Inglorious, Wayward Sons, O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London, 22 January 2018

Words & Pictures: Adrian Hextall / MindHex Media

Two of the upcoming and, dare I say it, ‘on fire’ bands on the UK rock scene at the moment provided the support for LA Glam rock [insert additional descriptive genre of choice here] act Steel Panther.

With a full UK tour on offer and decent sizedf venues allowing the bands to present themselves to large numbers of people, this was a great opportunity to sell British rock music to the populace.

Wayward Sons

First up, Wayward Sons, fronted by former Little Angels lead singer Toby Jepson. Wayward Sons are, according to Toby, “the only band I want to play with for the rest of my career”. For those people bemoaning the loss of Little Angels, as Toby succinctly put it as we spoke to him, “It’s over, finished. I get it, there’s a fan base there but Wayward Sons is me now.” Solid words and to be fair the same phrase that should be uttered by all people in a band is “this is the band I want to be in for the rest of my career.” After all, if you don’t think that way, then get out as that band isn’t the right one for you!

That fire, attitude and determination has spread through the band and into the performance they gave as opening act on the tour. You often see a band being described as giving 110% but Wayward Sons simply charge into a set at 100 miles per hour and never take their foot off the gas. With only 30 minutes to deliver a short sharp set, even Toby’s usual between song banter with the crowd as one or the other members of the band, often Nick on bass, shouts out a “1-2-3-4” and off the go again into the next song.

Kudos to the band for sticking to WS material only, as it makes sure the crowd know just who they have one stage and that it’s not just a passing project. Let’s see what Toby & Co. can do with this as the man simply oozes talent.

SETLIST:

Alive / Ghost / Killing Time / Crush / Small Talk / Until the End

Inglorious

There’s a rumour going round that Nathan James, Inglorious charismatic front man, blessed with the sort of pipes that should really be used as the future template for cathedral organs worldwide, is not well. Suffering from flu, needing to save his voice, not seen until the first few bars of the opening track ‘Read All About It’, have been played, when he stepped onto stage, opened his mouth and uttered the opening line, all fears were allayed and the set followed that of Wayward Sons approach and simply went for it.

Another short set that saw the time barely clocking in at 35 or so minutes still allowed Nathan, Andreas, Drew, Colin and Phil to hammer out the hits and ensure the crowd were entertained.

‘Breakaway’ raised the roof, saw the audience engage and from that moment onward, the Inglorious itch got under their skin and helped make the set very special indeed. I’ve never seen Inglorious put on a bad show, they etntertain, have high qulaity songs that hark back to a better time in rock music and in Nathan and Andreas, have the typical frontman \ guitarist pairing that the classic acts like the Stones, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Guns ‘n Roses and more all have. When a band has that pairing the songs suiting each of them equally, it opens up the songs to the rest of the band to embellish and Inglorious do this with ease. Be it the paring of Colin and Phil carrying the heart of every song or the welcome return of Drew Lowe who adds the similar laid back approach to playing as the late great Steve Clark did with Def Leppard, Inglorious are a band where all the members are in sync with each other.

The final three songs wring the emotion (and possibly flu virus over the first few rows) from Nathan with crowd pleaser ‘Holy Water’ as always a huge highlight.

With both acts ending the set with an “Until… “song, all that remains to be said is .. until next time for there most definitely will be.