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SACRED HEART, TARA’S SECRET
Stripes Bar,Brentford 12 August 2005
First off a rant - Despite handing out over 1,000 flyers at gigs by Styx,
Kansas, Y & T and a local blues festival plus endless plugs on music and
non-music websites, after football matches, listings magazines like ‘Time
Out’ etc the turn out was still very low.
Okay Brentford isn’t Central London but then again it’s hardly the Scottish Highlands when it comes to
public transport coverage! Apathy really is killing live rock music as even
some big rock bands aren’t selling out at present. Go out and see a live gig
is all I and many other bands/promoters ask. Right, rant over onto the music!
Tara’s Secret had travelled down from south Staffordshire and played a
good mix of numbers of their debut release ‘Spectrum Wheel’. Sadly no ‘She
Wears A Rainbow’ but perhaps that was to stop me saying they had hints of
folk in that tune! Live they certainly pack a punch and fans of melodic hard
rock would enjoy ‘Wild Frontier’ and the prog leanings on ‘Calmer Karma’.
They got a good reaction and Aussie vocalist John Trowbridge was gracious
enough to keep very quite about the cricket score. He really does put his
heart and soul into his singing perhaps a bit too much as he has a voice
suited to melody rather than metal styled screams which occasionally
happened in the set.
A fine set closed with my personal favourate track ‘Venice Of The North’
- a very Magnum styled number and even better live than on CD (not just
because bass player Chris Tomlin has a groovy set of green lights flashing
up and down his bass).
Sacred Heart played a blinding gig. They certainly get better each time I
see them, concentrating on the music (there were plenty of fellow musos in
the crowd who always form a sterner test than fans) and winning over the
crowd with ease. With songs like ‘Lost’ (this would be a hit single if it
ever got mainstream radio airplay) and the rifftastic ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Away’
you can’t go wrong. Some new numbers as well including ‘Promise’ which,
pardon the pun, showed much promise.
Vocalist/guitarists Paul Stead has an easy manner on stage and thankfully like some other melodic rock bands
steers clear of the stage clichés. (On a side note the best ever had to be
Japanese rockers Vow Wow, who to be fair struggled with their ‘k’s’, when I
saw them back in 1987 said proudly from the stage ‘We are ready to lick your
ass Hanley’ - quite).
Sacred Heart are made for the live arena and with just one lucky break as a support to a name band could win more new fans they so
richly deserve
I’d heartily recommend seeing any of these bands live. Okay you may not
know the tunes before you see them but I’d be surprised if you don’t leave a
gig with one of their CD’s and a convert to their music. Good to see UK
melodic hard rock is still thriving, but only just so go out there buy the
CD’s, attend the gigs and above all enjoy the music.
Review: Jason Ritchie
Artist website (Sacred Heart)
Artist website (Tara's Secret)
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