One band that showed immense promise early in their career is FFAF, from their start in 2001 in Bridgend Wales and the release of “casually dressed and deep in conversation “ in 2003 their rise was rapid, culminating in the same year support slots for the mighty Iron Maiden, I was at the NEC as a guest of Nicko`s so witnessed the performance by FFAF early days, all be it very drunk, other slots included, reading / Leeds and on the main stage at Donnington, download / ozzfest or whatever they were calling it back then, to us old farts it will always be donny, anyway, I digress, with the albums “hours” in 2005 and “tales don’t tell themselves“ in 2007 (cracking title) and this years “memory and humanity” they have received critical acclaim and amassed a loyal following of hardcore fans.



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Onto the live show on this current tour, with a choice of either Birmingham / Nottingham or Coventry for venues I opted for the obvious choice, the Coventry Kasbah, a cracking new venue, well actually the venues has been there years but has been revamped to rival the bigger venues, with support from the up and coming cancer bats ( more on those later ) FFAF stroll onto the stage at just gone 9pm, my first impression after the first memory loss 3 songs (allocated photo time) is pretty much the same as 2003, they are still a quality act, Matt Davies has all the right tools to get the required reaction from the packed crowd, I can't help thinking of dirty Sanchez when he talks, the deep welsh accents hangs on every swear word that comes out, and there’s plenty of them, its all jokes and going on`s of the band, its very entertaining, the set list is based around earlier material and the new album, “your revolution is a joke” “novella”, ”escape artists never die”, ”history”, ”streetcar" and “roses for the dead”

All sounding a lot heavier ( and better) live , overall I've really enjoyed seeing them again , its hard to understand why they haven’t yet become Wales’s biggest export , or may be it is because they are Welsh (sorry, cheap shot from a retired rugby player and an avid fan of all things rugby) on the night though I have to say that the cancer bats, for me, did steal the show, they are back soon so I intend to catch up with them then and bring you more in the way of reviews and photos. FFAF's new album is out now titled “memory and humanity”, it’s another cracking release from the freshest UK band in years.

Darran Smith
Kris Coombs-Roberts
Gav Burrough
Ryan Richards
Matthew Davies

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Review James Hope