King Charles Man Made Gallery Circus at The Riverside with a bit of Johnny Marr

Last nights gig was my first at The Riverside (formerly Sea), a night club about twenty feet away from the waters of the River Tyne and part of the Think Tank? empire. The gig was absolutely superb apart from the toilets overflowing and leaking onto the crowd below and threatening £30Ks worth of sound console that had to be protected by bin liners, they seriously need to resite the toilets. But I managed to avoid the shower and took a spot behind the consoles which gave us a better view of the bands. The names of the bands run together sound like some kind of profound statement and they all gave an amazing show

Man Made

Man Made on Tour

A three piece, long hair real rock ban, and another case of me not being too bothered about the support band, but I am so glad that I caught them . Shook hand and congratulated the guitarist after the gig and they can grace bigger stages than here. Vocals and guitars blended into excellent songs which made the time fly by and they are playing Think Tank? on March 7th so that gig should be put into your diary straight away but at the moment is not showing up on the web site.


The lead guitarist is Niles Marr son of Johnny Marr and he is pretty good, and that could explain a lot. I am so glad I saw them. Their facebook page is here.

Gallery Circus

I first saw Gallery Circus at a Burlesque night at Bar Loco (I think is was Barcolo then) , and expected a couple of angsty student, they were actually good and one of the highlights of the night. Five years and they are still a two piece playing a non stop exhilarating aural assault that took your breath away.The video for Hollywood drip gives you an idea of why you need to see these guys. Gallery Circus are something else.

By the end of their set, you really had had your moneys worth for the gig and the headliner was yet to appear....

King Charles

The fancy clothes and ringlets have gone , but there's still a fair barnet there, King Charles started with a new song solo, before the band hit the ground running with Mississippi Isobel. Kirsty said that every King Charles gig she goes to there's more and more people know the words to the songs. I still think he's the best thing since Adam Ant and the songs are catch as hell.

Several more favourites were run through before closing the main set with a cover of Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" running into Lady Percy, the crowd stamped and chanted for an encore and they werent disappointed. Another triumphal gig for King Charles leaving the fans wanting more and awaiting the new album

Oh by the way , this gig cost £13 , after seeing the acts , double that would have been cheap.

A fantastic night.