Steevi Jaimz & Dirty Penny - Nottingham Rock City & Wildside - 4th Sept 2010
After picking up my friend, Tony James in Warwick we had a bit of a drive and arrived in Nottingham, ahead of time. We proceeded to find the venue, Rock City and find a car park nearby that would be open late and was not too expensive. We ended up asking a policeman and after getting directions to parking spaces, the policeman replied “ See ya later”. I turned to Tone and said “I really hope we don’t see him later!” So now on foot we tried to work out how to get to the venue where the 1st bands of the night were playing. Tone went into a nearby shop and asked the shopkeeper “Where the Wildside was” and got a very strange look. I on the other hand stood in the street and shouted over to a rocker type character “ S’cuse me mate, do ya know how to get to the Wildside?” Fortunately he did know and pointed us in the right direction. After one more ask of directions we found ourselves almost upon the 1st venue of the night the Wildside Club, based at The Central pub.
£7 in, 3 bands, rock disco and podium dancing girls… We entered and seemed to walk into a time capsule with glam music pumping out, Poison Pussycat, Crue etc…Big hair, tattoo’s, leather, spandex, fishnets, high heels, makeup coloured hair, young rockers, old rockers… Glam Heaven! Glamtastic place! Not a massive pub but split into 3 parts the beer garden/smoking area, the band room and the bar/poolroom.
So after grabbing a beer, we met up with DJ Chris Nelson and Iggz from the Pistolero’s and had a chat with them before turning our attention to the 1st band of the evening… The Black Stars fronted by a Nikki Sixx looking lead singer. Billed as sleaze gutter-punk stars they played a short and in your face set. They had a great sound and the audience seemed to enjoy them although they stayed towards the back of the small room. Influenced, as were all the bands on this bill tonight, by Motley Crue. And they came across very much sounding like them vocally. Didn’t really know any of the tunes but they sounded good.
Falling Red were up next, but again I didn’t know any of the tunes but they had attitude and songs and image to backit up... They came across like the Crue again and involved the audience with there “fuck you” chant on one of the last songs… They seemed to be winding down on the final song until breaking off into an old style rock n roll tune in a very Crue way… Great band that I’d go check out again…or check them out here http://www.myspace.com/fallingredband
So after a short wait the main band were due on, Dirty Penny from the US of A. Unfortunately they were later on than we expected and only got to see the 1st tune which I think was called “ If I were you I’d hate me too”. The audience by this time had all moved forward and the place was packed… Can’t really comment on the band but the 1st song seemed to really rock and the audience seemed really into then…Check them out here http://www.myspace.com/dirtypennysucks
So a walk back up to Rock City after asking the door man the quickest way back… He said to go back the same we had come but avoid Market Square unless we were brave… We arrived back and found that the entrance fee had risen to £5 instead of the £3.75 and 1st drink free as advertised… We met up with Chris Nelson on the street outside who was phoning Steevi Jaimz to find out if he could get into the gig free as there was also no guest list… He was also supposed to be doing an interview with Steevi. No sign that he was going to get in without paying, he decided to return to the Wildside. Oh well at least he was also going get to see the dancing girls after the Dirty Penny finished which we were to miss out on.
Anyway we arrived in Rock city’s downstairs bar and Poison Crue etc was blasting out in a smoke filled although empty room, with Steevi’s backdrop on the wall above the stage area. We waited around for 20 mins before the room filled with about 20 or so people and Steevi hit the stage kicking off with an intro tape of noises and followed by the 4 piece band kicking off with My Private Hell. The band compromised of Mohawk drummer and glam looking bass player and a young long haired baby faced guitarist, who seemed quite able in his role although only being in the band for a week. Steevi with almost waist length blonde hair, white vest with tattoo’s adorning nearly every part of his visible skin, proceeded to sing but struggled for a while as the monitors were not working. Two songs in and he seemed to have banged his forehead somehow and had signs of blood. Thru out the short set he seemed to spend a lot of time down on his knees and went through numerous bottles of water either spitting the water out or letting is roll out from his mouth soaking his vest and trousers. On several occasions, and especially on ‘I’m Still Crazy’ he pulled up his vest and proceeded to scratch himself across his chest with his fingernails. His between song banter was a little limited and during the songs you felt that he wanted to be out into the audience more or on a bigger stage, to run round. The audience had become bigger by the time he was on but not to filled capacity by any means. We were given only two Tigertailz tracks Shoot to Kill and a wasted, in my opinion, Living Without you, as Steevi let the audience sing too much of the song and then had a middle piece where the band had an audience participation already. We got an early Steevi song in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the rest of the tunes from the latest album, and as good as it is the songs didn’t quite cut it live with the sound problems etc… But overall we enjoyed it although a very short set of about 40mins or less, with no encore.
We got to have a chat with Steevi after about 30mins of waiting in which time the place packed out and the glam tunes cranked out from the disco. The sights were great to see in the way that the audience were dressed. One woman in particular stood out as all she seemed to be wearing were strips of black insulation tape to cover her parts… We were totally gob smacked by what we were seeing. I thought I’d be cheeky and asked the woman if I could have my picture taken with her, to my surprise she agreed! We went out side and had a short chat with Steevi before heading home in the early hours. Incidentally I asked Steevi when he was going to play some more dates in the UK, his reply “never” He’d rather play other countries where he is more popular and where he doesn’t get to play the same night as some other glam band on down the road.
