Written by : Karen Hetherington
Having seen one half of Rosco’s Riot, comprised of Singer/Guitarist Tim Knox and Guitarist Andy Brown play an acoustic set in Voodoo, Belfast late last summer I was left in little doubt of their musical abilities.
Their hard rocking debut album Crazy & Wild, released on 24th June 2016, which provided a heavy dose of originality, talent and incredible song writing made a huge impact on me and earned them a worthy 10/10 album review as well as a place on MYGLOBALMIND’S top albums list of 2016. The official launch for the album therefore, seemed a long time coming but the band have certainly been putting their talents to good use in the interim.
I expected that the launch which took place on 30th December 2016 in the Pavilion, Belfast would feature the album played in its entirety with possibly a couple of cover versions thrown in for good measure. As it happened, the band yet again exceeded my expectations with a lengthy performance featuring an impressive 15 songs and peppered with new tracks, all of which made an immediate and lasting imprint on me and I got it on good authority from Guitarist Andy Brown that they have nearly enough material for a second album…
Kicking off with hard hitting album opener “Done Deal” followed by “Gypsy Eyes” and “Lie Lie”, they then introduced new tracks “Little Darling” and “Only One” and I for one, was massively impressed with both. The set featured five new songs in total and “Girl”, “Tainted Soul” and “Begging for More” – which are all personal favourites of mine from the album were played towards the end, aptly concluding with the title track “Crazy & Wild”.
The powerful vocals emanating from Tim Knox, and the screaming guitars of Knox and Andy Brown alongside the dirty bass groove of James Quinn are a force to be reckoned with. Heavy duty drummer Craig Taylor, who cites the legendary John Bonham as an influence, pounded his way through the set with unrelenting force. Noting that Tim Knox wore a Skynyrd T-Shirt and Craig Taylor a Zeppelin one, I pondered with interest the electric mix of influences on the bands creativity.
I was lucky enough to obtain a copy of the set list, keen as I was to put names to the new tracks I had listened to throughout the evening and I confess I was slightly disappointed that “Kiss” (the only cover featured in the set), although played fantastically, had been substituted for Lynyrd Skynyrds “Simple Man”, a song which I had heard them play in their acoustic set and as cover versions go, it was exceptional.
Having competed in Highway to Hell – “Battle of the Bands”, Sheffield in September 2016 and with more than enough original material to fill full lengths sets, its high time Belfast based Rosco’s Riot were venturing farther afield to get the maximum exposure they rightly deserve and I await the follow up album – which I suspect may be slightly mellower, with much enthusiasm.
Support your local music scene people, there’s plenty of talent waiting to be discovered and if you’ve yet to discover this one, you are surely missing out…
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