ROCK GODDESS, REDLINE, 02 ISLINGTON 2020
Written by Dawn Osborne on March 6, 2020
Redline are a group of older guys packing some pretty good firepower
in terms of guitar, packaged with pretty good vocals with roots firmly in the NWOBHM days. Subjects of songs accordingly run from ‘Empires’, ‘Battlecry’ and ‘Gods and Monsters’ to extreme sports with ‘King of the Mountain’. For fans of bands like Dio and Kingdom Come. They try hard to engage the audience and be entertaining and do a pretty good job.
Rock Goddess have a new bass player Jenny Lane who is vibrant and smiley and looks absolutely thrilled to be there, such that she can’t even help smiling during songs about dark topics like betrayal, but it’s lovely to see. Jody and Julie Turner are, of course, the backbone of the band, original members and as Jody recalls they started recording in the 70s. Still three blonde bombshells they still bring the no nonsense direct attitude and are truly old school NWOBHM.
The set holds a lot of new material, testament to the strength of the new album and proving that the band still deliver meat and potatoes, no holds barred, in your face metal that stands up to the old classics like ‘Make My Night’. If anything they have improved their ability over time to produce Heavy Metal Anthems and songs like ‘Are You Ready?’ And ‘Heavy Metal Rock n
Roll’ are surprisingly new for the rabble rousing value they deliver. Certainly Jody works hard to make sure the crowd clap and sing and get into it. She even gets them to sing Happy Birthday to John Turner their original manager, now retired and still proud father mid set.
Most of all, however, I am delighted to hear for the first time live since the girls reunited ‘Hell Hath No Fury’ which is the song I associate with the band from the old days, albeit as part of a medley with ‘Visitors’ and ‘Hold Me Down’.
A decent crowd turned out tonight, despite the coronavirus scare and the terrible weather, they were also prepared to scream and shout for these girls, no less than they deserve. Into their fifth decade (shush cos if you didn’t know you wouldn’t guess) these girls are still goin strong.
Dawn Osborne
