If you’re one of the (very) lucky few who managed to catch
Summers live performance at the recent ZRock festival in Bilston - I say lucky
as, a) hardly any fecker attended the stellar line up of bands, and b) the
schedule was fucked about with so much on the Sunday, your average punter would
need they psychic skills of Doris Stokes to know that they were going to play
an hour earlier than intended!
Those who were lucky enough to see this young AOR-tastic band were left with a nice warm fuzzy feeling
at the end of their set. You see, Summers are one of THE BEST melodic rock
bands to come out of Southampton,
the South Coast, the UK!
It’s inevitable that this band, which lets face it, are way
to young to be writing shit hot AOR
songs, and will be tagged with all plaudits that lead firmly to Sheffield and Def Leppard
comparisons. But they say if it aint broke, don’t fix it, Summers make no
apology whatsoever for being a 21st Century Leppard. A 80s sounding Leppard in
the name of Summers is better than the current actual Leppard. On the evidence
of the first few listens of 364, this album is that strong it could have been
written by Def
Leppard any time between
1980-1984. This alone tells you how much I love this album, and know doubt you
will one once you get your mitts on this potential future classic
Summers get their name for the 2 founding brothers Crash
(Vox) and Ricky (Bass & BVs)
Summers. Making up the band are Jase (Guitar & BVs), Joedy Rose
(Guitar & BVs), and Andy
Pope (Drums & BVs)
It’s almost Def Leppard by numbers - for ‘Steal Away’, read ‘Animal’,
for ‘Tool Late’, read ‘When Love and Hate Collide’. This isn’t criticism here,
its high praise indeed
Opening track, 'Catch Me' is a catchy as baseball covered in
molasses. With a chorus that gets you immediately hooked, it’s as clear as day
that Summers have a talent for all things melodic. Crash is as close to 80s Joe Elliott
than a 80s Joe
Elliott is to Joe Elliott!!
I know what I'm talking about - I think!
All the guys chip in with BVs and that itself is a beautiful thing. I’m a
sucker for 4 & 5 part harmonies, and few can muster such quality like
Summers have here
All the tracks on offer have been written with maximum
enjoyment to the listener, catchy hooks, great solos, even greater choruses.
The production for an unsigned band makes them seem more like a stadium band.
This could surely be a target for them given the right circumstances
The only question is whether or not this style of melodic
rock has had its day. Certainly AOR/Melodic
Rock has had its day, but currently the resurgence and demand in melodic rock
(take Glee for example) is a high a stock rating as it’s had since the early
90s and that’s not a bad thing. I certainly hope that there is a future for
Summers out there as a damn site more people deserve to hear music of this unparalleled
quality. Someone needs to get off their fat arse and sign this band up, and NOW. '364'
is infinitely better than most of the stuff I've heard the past couple of
years, from new or established bands.
I beg you to catch Summers when they return to The Robin 2
in August on their own headline gig. I'll be the one offering refunds if you
aren’t in agreement with how good they are live
95/100
www.officialsummers.com
Summers - 364
1. Shot In The dark
2. Superhero
3. Girls
4. Too Late
5. Sometimes
6. Steal Away
7. Lets Make Love
8. Billy
9. Lets Go Round
10. Told You So
11. Terminator
12. Rockmachine
2. Superhero
3. Girls
4. Too Late
5. Sometimes
6. Steal Away
7. Lets Make Love
8. Billy
9. Lets Go Round
10. Told You So
11. Terminator
12. Rockmachine
Hit the nail on the head with that review.
ReplyDeleteNicely done!
Saw this band supporting Tyketto last year, great stuff. I assume the album will get released one day.
ReplyDelete