KEEP IT LOUD N KEEP IT HEAVY!

At last we have our DA Blog page back and can get online again! Such confusion over the last few months with OS upgrades, passwords, computers exploding like Spinal Tap drummers, new sets of crappy rules from Google n other such megalomaniacal organizations! Anyway that aside, its good to be back with an update.

Desolation Angels
A few things going on.

FaceCrook have taken away our regular Desolation Angels page and have made us turn the site into a ‘Musician/Band’ page. (Actually we had no say in the mater, as assess to our old DA FB site was completely denied!)

We can now be found at this address: (https://www.facebook.com/DesolationAngels)

Please circulate this address amongst all your heavy ROCK friends, as this new page seems so impersonal. We now have ‘Likes’ rather than friends, and we don’t get to see all the chats and goings on any more. Seems like we’ve lost a lot of friends as you cant see who's tapping in to your page? Blood nuisance I say! Please feel free to join my own personal page at (https://www.facebook.com/robin.brancher) as I will be posting all Desolation Angels updates there as well.

Camden Unicorn Gig.
Great night for us there at the Unicorn. Thank you to all that made it to the Unicorn. If you didn’t? Then stay tuned to this blog, or check in at (http://desolationangels.co.uk/) for all info updates and here at (http://desolationangels.co.uk/pages/gigs_2013.html) for up and coming gigs.
Strange set-up with the PA at the Unicorn – no mikes on the backline? Never mine though as all worked out really good for us sound wise at show time. As I’ve said; we’ve lost our original Desolation Angels FaceCrook page with all the links to videos from that nights set. So I’ll be reposting those here and on (https://www.facebook.com/DesolationAngels) too.

Great to see old friends from the Ruskin Arms days, hope you can all make it again to the next London gig. (cool link - http://ruskinarms.com/gallery.html) And also to new friends, a warm heavy rock welcome to you. (Great Clive crowd too!! Ha ha nice one!)

Next for DA.
Recording - Yes that’s right, at last!
We will be rehearsing four new tracks, and adding two other tunes from a previously unreleased recording session of twelve songs. More on this as it unfolds. It will be good to get playing again after a two week break.

All the best – Keep it LOUD, Keep it HEAVY!
Rock on all
Rob


Cheers From Desolation Angels
http://DesolationAngels.co.uk

I Went To Marshall Heaven . . . No it wasn't a dream either! 

Yeah, fantastic trip out to my ideal home!

(See photos below)

Entering into the reception area of the repairs department at 'Marshall Amplification' in Bletchley UK, the first thing that hits you is the astronomical amount of 10"x8" framed photographs running along the back wall of a corridor that accesses the glass offices that run off of it.

All the 10x8s are of every conceivable famous rock star the planet has ever seen, all with there arm round Jim, or standing next to a Marshall stack or two with big cheese grins on there faces, absolutely mesmerizing.

Some are signed band publicity shots, and some are great in concert shots of the artist giving it there all. Some of em looked real old too, I found myself trying to put names to the hundred and fifty or so that were directly in front of me, Angus, Page and Slash being the ones that popped out straight off.

After I got my gear booked in I had a wonder along the corridor and checked the lot out, completely awe-inspiring, I felt a great sense of respect and admiration for being at such a place.

Immediately around me were all sorts of Marshall amps ready to go back to there owners, plus combos and various 4x12 cabs here there and everywhere.

Off to the side were two half stacks, one with a Les Paul Standard plugged into it, and the other with a Fender Strat propped up against the side of the cab. Both cabs had 100w JCM 800s a top of them. These (I was told) were there so that you could test your gear after they had repaired it. Plug in and crank it up!!

Off to either side were more offices, one of these I was shown into to sign some final paperwork before the engineers took my two Marshall 350W Mode Four heads off to be repaired and serviced.

This room too was also full of kit, more JCM 800s just stacked up on the floor in the middle of the room, more cabs and more guitars, I'm like, ***k - this is heaven or what, just look at all this kit! I was in the Aladdin's cave of all Aladdin's caves!

Two big sofas ran along the back and side of this office of which both had coffee tables in front of them. This looked like a proper works chill-out room. One table still had half full coffee cups on it, and on this sofa was a Gibson SG laying there plugged into a Marshall combo humming away nicely. Looked like I had just interrupted someone's early morning jam?

For people like me (that eat sleep and breath guitar) it truly is an amazing place. After they had fixed up my two heads I got the chance to take a look around the main reception area, and check out all the equipment on show there. The guys did me a treat with the photos. Bloody great stuff. Cheers Marshall, totally ROCKIN!

PS: Incidentally - Now that the two heads work properly, I can now use one as a slave amp to the other, and generate 700w of power going out to 1200w of Mode Four cabs.

Absolute HEAVY ***KIN METAL!! Can't wait for the next rehearsal. More picks and write-up on that to follow.

Cheers all

Rob

Back to DA website

Next up is bass player news - Please welcome Clive aboard and into the unhinged world that is Desolation Angels the heavy metal riff making machine.

Biography:

Clive Pearson

Influences:

Black  Sabbath, Bad company,  AC/DC, Dio, Stone Temple Pilots, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Metallica.

Equipment:

Fender Precision Bass Guitars

Behringer  Amplification

Ampeg 8 * 10 Bass Cabinets.

Shure Wireless Systems.

Albums:

First Hand:  Hands off

Winter: Where Angels Fear to Tread

The B – Side:  The B- side

The Mochines: Hire The Losers.

Playing history

First Hand; 1979 -1982 South Africa

Lynx: 1983- 1987 South Africa

Pink Metal Kitchen:  London 1988 – 1990

Winter; 1990 -1992

B –Side: 1993 -1997 London

The Mochines: 2004-2007  Cape town South Africa

Thee Unknowns: 2008 – 2012 Cape Town South Africa

Lip service: 2012-2013 – Southampton England

Desolation Angels: February 2013 – Present

I started paying the bass when my brother took up the drums in 1978 and we formed  “First Hand” in 1979, which was an original 3 piece band.  This did set the style of my bass playing, as I did not really learn other bass player’s lines and hence I got my own style of playing.  Having my brother on the drums meant we could then rip each other apart and push each other to the limit without having a major fall out to deal with afterwards, and the result was an incredibly tight rhythm section, which is what a 3 piece band has to produce when playing live.

The influences at that time were AC/DC, Uriah Heap, Black Sabbath, Bad Company.  I then joined Lynx, which was a hard rock outfit, who were doing well on the gigging circuit. We went on to do a promotional video and recording, which led to playing many of the major venues in South Africa. 

The next step was to come to England, where I joined Pink Metal Kitchen in 1987.  We played the London Rock venues for a couple of years and then parted with the guitarist.  The band took on Belladonna’s guitarists to form Winter.  We continued playing mainly London venues and supported The Almighty at the Marquee and various other venues. But the band could not break into the next league even with the talk of going to Japan and the States.  Eventually Winter did drift and break up. 

After a few years with the B-Side, which was a change in direction to a more melodic funk rock band I  returned to Cape Town to join The Mochines, and did an album and played many festivals and gigs in the Cape Town area.

Returning to the UK in 2011 I had a brief stint with Lip service in Southampton before joining Desolation Angels.  I jumped to the chance to come to London for an audition, and after the first 5 minutes, I think we all knew I was the right fit for D.A . My solid bass lines and sound, fitting right in with the band grooving riffs and thunderous sound.  We can now look forward to writing new songs and giving the fans what they want to see.  High energy Rock and Roll shows with plenty of drive and wall of guitars..

Look forward to seeing all of you at our gigs coming up in the summer and watch this space as Desolation Angels are Rocking Again…….

Cheers

Clive

desolationangels.co.uk 
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Heavy Rock Rehearsals . . . More Of The Same Tomorrow!

Hammer Of Doom 2012 Review

HAMMER OF DOOM FESTIVAL

GERMANY
'FFM - ROCK' REVIEW

DESOLATION ANGELS

desolationangels.co.uk

Desolation Angels came on stage and started to play some old-school 70's hard rock and heavy metal with fluent grooves, powerful riffs with super lead solos, a tight rhythm-section and a lead singer, who seemed to really rise to the great reaction from the audience! 

'Grooveslasher' hymns like POWER HUNGRY and VALHALLA were celebrated by the appreciative fans!

It appeared that most of the fans knew the band like they had played regularly in Germany; but maybe only 20% really knew of the band prior to tonight?
This band got huge attention from the crowd which could be because they are one of the best bands of the NWOBHM era!

Better and better, with perfect grooves they get the audience really rocking in a short time and also the people in the back of the hall.
We were fascinated by DA! The longer they played, the more hands went up in the air and more and more people came into an already very busy hall.

The audience stayed and rocked right until the end and there were 2 "die-hard-fan-blocks" that celebrated this fantastic band from the begining to the end of their set!
The show was hugely impressive and the band had to play some encores due to massive applause and cheering from the fans!

After their show I met DA singer Ian 'Curly' Davies and I asked him what the band's music roots were; he answered "Dio, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath (from the Tony Martin era) as well as many other old school hard rock and heavy metal bands".
He also said that after this wonderful reaction from the crowd on their first visit to Germany, DESOLATION ANGELS would love to come back to Germany again soon and play some more shows!

"You are welcome back anytime guys"!
Michael Toscher

 

More images and Power Hungry video coming soon.

English translation from the original German review.