Artists: Midnite City, Continental Lovers
Venue: Sheffield, The Corporation
Date: 30 November 2024
"Once again, Midnite City delivered (when do they not?) and I’m happy to report that none of Santa’s elves were harmed due to tonight’s Christmas show being held in November."
Midnite City have treated their fans (the Midnite Army) for several years with an end of year Christmas show, and once again they chose The Corporation in Sheffield. I have a thing about celebrating Christmas in November; however, I’ll let the band off on this occasion being so close to December.
Tonight’s support came by way of Nottingham’s Glam Punksters Continental Lovers. The quartet hit the stage bang on the scheduled time of 7.45 pm and launched into their personal brand of sleazy, dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll. All twelve songs were taken from their recently released self-titled debut album, and I’m sure they could have squeezed in a couple of others had it not been for the guitar issues experienced by frontman Joe “Desglose” Maddox. Maddox, along with Ben Webster (lead guitar), Keri K Sinn (bass) and Ace Carlton (drums) get straight to the point with their songs, no messing, with some barely reaching the two-minute mark. Highlights were set opener ‘St. Joan’, The Ramones-style ‘Paraffin Lips’, the fast and furious ‘Can’t Get Her Out Of My Head’ (not a cover of the Kylie Dance classic) and ‘The Girl’.
Fortunately, Maddox sorted his guitar gremlins mid-show before dedicating their latest single ‘Wedding Song’ to his Mum, as it would have been her celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary today; sadly, his dad passed away fifteen years ago. Prior to the cover ‘Make Up Your Mind’, Maddox enquired, to very little acknowledgement, as to whether the audience knew the American Punk band The Dead Boys or their singer Stiv Bators. The latter I did recognise having seen his next band, The Lords Of The New Church, when I was a teenager.
The boys nearly lost their street cred with the four-minute plus ‘Dale Arden’, but were back to their standard-length track with closer ‘Let’s Go Out The Tonight’. I enjoyed Continental Lovers more than I expected as anything related to Punk is not normally in my wheelhouse.
Setlist (contains spoilers)
Concluding their UK tour and a terrific Sunday afternoon slot at the recent Firefest, Midnite City finished the year in traditional fashion with a fantastic show at The Corporation. It was a bizarrely warm evening in Sheffield and there looked to be just over a hundred fans in attendance by the time Midnite City hit the stage. Looking round, I think I was one the eldest in audience. I remember when music like this ruled the world, but it’s nice that the band are attracting a new legion of fans, including quite a few females. Indeed, along with their Swedish counterparts Crazy Lixx, Midnite City truly embrace the “Hair Metal” tag, and keep the music alive and kicking from the glorious halcyon days of the eighties.
Drummer Ryan Briggs and keyboard player Shawn Charvette were already in position at the back of the stage when the sirens of ‘Outbreak’ signalled the start of the show. They were soon joined by guitarist Miles Meakin and bassist Josh “Tabbie” Williams sporting a Santa hat to remind us that this was the Christmas show. They were then joined by the effervescent frontman Rob Wylde as they launched into the fitting ‘Ready To Go’. Wylde always likes to work the crowd, but he didn’t need to this evening as the majority were already hardcore fans singing along to every word. To that end, it was probably the most relaxed I’ve seen him, which constituted for a brilliant show.
I was pleasantly surprised at how good the audio was, especially the backing vocals of Charvette, Meakin and Williams, which were very high in the mix, providing their signature sound; however, the lighting wasn’t the greatest, with Ryan and Shawn confined to the shadows at the back of the stage. After ‘Someday’ Rob thanked Continental Lovers, The Corporation, Rob (sound engineer) and of course the Midnite Army. The phenomenal ballad ‘Hardest Heart To Break’ had the crowd singing the first “Na, na, na…” of the evening.
The hour-and-forty-minute set contained songs from all four of their impressive studio albums to date and pretty much followed the order of the recent shows; however, Rob and the boys had promised a couple of surprises this evening. The first was ‘All Fall Down’, one of my favourite tracks from the last opus ‘In At The Deep End’, which was surprisingly being played live for the very first time this evening, and despite only one rehearsal (the soundcheck earlier in the afternoon) sounded fantastic. Hopefully, it will become a staple of their future sets. From the least played song to probably their most played song, ‘Summer Of Our Lives’. Then it was on to their most streamed song on YouTube: ‘You Don’t Understand Me’. Although proud of the fact, at this level it brings basically no revenue to the band, so Wylde was eager to thank the fans for buying physical product as that’s the only way the smaller bands can survive in this day and age.
Tonight also marked the one-year anniversary from the band’s last trip to Japan, Wylde recollecting how he nearly had a nervous breakdown on the flight over to the land of the rising sun as some of his luggage had gone missing. Fortunately, it was there when they landed. ‘Like There’s No Tomorrow’ preceded the instrumental ‘SONIKKU TO NAKKURU’ (which I believe translates to “Sonic and Knuckles”) where Miles got to show off his licks; a far better way of doing it than just a technical solo, which can be mind-numbingly tedious for non-musicians in the audience. Band introductions followed, plus a surprise presentation for super fan Rebecca Robson, when Rob’s fiancée, Amy Starr, presented her with a birthday cake and the whole Corporation sang her “Happy birthday”.
The symbiotic ‘Raise The Dead’ and ‘They Only Come Out At Night’ are always a highlight and tonight was no exception. ‘Heaven’s Falling’ was dedicated to more uber-fans, Harry & Charlotte, along with the Midnite Army, and Rob’s mum. He and the rest the band clearly found this evening’s show very cathartic after recent personal family issues. The second surprise of the evening was a superb cover of the Bon Jovi (“when they were cool”) classic ‘I’d Die For You’ from their 1986 multi-platinum album ‘Slippery When Wet’. Wylde then announced it was “Party time”, cue: ‘Can’t Wait For The Nights’ including some cheesy fun with a singalong between Team 1 (Miles) and Team 2 (Josh); I was in the latter, and we won!
The Midnite City National Anthem ‘Gimme Love’ beckoned the end of the performance. Fortunately, no messing with going on and off stage and the superb show was brought to a fitting finale with the classic ‘We Belong’. Once again, Midnite City delivered (when do they not?) and I’m happy to report that none of Santa’s elves were harmed due to tonight’s Christmas show being held in November.
Setlist (contains spoilers)
Review: Mark Donnelly
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