ANTHEM - The CLASSIC RUSH TRIBUTE

Our first gig of 2006, a small pub gig, but what a night, what an atmosphere. The place was packed to the rafters and we were back to our two-set performance. Before the gig started, we were amazed by the people introducing themselves and telling us where they had travelled from - it's great to meet fellow RUSH fans and even better at one of our gigs. First-off the sound was a bit ropey as the PA guy (Ken) tamed the room acoustics, but by the time we got into Limelight everything was sorted. The 3T turned into a sweatbox very quickly as the audience got into the swing of the show. The crowd were with us all of the way and its very easy to tell when a crowd are enjoying themselves by the noise they make (plus it seemed as if a large part of the crowd were nearly on the stage as the room was so packed). The atmosphere was absolutely fantastic.

Two sets with plenty of encores, gave us a great start to 2006. As always the 'music police' were in evidence and it's great when guys who are musicians in other bands give you so much positive feedback. Crowd pleasers as always are YYZ, Trees, Xanadu, Strangiato and the medleys, although it's hard to pinpoint an audience favourite when the reaction to all of the songs was so good.

For the people who turned out to see us thanks a lot for the brilliant reception, for those who didn't turn out you missed a great gig......hopefully we'll see you at the next one.

Well what can we say about our annual bash at the office.....the posters we provided didn't get used by the venue, when people phoned to confirm the gig and ask about tickets, they were told that we had sold out (we hadn't) or that we weren't playing that night (we obviously were). Fortunately for us some of these people turned up anyway so they were able to pass this little nugget of information on to us personally. Despite these setbacks there was a pretty good turn out, some old friends, some new friends and some RUSH and ANTHEM fans (judging by the T-shirts).

The PA company swapped the rig we thought we were going to use at the last minute (although I'm told both rigs are identical) and the sound guy turned up without a crew so we had to help carry the PA in for him, but I suppose we should be grateful he turned up at all as he was going to cancel, that would have been the pits. We're glad he did turn up even though we were knackered before we got started. Anyway, reports from the audience say the sound was superb - and most of those comments were from musicians.

Anyhoo, a decent sound check with time spent on getting a decent drum sound before moving onto the guitar, bass and keys and then we waited for the audience. Doors opened at about 7:45 pm and about 30 people came in right away, but the bar wasn't open yet so some of them went downstairs for a pint before returning. A steady stream of people arriving reassured us things would be OK after the shocking 'sold out' info had been passed on.

The plan was a two hour set plus encores and it ran as smooth as clockwork. Here's the full running order...

There were some problems with the keyboards during Distant Early Warning but we weren't phased by it. Colin (vocals) has really hit his stride now and there was some excellent post gig feedback from the audience, cheers. New for this gig were the new drum riser and ANTHEM backdrop with stunning new ANTHEM logo, which matches Mick's bass drum head all from customskins.co.uk. It has often been said in reviews of our gigs that 'there were plenty of friends of the band in the audience' and tonight there were....even people we didn't know...... most people come over and talk to us after the gigs, but what is brilliant are the people who did that at the last gig and then come out to see us again, what is that called again? Oh yes.... a following, but these people are usually RUSH fans and we all know RUSH fans are ALWAYS EXCELLENT. It does make it worthwhile when the audience take the time to tell you what they think of the show.

Our original vocalist, Tom, came by to give us some support (a nice surprise) and enjoyed the show, congratulating us on our new vocalist. Top Man!

But how did the gig feel? It's difficult to review ANTHEM from the stage as our on-stage sound consists of what we get in the monitors plus our backline, which is not what the audience hears, but it felt great. The lights helped to set the mood and, although a bit over exuberant at the beginning, quickly settled down, so a big thanks to Ian for stepping into the lighting seat at the last minute. Overall, it was fun to play and we were told afterwards it was fun to watch, we enjoyed it and for over two hours it felt like time stood still. Some ANTHEM regulars said it was our best gig yet, others noticed some of the small errors and were gracious enough to say we took them in our stride. Some people picked favorite parts of the set to comment on (typically Bastille Day, Anthem, Red Barchetta, Broons Bane -Trees - Xanadu, La Villa and By-Tor). Others commented on the atmosphere - it really was brilliant. With just one day left in 2005 everyone seemed to be in a great frame of mind.

I was told that the bar takings were very good that night but we should wait for the review from Colin Smoult before we look forward to The ANTHEM Christmas Bash at THE OFFICE 2006.

Smoulty's review of the gig is disappointingly brief (he only popped upstairs once or twice during the night) and he managed to save most of his comments for the sound, hardly commenting on the band at all. Which as he was hardly there, was fair.

I've just seen a video tape of the gig and I bloody enjoyed it! The sound is what you would expect from the built in job on a video camera (tons of compression and very poor bass) but it was enough for me to spend over two hours on the couch with a few beers. Rest assured that this video will be put to good use refining the show. Some parts worked extremely well, even watching myself struggle with the keyboards in Distant Early Warning didn't spoil it for me..... if I wasn't in this band I would be their biggest fan. Another thing I noticed watching the video was the effort that Mick (the sound guy) put in, even though the sound on the video was mono, you could hear him correcting levels and smoothing out the overall sound after the many instrument changes. Thanks for helping make the gig the success that it was.

This was a big gig. At least the venue was! The support band were an indie group "who don't get beaten up after they play" I don't remember their name but they could play and were definitely serious about their music. We were booked to play a one hour set plus encores and that's what we played. I think there were about 40 people at the gig and the venue looked like it could hold 500 in comfort - so it felt a bit empty. Colin stopped to ask directions on the way and the guy he asked said there was a RUSH tribute band playing there tonight and he was going. The chances of stopping what turned out to be one of the few people going to the gig felt like a good omen. Anyway, after the support we launched into classic RUSH and the sound was great, the only problem I became aware of was that 40 people don't make too much noise in a room that big. We played our hearts out and felt as if we were getting nowt back until near the end when some of the crowd got up to dance. Now if you're going to dance to RUSH you have to be aware of the time signatures and the changes or you look a bit daft - this didn't stop these guys they just went for it. We video'd the gig for later analysis and overall, the sound was good and we played well. It's a shame that North Yorkshire is not the smoldering hot bed of latent RUSH frenzy that both we and the promoters had hoped for. A difficult one for us to get over, but taking the positives - good sound, good playing and a good opportunity for us to work under pressure - it's not all roses at ANTHEM gigs but at least you're guaranteed a great band. Oh, and the power cut half way through YYZ didn't even put us off our stride - we just played it again.........

Colin's first gig as vocalist with Anthem and I'll tell you what - he's bloody good!

Two sets with a small PA and limited lights. A small crowd gave us a good reception. Some die-hard RUSH fans came along to check out the musical ability and they were blown away. Lots of hand shaking and back slapping after we'd finished. It seems that every gig we convert someone to RUSH or remind them to dust of their old albums and CDs.

A bloody great gig.... (I always say that), a small turn out but the people who were there made an awful lot of noise. So far the most encores we've ever played. It was also a time for catching up with old friends for John who met up with former FIST band mate Colin Johnson - vocalist with Rock Solid - who he hadn't seen for 25 years. The result of this auspicious meeting is that Colin is now our new vocalist.

"Thanks for a great night down at the Phoenix in Seaham last night guys! I know there was only a small crowd, but never the less a very appreciative crowd and true Rush fans. It was clear that you were enjoying the gig as much as the fans and I thought the set list was awesome, with some blinding renditions of Bastille Day, YYZ, Tom Sawyer, Xanadu and 2112. This is the 3rd time I've seen you guys and you are getting better each time, keep up the good work and hopefully we'll see you back at the Phoenix soon! ps Just to let you know, there'll be a mini bus load of us from the Phoenix coming to the Office Xmas gig in December." Wadge

Continuing with the downsizing theme of our backline to get our show into the pub circuit we opted to use the house p.a. on this occasion. A bit of an experiment and a bit nerve wracking for the band. We had the best on-stage sound we've had so far and the 3 Tuns p.a. was just fine for the size of the venue. Obviously, there were a few hiccups with a deep resonant feedback coming from Lindsay's acoustic guitar for a few seconds during A Farewell to Kings - easily fixed. The audience were made up of music fans and musicians (we're getting used to a lot of musicians coming to check us out) and a few Rush fans. You can tell when there aren't too many Rush fans in the audience as blinding, note perfect versions of Red Barchetta and La Villa Strangiato were greeted with silence, then the audience noticed we'd finished and it wasn't a pause in the song before showing their appreciation in the traditonal manner.

As always we met some great people and were given some excellent feedback. Hopefully some of the people at the venue who were not familiar with the material have at least some Rush CDs in there collection now.

We've talked through our setlist for pubs and although we have a lot of material to choose from we've decided to focus on the earlier material and some of the more well known Rush songs we've dropped from our current set (usually because other Rush tribute bands seem to be popping out of the woodwork and covering these songs - Closer to the Heart, Passage to Bangkok, 2112 etc. - and we want to stay different) will be making a return over the next few shows to help involve the music fans who are not altogether familiar with Rush's vast back catalogue.

The pub circuit is new to us and we're resisting the requests from some sectors of the audience who say 'You guys are f*$%ing ace, have you not though about doing some AC/DC, Van Halen or Led Zep songs?' The answer is, we will keep on playing Rush's music as we all love it so much.

A reduced backline and smaller PA, were the order of the day at the Quaker, even then I still think the band had more space than the audience. 'The Quaker' is a GREAT venue with a tidy location with good access - thanks to all the friendly staff and thanks for having us. We met some splendid people last night and had a blast. Everyone we spoke to enjoyed the show, its good when you get your feedback 'in your face'. Technical issues were an annoying high frequency feedback seemingly caused by one of the mics and a complete lack of on-stage keyboard sounds ("I'm beginning to think sound guys are protecting their monitors from my low notes, so I'll need to dust off the keyboard's backline and stop relying on foldback." [John]). Ash from t-n-m-s came over and introduced himself and his son to John and Tom - it's always good to meet those guys, they're building quite a virtual presence....

We're hoping to see some photos of the gig in the not too distant future as the number of 'flashbulbs' going off in the audience was a genuine surprise. So if you had a camera with you on Wednesday night and you would like a credit and mention on our website please send us some photos and we'll put them in our gallery.

Bands reviews of their own gigs can be a bit one sided but hopefully we can sum it up .....

Tom sang the whole show from a space about one foot square (John and Lindsay annexed the floor in front of the drum kit for their gadgets) - some of those high notes make my eyes water..

Mick played an absolute blinder ....... the acoustic kit sounded great, a pleasure to work with.

Lindsay seemed fairly quiet in the mix at first, but this was corrected during the first set. The guitar on a stick stayed in its case last night. As usual Lindsay's accuracy and precision have to be seen, they need to be witnessed at first hand...

John's new Jazz bass sure took a pounding one guy said the bass playing was 'inspirational' .... I wouldn't go that far..... but thanks a lot.

15th July 2005

Has it really been 18 months - we were a bit nervous after such a long layoff - we thought no-one would come. We were wrong! We've said this before but RUSH fans are ALWAYS EXCELLENT. It was good to see some old friends and equally good to see some new faces.

Set up time was a bit longer due to Mick's impressive acoustic kit plus we used the full 8k sound system. Ideally, we would love to use our full back line and both of Mick's kits but we can't even get the drum riser on the stage of some venues. One of these days...... Anyway, we we're a bit late getting to the sound check but even that got a good round of applause. We kicked off with Spirit of Radio and the sound was terrible, nothing in the monitors except keyboards and every now and again we heard what sounded like someone firing a canon coming from the 'front of house'. We struggled on through Distant Early Warning and Marathon with the same problem but you know what, the audience were brilliant supporting us even though it sounded crap. The sound guys eventually traced the 'canon fire' problem to a gate on one of the floor Toms (which mutes the sound when that drum is not being played so that the mic doesn't pick up cymbals and stuff). So we continued with the first set with the sound improving all of the time. We've talked this through and we think that the guys we always use have got out of the habit with our setup - not surprising after 18 months! During the break we were chatting with the audience who said the sound was good for the later part of the first set. Thanks go out to Tony for pushing things along.

Set two contains the older material that so many people like, and the sound was sorted so we lashed into Bastille Day it felt bloody great on-stage and the audience signaled their appreciation with an almighty cheer. Next up a surprise for everyone, Colin Smoult played the intro to A Farewell to Kings on Lindsay's 'guitar on a stick' which added to the party atmosphere. La Villa Strangiato, Beneath Between Behind and Fly By Night/In the Mood got the crowd going even more and we closed the first set with The Trees and Xanadu the close of Xanadu bought the biggest roar from the audience until the encores. We came back on stage after a very brief drink and launched into Hemispheres the audience went ape at this point. We'd rehearsed a nice little bridge to link into Anthem but we we're so caught out by the cheering that I think we messed it up - I don't think anyone noticed or if they did they we're too far gone now to worry about it. We'd also rehearsed a link into By-Tor which we didn't use because we we're enjoying the applause so much. We would all like to say an

ENORMOUS THANK YOU

to the audience on Friday, thanks for welcoming us back and we'll be seeing you soon.

Photos

Review

or here

The Office - South Shields

28th December 2003

The Anthem Christmas Party

Be there or be square!

A good time was had by all....yet again. Thanks to all who came and enjoyed the show.

Big thanks to all the guys from t-n-m-s.com some of whom came all the way up North - we're glad to see from your comments on t.n.m.s. that you enjoyed the show...........we'll hopefully be able to spread our 'sphere of influence' further South this year and your feedback and support can only help.

Smoulty's Review of the gig can be seen here:

or here

The Three Tuns - Gateshead

October 9th 2003

The night the Gremlins ate the keyboards....

The Mountain Daisy - Sunderland

11th September 2003

band review ****

Some technical issues with the overall drum balance - now sorted

The Office - South Shields

22nd August 2003

Smoulty's Review