By Terry Marland, Rock At Night Wales

Live Review: Bad Touch, Piston, Hollowpoint-The Tivoli Buckley, North Wales, Saturday 27^th November 2021

The much rescheduled “Better Late Than Never” tour finally comes to Buckley.

Bad Touch bring their “Better Late Than Never” tour to Buckley eighteen months after the original gig was postponed due to the Covid outbreak. With support coming from Piston and Hollowpoint a night of solid Rock is in store for the Buckley faithful.

Hollowpoint

Taking to the stage at 7:30 veteran rockers Hollowpoint get the evening started in fine style with a mix of self-penned songs and covers. Featuring powerhouse vocals and spiralling dual guitar sequences they set the bar high for the rest of the night. The spirit of comradery is evident throughout the evening with all three bands enthusiastically supporting one-another and it was great to see members of Bad Touch and Piston sitting in on the Hollowpoint set.

Piston

After a quick turnaround Piston take to the stage. Vocalist and charismatic front man Rob Angelico greets the crowd with arms aloft bedecked in black and sporting a Piston vest and dayglo sunglasses. The cheer from the audience, which includes Stevie Westwood from Bad Touch, indicates they are on side before he sings his first note.

The all too short set features numbers from their 2019 self-titled album and for the most part is highly energised with Angelico covering every inch of the performance area and stage jumping at will. The poignant “Carry us Home” shows the band in a softer mode and features some stunning guitar work. New song “Shangri La” has a Red Hot Chilli Peppers vibe and goes down well with the crowd. They wrap up their performance with a highly charged take on Creedence Clearwater’s “Proud Mary”. At just thirty minutes, for me, their slot ended too soon and it’s good to see that they return to the Tivoli next April when they support The Treatment.

Piston band members are: Rob Angelico(vocals) Jack Edwards (guitar) Luke Allat (guitar) Stuart Egan (Bass) Brad Newlands Drums.

Bad Touch

Before Bad Touch appear there is an off-stage band request for the audience to have a ”Ruddy Good Time”. They then take to the stage to the “Pearl and Dean” (Cinema Advertising) theme from the seventies and waste no time launching into a scorching renditions of “Lift Your Head Up” and “Good on Me”.

Front man Stevie Westwood stands centre stage resplendent in a floral suit. His engaging vocal style straddles rock, blues and soul and together with bandmates Daniel Seekings (guitar and vocals) Rob Glendinning (guitar) Michael Bailey (bass) and George Drewry (drums) they deliver a storming set.

About twenty minutes into the set there is a slight hitch with the vocals that is quickly corrected before the band continue with a wonderful version of the Edwin Starr classic “Twenty Five Miles From Home“ which draws one of the biggest cheers of the evening, with members of Piston now taking their place in the audience.

“I Get High”/ “Come a Little Closer” and “Can you Save Me” from last year’s highly acclaimed Kiss the Sky album are interspersed with a powerful cover of Alanis Morriesette’s “Hand in My Pocket”.

Any technical problems are now a fading memory as the band reach full throttle with scorching guitar exchanges between Daniel Seekings and Rob Glendenning. The main set concludes with “Outlaw” before the band returns dressed in Christmas garb (recently acquired from the local Home Bargains store we are reliably informed) for a rendition of their 2020 seasonal offering “A Gift For You “ which has the crowd buzzing. Their usual encore “99%” sends the fans away very happy punters.

It’s fair to say that as requested by Stevie at the start of the set the audience did have a “ruddy good time”.

The pairing of Bad Touch with Piston for the national tour makes this a must see combination and if you get the chance get yourself to one of the remaining gigs.

The Tour Continues:

29^th November Cardiff Clwb Bach

30^th November Exeter The Cavern

1^st December Southampton The Joiners

2^nd December London 02 Academy

4^th December Gravesend Red Lion – Sold Out

PHOTO GALLERY

Stevie Westwood-Bad Touch

Bad Touch

Piston

Hollowpoint

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Terry Marland

I’vehad a passion for music from an early age starting with the classic rock bands of the late sixties and early seventies. A few years ago I was able to combine my love of music with my interest in photography when I started to secure press passes for bands appearing in local venues close to my home in North Wales. I also had a stint with the good people at Down the Front Media where I worked at a variety of venues across the UK.Aside from gigs I have been a match day photographer with Chester FC for eight years and you’ll find me pitch-side most Saturday afternoons during the football season.

Bad Touch ‘Better Late Than Never’ Tour in Wales: A ‘ruddy good time’ by all!

The Tour Continues:

PHOTO GALLERY

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