News Segment
SHARK ISLAND TO REUNITE?:
June 27, 2005
Wow! Caught an amazing show from Gotthard – or as Mrs L likes to call ’em, ‘Goatherd’ – at the Garage last night. The Swiss band had been away from 13 years but showed no sign of being put off by a small attendance, their vibrant, sometimes jubilant set falling just 15 minutes short of the two-hour mark. Like a younger version of David Coverdale, Steve Lee is without doubt one of the finest singers out there, and Goatherd… er, Gotthard, have a catalogue that simply drips with quality. Besides covers of Joe South’s ‘Hush’ (best known as a Deep Purple song) and ‘Mighty Quinn’ by Manfred Mann, we got most of the new ‘Lipservice’ album (‘All We Are’, ‘Dream On’, ‘I’ve Seen An Angel Cry’, ‘Said And Done’, ‘I Wonder’, ‘I’m Alive’, ‘The Other Side Of Me’, ‘Cupid’s Arrow’) and a smouldering rendition of debut album sizzler ‘Firedance’, plus ‘Top Of The World’, ‘One Life, One Soul’, ‘Let It Be’, ‘Fist In Your Face’ and ‘Mountain Mama’ among others.
Encores comprised the quality balladry of ‘Heaven’ and super-hooky, almost Glitter-groove rock of ‘Lift You Up’, ‘Anytime Anywhere’ sending us all home tired and sporting silly grins.
Oh yeah, some cool news for melodic hard rock connoisseurs; former Shark Island/Bernie Torme bassist Chris Heilmann was present, and he revealed that Shark Island’s classic line-up – completed by vocalist Richard Black, guitarist Spencer Sercombe and drummer Greg Ellis – has agreed to make a reunion album. A group thoroughly ahead of their time, as proven by the silky durability of 1989’s ‘Law Of The Order’, that’s a prospect to savour.
Courtesy of www.daveling.co.uk