Looking back and forward

A review of Mike Tramp and support, at Mad Hatters, Inverness 4/9/2014.

Tonight there were a few firsts for the Inverness music community, and the first of those firsts was the introduction of ROADWAY with their new singer Ross Holland (read our interview about the new look ROADWAY).

Quite a different approach from former singer Dougie Greg, Ross is more animated and has a sound of a younger less experienced Eddie Vedder, which will be interesting to see where that takes the overall ROADWAY sound when they record new material.

Tonight they were performing as the three Ross’s in an acoustic setting to tie in with the general theme of the evening. Five songs in and due to scheduling they had to cut it short. Singer Ross was obviously nervous on his first outing and no doubt both his confidence and performance will only get better from here on, but it was a decent start to set them up for the future.

I first came across Mike Tramp in the mid 1980’s when a I purchased the cassette tape of his then band, White Lion’s second album Pride. Along with many of the hair metal bands of the time, they became part of the staple music diet for teenage metal fans like me around the globe.

Kicking off with White Lion classic ‘Little Fighter’ he then proceeded to play for well over two hours packing many White Lion and Freak of Nature (his other band) hits as well as a good smattering of his solo material both old and new. Interspersed with his own personal rock and roll stories, classics like ‘Wait’, ‘Cry for Freedom’ and ‘When the Children Cry’ became even more relevant to the evenings entertainment.

There were many highlights to the evening, but one that stood out was his personal tribute song to the late great Ronnie James Dio along with sharing his own personal experiences of the man firstly as a 16 year old singer in his native Denmark then years later when his own band supported Dio in the 1990’s.

His new album is quite a departure from the flash and balls of his White Lion days with a folk rock feel.By his own admission, as you get older as a songwriter, the songs about sex and girls eventually make way for more relevant issues both personal to him (you can read more about the change of approach in our interview with him). These include his mother, and on a bigger stage, like the violence and wars we see everyday on our televisions.

Another first for Mad Hatters and Inverness, but it’s quite a different prospect from the likes of Madison Square Gardens and New York where he played in White Lion’s heyday.

These days, he takes his one-man show all over the world with his acoustic guitar and case full of merchandise driving from city to city. It would seem a lonely existence compared to his past, however, for Mike Tramp, this is just another part of his own musical journey.