During the break they played some of the new tracks from the upcoming Vaughn album and I will admit that they sounded a little bit tasty and is definitely something to look forward too in early 2007

Next on the stage was Newman, another band I was really looking forward too purely on the basis of their latest album “Heaven Knows”. I do like to harp on about the fact that I am fairly new to this genre of music when you compare me to other reviewers etc, but I do feel that is to my advantage at times because I feel I can give a fairly unbiased opinion of what I hear mainly because I haven’t been following groups or artists for years.

Now, Newman, what can I say? Well, they were at a disadvantage right from the start because they had agreed to stand in as headliners at the last minute due to the lack of drummer in Bad Habit, because they had not had chance to do any real sound checks and also because it is the first time they have played live in 7 years. However, it must be said that the balances were off in places and could have easily ruined their set completely.

The main fault that was immediately noticeable to all was that the keyboards were mixed far too loud and in places were drowning out the rest of the band. Some changes were made to the levels by the time they played “Masquerade”, but by the time they came to “Rivers Flow” the keyboards were back to full volume again. The bass also seemed to leap out at times early on in the set and was quite painful on the ears but that was rectified within minutes. At the time I didn’t know if Steve Newman was aware of these problems or not, but, like the consummate professional he is, he carried on and managed to deliver what the fans wanted.

It was obvious that Steve Newman had a lot of fans in the room and it seemed that they were more than happy just to see Steve up on the stage after such a long absence. The sound problems certainly didn’t deter them from enjoying the evening and if the fans enjoyed it then who am I to say different.

I did manage to speak to Steve on Saturday and he was the first to admit that things weren’t totally on par during his set. He told me that the sound on the stage wasn’t very good at all and they all found it hard to listen to what they were playing, then he looked longingly at the main stage in Rock City, turned to me and said “give me a stage like that and you just watch”. Well Steve, I believe you. And trust me, if you do manage to get a stage like the main stage in Rock City then drop me an email and I will make sure that I am down at the front with the rest of your fans.