The Sheffield Scenester

January is traditionally a bleak month on the gig front and this month being snowed under with sub zero temperatures was no help at all. We headed for The Boardwalk to enjoy a nice cold Guinness and see a couple of tribute bands, unfortunately due to adverse weather we were among the few who ventured out.

Beginning the night was Sack Sabbath – an homage to Birmingham’s finest ever band, the doom anthemed Black Sabbath. With Toni Iommi’s classic riffs cutting through, the show opened with ‘Children Of The Grave’, decked out in blue tinted shades, trademark white tasselled shirt and large metal crucifix, Ozzy shambled on. At this point it might be worth mentioning that we are talking about their namesakes Tony IOU and Ozzy Asbeen. With unbridled enthusiasm the pair of them ploughed through classics such as ‘Iron Man’, ‘War Pigs’ and ‘Paranoid’ whilst treating the converted to one of my personnel favourites ‘Symptom Of The Universe’. When it came to singing ‘Black Sabbath’ they realised they didn’t have the introductory backing track – for those who are unaware it starts off with a church bell tolling in a thunder storm. ‘War Pigs’ was a definite crowd favourite as singer Ozzy got the small crowd going with a singback throughout, for me all I could think of was having played it numerous times on Guitar Hero so I was happy doing a bit of air guitar to it. I’d actually forgotten how good some of Sabbaths tracks were especially with the encore of N.I.B. which I found to be the highlight of the set. I was too young to see Sabbath live but I did buy the albums this act covered, it brought back some good memories of my youth. The show itself like most tribute acts concentrated on the most prominent frontmen of the band leaving bass and drums to happily take a back seat to the proceedings. All said and done they were worth traipsing through the ice and snow to see.

Following this was one of Britain’s - if not metals most famous bands, Iron Maiden, as incarnated under the title Iron On Maiden. They opened with Winston Churchills ‘Fight Them On The Beaches’ speech which as any good Maiden fan will tell you is the intro to ‘Aces High’. In unison drummer, bassist and axemen hit the stage to be closely followed by Matt AKA Bruce Dickinson. Backed by quality musicianship from all corners Matt proved himself more than capable of reproducing Bruce’s powerful lung-busting gymnastics. With a good mix of new and old tracks the set proved a real winner with the dedicated crowd who could be seen singing along to every track. When it came to singing ‘The Trooper’ Matt entered the stage brandishing a battle torn Union Jack much to the crowds applause – another one of my favourite tracks of the night!! Thrown together with ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ and an encore of ‘Run To The Hills’ it was a fine end to relaxing evening.

Of the two bands I think I preferred Sabbath as they were more character driven, with a touch of humour about themselves. I’m not saying there was anything wrong with Maiden but they stayed more focused on the musical side of the tribute scene. I think what really swung it for me was that I’ve seen Maiden back in their early days and each performance was joined by their ‘mascot’ Eddie, even if some guy dressed in raggy clothing and a mask had come on that would of been enough to tip the scales. Despite that with plenty of tribute acts coming to Sheffield over the coming months I’d urge anyone to see at least one of them.

Words by Geoff Buckthorpe
Photos by Gail Buckthorpe