The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
ROCKTALK GIG GUIDE BY ANDREW WELSH
Hard rock duo Ricky Warwick and Damon Johnson are going acoustic in Dundee tomorrow.
The Black Star Riders pair will be playing highlights from their respective careers at Church. It’s one of just three Scottish gigs on the songsmiths’ UK-wide tour and they’ve got loads of material to pick from.
Ricky, 52, fronted Scots metallers The Almighty for 13 years before releasing six solo albums, while Damon, 54, earned his spurs as a founder member of American blues rockers Brother Cane – who released three cult albums in the 90s – co-wrote Alice Cooper’s 2005 album Dirty Diamonds and earned a lucrative turn for a few years as a tour guitarist for the glam legend.
The LA-based pair first collaborated as members of Scott Gorman’s revived Thin Lizzy when Damon joined the classic rockers in 2011 – a year after Northern Irishman frontman Ricky – following the completion of his second solo album Release.
The live-only band subsequently morphed into Black Star Riders in late-2012 in order to throw original, non-Lizzy work into the mix and to date they’ve released three albums, All Hell Breaks Loose (2013), The Killer Instinct (2015) and last year’s top 10 hit Heavy Fire.
Tickets for the Ward Road gig are £16.75 via Tickets Scotland.
Idlewild frontman Roddy Woomble’s latest UK tour wends its way to Kinross tonight.
Fresh from kicking off his travels with a well-received gig at Perth Theatre last week, the Isle of Iona resident is set to make his debut appearance at the Green Hotel where he’ll perform a mix of solo and band material.
Roddy’s acoustic set will feature accompaniment from his Idlewild colleague and Hazey Janes guitar and piano maestro Andrew Wasylyk.
Tickets £21.50 via Ticketweb. Hotly-tipped alt-folk popsters Brownbear have two Courier Country shows coming up.
Glasgow songsmith Matt Hickman and his cohorts will be playing tracks off their debut album What Is Home? at Dunfermline’s PJ Molloys tonight and Beat Generator on Thursday. Support at both gigs comes from Th13ves, with Luke La Volpe and Amy Lou also on the Fife bill plus Ded Rabbit playing Dundee.
Tickets £7/£6 via Ticketweb. A night of Hendrix, Clapton and Cream classics lies in store at the Green Hotel on Wednesday.
London-based power trio Voodoo Room play standout works from all three rock titans, with their credits including the likes of Steve Winwood, Massive Attack, Arthur Brown and Steve Winwood. Tickets £19.40 via Ticketweb. Soaring rock four-piece Echoic play Perth and Dundee this weekend.
Formed in 2015, the Reading outfit have earned support slots with Rat Boy, Arcane Roots, Sundara Karma, The Coronas and Pulled Apart By Horses, with their sophomore EP Shadows Of You being championed by the likes of Kerrang! and reaching No 14 on the iTunes album chart last year.
Echoic are at the Fair City’s Green Room tomorrow and Church on Sunday, where they’ll be supported by local riff exponents Blind Unicorn and Kings Indian, along with Perth bluesmeisters Empire. Admission’s £5. Ameripolitan songsmith Ags Connolly has a Kinross date on Thursday.
A Radio Two favourite, the Oxfordshire troubadour has supported the likes of Roseanne Cash, and his song When Country Was Proud was named as one of the genre’s top 50 of the last 30 years by Country Music People magazine.
Tickets £15.20 via Ticketweb. Manchester-based tribute outfit The Smiths Ltd are at Beat Generator Live! tonight. Tickets £11.50 from Dundee’s Grouchos and Tickets Scotland. There’s a big budget Pink Floyd homage being staged at Perth Concert Hall next week.
The Birmingham-based UK Pink Floyd Experience perform classics from every phase of the art rock legends’ career, with visuals projected onto a huge round screen in the style of their heroes’ own shows. Tickets £25 from horsecross.co.uk. The UK’s only touring tribute to art punk legends Devo are at Beat Generator tomorrow.
We Are Not Devo play all the Akron, Ohio’s finest sons’ leftfield favourites, including Jocko Homo, Come Back Jonee and Whip It. Tickets £9.50 from Grouchos and Tickets Scotland. Rising guitar outfits The Love Affair, Novella and Plasmas are at Clarks On Lindsay Street on Thursday. Tickets £5 from the venue, Eventbrite, Grouchos and Assai Records. Fife six-piece The Sunset Strip play PJ Molloys tomorrow with support from Smithereens, The Plastic Mac and Steve James. Covers combo Cherry Bombz play McDaniels tonight, the Glens tomorrow and the Tavern (Sunday), with rivals Headroom (tomorrow) and Bedrock (Sunday) at Number 57.