IT BITES and TOUCHSTONE @ The Robin 2, Bilston, Nr Wolverhampton, ENGLAND. (05/10/2008)

with support from Sunday 5th October, 2008 @ The Robin 2, Bilston, Nr Wolverhampton, ENGLAND.
It was really pleasing to see another good crowd at the Robin for tonight’s show, as it’s always encouraging to see people making the effort to get to gigs. The lure to see It Bites obviously proved to be a popular one, particularly with the prospect of many new songs from their long awaited album “The Tall Ships” making the set list and the still clear memories of last years Summers End gig here at the same venue, it was always going to be a huge enticement to see them again. However, all that would have to wait a while as the show opened with the melodic rock of support band Touchstone. Unfortunately, due to a slight cock-up on the navigation front combined with a road closure and a woeful lack of useful signage in Dudley, we missed a sizable portion of the openers set! This turned out to be a real shame as from what we did see it looked to be an enjoyable slice of arty, progressive rock. Not being at all familiar with the band or their material and coming in midway through their gig, it was always going to be difficult to make a full assessment, but immediately you were struck by the pleasant female vocals of Kim Seviour that generally harmonised very well with the vocals of Keyboard player Rob Cottingham. The Touchstone sound worked well with guitars and keyboards working in synergy with the vocal harmonies and some really nice guitar solos from *Adam Hodgson* that further augmented and built their epic song style.

The songs we heard featured mostly from their debut album “Discordant Dreams” which was released last year and as well as the title track included, *“Dignity”, “Black Tide”,* and *“The Beggars Song - Part 2”. I am fairly certain that “Mad Hatters”* was also played earlier in the set, which was a song from their first studio EP of the same name (available on iTunes). I know much of this as throughout the gig there was a heavy sales patter by Kim to push the merchandise, which I guess when a band is self-financing tours is just one of those understandable needs and obviously stuck in my mind, mainly because it became just very slightly tiresome. Apologies for no live pictures of the band, but I was concentrating with the limited time on forming a view of the music. On the whole it was an enjoyable set from a very competent band; the songs sound very interesting, deserve further investigation (we’ll have to checkout the album for a more measured opinion) and they certainly kept an appreciative crowd happy for (I understand) around 40 minutes with a worthy performance.

After a quick changeover, on came the band that most were here to see. It Bites took to the stage greeted by an appreciative and spirited welcome - the opening sequence of *“Oh My God”* with the repeated ‘I gottcha words’ reverberated out into the crowd, who reacted with great cheers and applause. A strong opening number to launch the show just like it does on the new album and then straight into the equally infectious “Ghosts”, both well played and the sound settles into one of great balance and clarity and at just about the right volume (well done Tom!). And then seamlessly, it’s time for a brief interjection of some older material with live favourite *“All In Red”* and with guitar/vocalist *John Mitchell* demanding “Come on Bilston talk to me!”

It was nice to notice how much more at ease Mitchell seemed this time around, he has obviously settled in place nicely now and was soon chatting to the crowd asking who had bought the new album and if not, why not?, to which one wag replied “the credit crunch” - an excellent answer that had everyone laughing. Back to the music and a further new song, “The Wind That Shakes The Barley” which everyone was singing along to and was another good example of the arguably more accessible direction the new material has taken and features great work by both John Mitchell on guitar and John Beck on keyboards.

As the applause died down, we were introduced to the latest member of the band, the bass player Lee Pomeroy who recently replaced the longstanding but dwindling commitment of founding member Dick Nolan. Poor Lee was submitted to the most embarrassing “Mr Pom’s, he can do no wrong” crowd sung song initiated by Mitchell and then a further thwarting when Lee’s love for Rush is uncaringly disclosed to the insensitive crowd - poor lad. But it’s soon forgotten as the opening bars of “Plastic Dreamer” echo around the room and everyone is soon singing away once again.

And then its time for a prop change and some lovely brown stools are revealed (and I am of course talking about ‘backless and armless single seats supported usually on legs’ as opposed to anything related to faecal matter - this isn’t a Dillinger Escape Plan gig!). It turned out to be a prelude to both the John’s then performing a cracking acoustic version of “Once Around The World” and seamlessly segued into “Still Too Young To

John Mitchell and John Beck (It Bites)

Remember”, with some beautiful lead work from Mitchell and the incorrigible sing-a-long “don’tcha know, don’tcha know, you know” chorus. The seating was removed and another oldie takes us back onto electric instruments with “Never Go To Heaven” and again showcasing the pleasing talents of Mitchell’s guitar solo work. But the award for most catchy song of the night must go to “Great Disasters” with the ridiculously addictive chorus that had everyone singing along once again and with the live version sounding far more reggae infused than previously realised.

A section of classics songs followed to finish the set with the very 'proggy' “Old Man And The Angel”, the more hard rock “Midnight” and ending with another crowd favourite “Screaming On The Beaches”, the latter of which included more guitar heroics from Mitchell and the very entertaining ‘Vampires’ segment. The band thanks everyone and disappears off stage to tumultuous applause and sustained raucous shouting...

It is after what seems like an age they reappear for an encore. Apparently not going down well in Cardiff (poor jealous Welsh boys), John introduces the marathon length song entitled “This is England” with it’s classic Ken Hensley / John Lord-esque keyboard riff. Fifteen minutes later and with the ‘real’ last song of the night they finish the show with “Kiss Like Judas” that has the crowd jumping around like loonies and completes a very enjoyable hour and three quarters of entertainment.

Lee Pomeroy, John Mitchell and John Beck (It Bites)

It was a good show with the band on top form and looking very relaxed with each other. There were impressive performances from Mitchell and Beck, and with Lee Pomeroy fitting in well and looking like he enjoyed himself (which is more than could be said of Dick at last years gig!). We must not forget Bob Dalton who throughout provided such a solid backbone of rhythm and hit those drums so powerfully you could literally feel the emotions but yet always with such control and finesse it continually gave a reassuring seal of quality to the whole performance. Yes, a damn good show and one that looked to be well enjoyed by all who attended.