I think the new Diamond Head singer is really good, he's obviously no where near as good as Sean Harris but he sounds quite like him, so I think they've made a good choice. First time I saw Diamond Head was in the Bungalow Bar just down the road from my house, there was only about 40 folk there and DH were absolutely mindblowing. It cost something like 50p to get in - unbelievable or what. It was a long time ago but I can still remember them doing Sucking My Love which seemed to last for about half an hour and it was magnificent.I just knew then that they were going to become very popular and only about 9 months later I saw them at the Penthouse in Glasgow and a wee while later I saw them play the Glasgow Apollo!! I bought the single Shoot out the Lights there and the album, the white album or lightning to the nations there, the one in white sleeve you could only get at the gigs. They were playing in King Tuts in Glasgow in July but I couldn't go cos I was away on holiday, I was totally gutted cos DH are still one of my fav bands plus King Tuts is one of my fav venues but hopefully they will play there again soon.
Even though the Bungalow Bar was just a wee backstreet pub, brill bands used to play there, I also saw there The EF Band, Witchfynde and Witchfynder General, Pallas etc.
I saw Praying Mantis support the Tygers of Pan Tang at a Glasgow Uni years ago. Both bands were fantastic. Also saw Tygers at Glasgow Apollo once and at Reading Festival. At the beginning of this year I saw John Sykes when he was singing for Thin Lizzy - he's still amazing and still got great voice and its weird but for a few songs he really sounded very much likePhil Lynott.
Tank - lol - I was listening to This Means War and Filth Hounds of Hades just the other night there. Tank are awesome and still a favourite band of mine - and I had the privilege of seeing them in Edinburgh in the 80s with another two bands playing on the same night - Tank came on first, then it was Girlschool and then it was the mighty Angel Witch!!!!! Wow absolutely killer concert that was.
And I just saw Motorhead about 2 weeks ago in Glasgow, the support being Girlschool who were fantastic as always - and In Flames, but they weren't my scene at all.
Gillan - yip seen him quite a few times, I'm big Gillan and Purple fan. Saw him 3 times at the Glasgow Apollo. Those 3 concerts were fantastic cos the support bands were brilliant as well - Budgie, White Spirit and the Tygers of Pan Tang (again). I'm sure I saw him at Reading Festival one year as well.
Deep Purple are playing in London in January so I'm thinking of taking a wee trip down to check them out - their new album Rapture of the Deep is brilliant, quite a few classic purple songs on that one.
Oh yes and I saw Saxon just about 4 weeks ago in Edinburgh - that was about 5th or 6th time seeing them - and they are still rocking hard and fast