The Banner, Hindley
August 2009 (from Northwestbands.co.uk)

The Fleece, Ashton In Makerfield
October 2009 (from Northwestbands.co.uk)

The Banner, Hindley - August 2009

Thanks very much to Rick from The 45's Covers Band for this review of our show at The Banner, Hindley, which he has very kindly posted on North West Bands.co.uk:

". . . . Thoroughly entertained yet again from another great band off NWB. Ed - guitars, Steve - guitars, Ian - bass and Colin - drums. Me and the missus entered in our matching brown leather jackets and the guys ripped into "Sharp Dressed Man" - thank you chaps ! Some excellent classic rock played here notably The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes - great vocals by all.

Other highlights for us was the Lizzy Set and the Floyd Set at the end. Steve treated us to Joe Sat's Aliens showing how fast fingers can move without skipping a note. But for me and Anne it was the man at the back that stole the show, great drumming, great vocals and fun to watch and listen to. I'm still not 100% convinced about V-drums, although the start of Black Magic Woman did get me thinking.

Thanks for last night guys, we will look you up again soon. Tina, the manager really enjoyed your stuff by the way. Ian, it was nice talking to you and hope you guys have a great gig tonight at the HULTON ARMS tonight.

Cheers, Rick."

THE FLEECE, Ashton In Makerfield. 2nd October 2009 :
A huge thanks to Andy from the excellent LAZZY BAND who wrote this nice review for us on NWB:

"Arrived at The Fleece at about 9:30pm, with the band already set up and soundchecked. It was quite quiet (as is the norm early on) until about 10pm, when the regular “Fleecers” have finished their pub crawl around Ashton and head to watch the band!)…

The Kerbcrawlers opened up with an energetic “Boys are Back in Town”. You can’t beat the twin assault of two Les Pauls in perfect harmony! … and being THE Thin Lizzy sound, they also featured “Emerald”, "Are You Ready" and “Rosalie” later in the evening too. Just one thing regarding the mix: During the “Emerald” solo trade-offs, I think the rhythm guitar needs to be a little quieter and the lead lifting slightly on that song, so that the solos really hit the audience in the face, but that’s a minor quibble. The bass from Ian (all 4/5 of em!) and Colin's drums sounded great throughout.

Nice to see the drums being mic’d up, as this gives a much better sound.. The Kerbcrawlers have a good array of both older classic songs (Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” - tasteful solos by Edward & Steven) as well as more modern rock numbers (Foo Fighters’ “Learning To Fly”), and some you don’t hear many live bands do, such as Joe Satriani’s “Surfing With The Alien”, and Prince’s “Purple Rain” (nice and tight boys!), which finished with a lovely harmony guitar part, that I managed to get a short video clip of (see below!). I also enjoyed the less rocky tunes like “29 Palms”, “Behind Blue Eyes” (one of my favourite Who tunes) and “Need Your Love So Bad”. All the members of the band take the lead vocal on different tunes, so people get a “diverse listening experience” (Bloody’ell, that sounds deep doesn’t it!?)

I’ve heard the Kerbcrawlers before, and the last time they played The Fleece, the bass was “too bloody loud”! Ian! ;-) .. but this time it was excellent. Mind you, as you all know, the sound mix will change depending on where you are stood in the room. Standing at the back tends to cancel out the guitar frequencies at some venues… so stand closer!.. to the band, not me! I was going to tell Ian to turn up the vocals slightly in the 1st set…but I couldn’t be arsed, as I was drinking my Boddingtons. lol . However, the vocals were lifted in the 2nd set and sounded great.. and I still hadn’t said anything! Ha ha

The Kerbsters have a really polished and professional sound to them, with a great lighting rig too! (Us Lazzies will need to get some lights pronto cuz it doesn’t half help with the overall quality and feel of the performance. At the moment we will have to get by on multi-coloured energy bulbs stuck into any light fixtures!). I liked the way they messed about with Roadhouse Blues, sticking in various riffs and tunes from other songs, especially The Wombles! ("Orinoco Flow" next time perhaps??) … Guitarist Ed sang on “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” and also played the solo, which was spot-on! (I’ve heard other people murder that solo, so cheers!)

They finished off with some Pink Floyd, which always goes down well at many classic rock venues. “Wish You Were Here”, “Money” and “Comfortably Numb” being on the musical menu… It was nice to see that they were not afraid to just busk through a tune, (even though they hadn’t rehearsed it) as an audience member shouted for “Whole Lotta Rosie”. They duly obliged and did an admirable job. The thing about all these so called well known classic rock songs, is that we “think” we know them, but then realise, “does everyone know the structure” and the “stops & starts”?. Well hopefully you guys will get it into the set asap, because it sounded excellent, and I would say Steve’s voice suits it down to the ground. I suppose it’s just about finding the right kind of song for each individual to sing, and I can safely say Steve should sing more stuff like “Rosie”!.. It doesn’t matter that the song is in the NWB Top 10, and gets done to death. There are venues that have heard it too many times, but there’ll also be those that want to hear it time and time again, so I’d say it’s really about “the right tool for the right job”. i.e “right song for the right venue….well done chaps. I had a great night. Ta

Later folksters!
Lazzy Andy"

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