Burrfest 2020 The Dome Tufnell Park London 07/03/2020

Burrfest 2020

featuring Kaine, Absolva, Tytan, Airforce, Elixir and Blaze Bayley

The Dome, Tufnell Park London

07/03/2020

Words and Photos Stephen Johnson

The Dome in Tufnell Park in London was the venue for Burrfest, an event which is held as a Memorial for Clive Burr, who passed away in 2013, at the age of 56, after a long and protracted struggle with the condition Multiple Sclerosis.

All money raised from ticket sales, merchandise goes to MS Action in Walthamstow London, who worked with Clive Burr throughout his Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis.

Kaine were the first band to open proceedings on this event and they put in a confident performance, certainly making sure that even though they only had half an hour to play, they were going to make the most of it. The crowd warmed to them fairly quickly and gave them lots of applause at the right moments.

Absolva hit the stage next, knowing that they had to catch everyone’s attention right from the off and to be honest, they certainly did. Full of energy and ready to Rock. Any band that can hold your attention for 30 minutes, must be doing something right.

Tytan were up for Rocking straight after Absolva and they were huge fun to not only watch, but to listen to. There are 3 stalwart members of the band and they are Andy Thompson on Keyboards, Kevin Riddles on Bass and Vocals and Grant Foster on Vocals, and even though they may be of a certain age, however, onstage, they had enough energy to show that there’s Life in them old bones and nothing is gonna slow ‘em down. Thank goodness.

Airforce’s performance after Tytan was pretty Good. The band certainly made sure they were on top of their game musicianship wise and the bands new singer, Flavio Lino, certainly could hit the right notes when required. Much like Tytan, Airforce features stalwart members Tony Hatton on Bass, Doug Sampson on Guitars and Chop Pit on Guitars, and boy, were they good at playing their instruments. The crowd got into ‘em right from the off and showered them with cheers, whenever possible.

Elixir, for me, were the band of the night. Right from the off, they meant business and were definitely not gonna give a below par performance, especially when Elixir singer, Paul Taylor [on loan from Desolation Angels for the evening], said that Bassist Kevin Dobbs, would be retiring from the band and judging from Kevin’s reaction from the crowd, after they had showed their appreciation of his involvement of being in the band, by cheering and clapping, he definitely had a lump in his throat, as a result. Never the less, for the amount of time they were onstage, an hour, it went by in a flash and left me and the crowd wanting more. Sadly we didn’t get any more, but, what a cracking performance.

Headliner, Blaze Bayley, had the crowd eating out of his hands right from the off, judging by the amount of people moshing at the front, to his set-list that featured the Iron Maiden tunes that he sung on, namely ‘Lord Of The Flies’, ‘Sign Of The Cross’, Judgement Of Heaven’, ‘Fortunes Of War’, ‘When Two Worlds Collide’, ‘Virus’, ‘Lightning Strikes Twice’, ‘The Clansman’, ‘The Angel And The Gambler’, ‘Man On The Edge’ and ’Futureal’. Ably supported by his backing band, Absolva, who had played earlier on in the evening, ripped through the tracks musically, for all they were worth. Blaze was on top form, vocals wise.

All in all, an event that had great bands playing and a healthy crowd turnout, made sure that this event was going to be a resounding success.

Link

https://burrfest.co.uk/