Gotta say, I was really looking forward to seeing Slaves to Gravity, supporting Aiden at the Birmingham Barfly, last Sunday evening. Having been named 'Kerrang's Best Newcomers' earlier in the year, and having produced a stunning debut album in 'Scatter the Crow', my expectations were higher than usual for this band.


click the image for the interview

We arrived early for an interview with singer Tommy Gleeson (nice guy, check it out elsewhere on this page) and this gave us the chance to see them soundcheck, with the band belting out a cracking version of album opener 'Heaven is a Lie' pretty much straight out of the box! This was definitely gonna be a good night!

Come the actual gig, I settled into a spot by the bar (where there was plenty of room, because none of the audience looked old enough to drink!) The band then proceeded to impress the hell out of me with their brand of Seattle inspired Grunge/Melodic rock sounding all the better for being cranked out loud, live and heavy!

Tommy undoubtedly has a great voice: sounding like the son of some weird (& pretty unlikely) union between Dave Grohl, Scott Welland and Chris Cornell! Those are pretty illustrious names to be compared to for a young English lad, but his vocal style melds the best of all three with with seamless ease.

Their set list covered all the highlights from their album (after all, there isn't a weak song on it!) with the singles 'Mr Regulator', 'Meantime', 'Big Red' and 'Doll Size' all gaining an extra, harder dimension in a 'live' environment.
For me, they totally owned tonight's gig. For a bunch of guys still in their twenties, STG are clearly seasoned musicians, having 'done their time' with their previous band the Ga Ga's (excepting new guitarist Mark Verney) and it shows in spades. (Headliners Aiden sounded one dimensional and immature by comparison. Sorry guys!)


click the image for more photos

If there's any justice in this World, these guys will be headlining much bigger venues in the next couple of years, and if the strength of tonight's performance was anything to go by, I wouldn't bet against it happening!

Wern B

Myspace page

Review of Album 'Scatter The Crows'