Street Voice UK

The day had arrived to see the Wingmen and I was looking forward to it as I prayed and prayed to make sure there were no complications with the trains. My prayers must have been answered as the trains I caught were not only reliable but no one was standing!

On arrival in Birmingham I set off to Gay Village to a couple of bars I like to hang out in. Missing and The Fox are great bars with a decent atmosphere. Bars in the city centre are a little too busy for me!

On arrival at the venue the security were a little unsure what was going on but I bumped into Donna and her fella where we had a laugh and soon found our way into the Institute!

Once inside the venue it didn’t take long to bump into James Sherry of Division PR / Desperate Measures. I’d been dealing with James for nigh on 20 years and this was the first time we’d met in person though I’m sure in the 90’s we must have been at some of the same gigs!

First up were Desperate Measures a highly infectious rock n roll outfit based in London. From the moment they hit the stage I was blown away by their power.

Top vocalist with some awesome musicians who gel well and from my observations other members of the audience were well into them!

It was a shame they only had 30 minutes to play.

A band I hope to see live again very soon!

Main support for the night was JC Carroll from the Members doing an acoustic set!

To be fair I thought he would have been better suited opening up the gig and let Desperate Measures have his slot and he have their slot!

JC isn’t TV Smith or Mike Peters and musically I couldn’t wait for him to finish. I think there was a lot in the audience who were thinking the same though JC did raise people’s spirits with an acoustic version of ‘Sound Of The Suburbs’.

Soon it was time for the Wingmen to hit the stage and they entered the stage with the theme tune from Dambusters.

I love that tune!

For those not in the know the Wingmen are made up of Baz Warne (The Stranglers), Paul Gray (The Damned), Leigh Heggarty (Ruts DC), Marty Love (Johnny Moped) and guesting on Keyboards was the amazing Rob Coombes (Supergrass).

During Locckdown Wingmen decided to write an album and this is what this tour is all about to promote their wicked self titled album!

Starting the set off with ‘Starting Blocks’ an instrumental it wasn’t long before they were trearing into numbers such as ‘Last Cigarette’, ‘Brits’, ‘Mary Go Round’ and they even fitted in a Stranglers classic ‘Long Black Veil’.

Baz Warne was on top form with his banter with the audience. Such a funny chap who I’d love to sit down and chat with at some point.

In fact the entire band looked as if they were enjoying themselves. No pressure really. Just four blokes wanting to play great rock music with meaningful words.

Sadly a few left as they were expecting the Stranglers or / and The Damned Pt 2 but if they came to the gig with an open mind they’d have found these veterans playing some great rock numbers and loving every minute!

Wingmen should be playing some much larger venues with a much larger audience as these guys are one of the best rock n roll outfits you’ll find in the UK in 2023