end to the funk party of ‘All My Life’, and the audience do their bit by keeping impressively schtum during Nimmo’s sotto voce solo on ‘Stranger To Love’.

Some reviewers and fans will have you believe that bands routinely deliver triumphantly perfect performances, but the reality is rather different.  Tonight though, the roar of approval that King King got at the end of ‘Let Love In’ told the story.  Whitley Bay was one of those nights.

Support act Austin Gold had done a fine job of warming up the crowd for them mind you,

Dave Smith gets all heartfelt.

whipping things up nicely right from their gutsy opener ‘Roadside’, on which the trilling motif I had assumed from the album to be a synth line turns out to come from guitarist Jack Cable.  They have a good line in ballads, even if now and then, as on ‘Wishing It Away’, it feels like they could learn from King King how to really build intensity.  But they do find another gear on ‘Before Dark Clouds’, the title track of their debut album, and without singer and lead guitarist Dave Smith having to resort to a solo of the blitzkrieg variety either.

They deliver some stuttering funk on ‘Another Kinda Bad’, and if ‘Home Ain’t Home’ shows that they’re not frightened of exercising some restraint, pace-wise, they still crown it with a damn good crescendo.

‘All The Way Down’ is another quality ballad with a heartfelt vocal from Smith, and with good guitar harmonies mingled with Russell Hill’s keys to boot.  They close by segueing into the relaxed, rollicking, ‘See The Light’, which with its guitar face-off between Smith and Cable could develop into a real powerhouse of a closer.  The Whitley Bay crowd lapped it up.

Austin Gold have a melodic rock sound that’s very much their own.  Oh, you might detect a smidgen of this here, and a smidgen of that there, some old influences, some new.  But ultimately they’ve developed a coherent sound that goes beyond easy comparisons. If you haven’t heard them yet you should get Before Dark Clouds right away, and put that right.

Read the exclusive interview with Austin Gold here.