It was back to the regular Saturday night assignment for us after the two recent "school night" outings at The Horn and as we'd heard
good things about RoadRunner we thought we'd check out their gig at The Star. The band have been together now for about 2 years
and they lined up tonight as Paul Walker on lead vocals and keyboards, Mick Cross (bass), Jonny Fast Frets (guitar), Willy
(guitar), and Martin King (drums) - all well established musicians and certainly a combination of talents to whet the appetite.
They
opened, as the stage lights cut hazy green and red patterns through the smoke, with one of the all-time great blues standards, the
very aptly titled "Roadrunner" before delivering two Thin Lizzy favourites "The Cowboy Song" and "Don't Believe A Word" complete with
signature twin lead breaks. The sound was full, as you would expect from a 5-piece, very punchy but not over-loud with Mick Cross
and Martin King forming a very solid rhythm section. I was particularly impressed with the sound Martin King had managed to get from
his Pearl kit (a very fetching green by the way) using only two mics (one on bass drum and one overhead) - the snare cut through well
I thought. As the set progressed, there was a good mix of rock, alternative and indie, old and new. The cover of Muse's "Time Is Running
Out" worked very well and there were plenty of my personal favourites in there too including Feeder's "Buck Rogers", Ash's "Burn
Baby Burn" and The Cult's "She Sells Sanctuary".
At the break, The Star was quite full but they were a bit of an unresponsive lot I thought considering the quality we had on show
here -thankfully it improved later.
RoadRunner got the second set off to a flying start with the Queen classic "One Vision",
not one of the easiest songs to cover, as we fought our way from the bar back to our vantage point. I always think that it's very
difficult for any keyboard player to front a band effectively but Paul Walker managed it well and by now had really connected with
his audience. His voice was well suited to "Rock Star" during which Jonny Fast Frets exchanged his white Kramer for
an acoustic and showed us another facet of the band.
Fine versions of The Killers' "When You Were Young" and Lostprophets' "Rooftops"
followed but the highlight of the night was an awesome cover of Gary Newman's "Cars" with its stabbing riffs and soaring keyboard
work - an unusual choice but what an excellent job the guys made of it. Add to this an exquisite version of Snow Patrol's "Chasing
Cars" and the ultimate football singalong "Chelsea Dagger" there was no wonder the crowd wanted more. Good old raw rock'n'roll still
has its place in any live set - it just can't go wrong - and the band duly did "Great Balls Of Fire" justice.
