Tonight's a first for me, seeing a talented musician who's a former sporting star. Former Superbike Champion James Toseland's band are in Birmingham tonight, I'm intrigued totally and can't wait to see them live.
Toseland's roots are from motorsport, in particular Superbikes, previously winning world championships in 2004 and 2007, retiring in 2011 due to injury, he has moved into music very successfully and focusing on his, apparently, first passion in life, which is music. What's motorsports loss is music's gain.
Toseland's come a long way from collaborating with Toby Jepson, former Little Angels front man (this is still continuing with the current album release). 'Renegades', Toseland's first studio album is classified as ROCK and beauties like 'Life is Beautiful', 'Crash Landing' and Title track 'Renegade' were all successful singles making it on to 'A' lists on national radio.
Since the bands infancy they have provided support to some substantial acts including The Darkness and Little Angels, and have been special guests to Status Quo, and Reef.
Mr Katie Melua has shown he's made the easy transition from motorsport to music, his vocals have been likened to 'Axl Rose's', which I'm sure is a complement in its self, tonight will tell.
'Cradle the Rage' is Toseland's current offering, it's the band's latest studio album since being signed to a label.
I got there quite late, so only saw the last fifteen minutes of support band 'Colour of Noise', I began to regret this as they sang their last three numbers. What an epic band, I'll have to keep my eyes peeled to see when they are playing another local gig so I can make an effort next time.
I didn't quite know what to expect with Toseland having ashamedly never heard any of their material before, so my lug holes were pinned bag and ready to listen.
The pit at the venue was quite small, I was just able to sit down on the barrier and grab a few snaps, I couldn't believe how close I was to the band, that doesn't happen very often! Big error by me sitting on the barrier, I ripped the arse out of my jeans when I got up which was a comedy error, but never mind.
I had forgotten how energetic ROCK gigs were, I loved the Prowess of the band and how they gave it their all on stage, I was lapping it up. The venue is quite small and when I saw the audience when I got there, I thought how on earth would I get a full sized camera backpack through that crowd, I did, they were all lovely. There were so many biker supporters all donned in their biking fleeces and jackets, I could seriously image Toseland becoming a regular at Download in all honesty, it was truly epic head banging stuff. The gig was 'Sold Out', it was no wonder they were all packed in like sardines.
How lovely are Toseland fans? Not what I expected, the Toseland Tourer's, a few devout fans (3) that were going to every date of the tour said I wouldn't be disappointed and they were right.
The first three songs whizzed by, 'Living in a Moment', 'Life's Beautiful' and 'Crash Landing', I had realised at this point that his vocals were like Axl Roses and that it was bloody loud, I just sat amazed at how epic they were on stage, all that leaning on amps with their guitar's, fist pumping in the air and serious passion about the music, I loved it.
The set was a 17 song stonker with tracks from both albums. The set list included: 'Nothing You Can Do About it', 'Livin A Lie', 'Good Eye Blind', 'Never Love Another' and 'Just No Way'.
This date was one of the early ones from the tour, you seriously need to catch Toseland if you're up for it and ready to give it some, you won't be disappointed!
The encore left the best till last with 'Cradle the Rage', 'Renegade' and 'We'll Stop at Nothing'. If this set is anything to go by I should've got my arse in gear a long time ago and made an effort to see the epic Toseland. I won't miss out again believe me, and the fact he's easy on the eye is a total bonus, Katie Melua is a lucky lady.
FUTURE GIGS
sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.