Falling Red’s Christmas Bash, Brickyard, Carlisle, Saturday.

FOUR bands for seven quid can’t be bad value these days and when Eden’s very own Falling Red host one of these gigs you know that Christmas must be just around the corner.

Top marks must go to their drummer, Dave Sanders, for playing back to back sets — as well as for the headliners, he also sat in with Stevie R Pierce and the Hooligans.

Proudly claiming “we are a rock ‘n’ roll band”, Stevie, who had travelled all the way north from Basingstoke to the great Border city, launched into an octane fuelled version of the Johnny Cash classic Folsom Prison Blues.

On the whole they produced a good noise mixed with some good on-stage banter.

The low point of the night turned out to be Falling Red coming on stage to an intro tape which sounded suspiciously like a very festive Cliff Richard tune — having said that it could only get better from there.

Kicking off with The Day I Lost My Soul, they quickly won the crowd around which was reinforced with the second track, and my personal favourite, We Escaped A Cult, which I always felt had a certain Marilyn Manson vibe going on.

The setlist included a fair few tracks from their latest album, Lost Souls, which went down well especially when they kicked into My Town, My City which slowed the pace down with its reminiscences of their Cumbrian roots.

Throw in a few covers, including Lionel Ritchie’s Dancing On The Ceiling, as well as some fine choices from their back catalogue, and it made for a good festive celebration.

Other highlights included Enemies and If You Ain’t Down With The Rock before they redeemed themselves from the Cliff oversight by covering a rousing version of Shakin’ Stevens’ festive favourite Merry Christmas Everyone.

Admittedly they could not do a Christmas bash without covering a Christmas tune and I am sure they set everyone up for the party season perfectly.

From The Cumberland & Westmorland Herald on Saturday, December 22, 2018.