Live Review: Dare, The Astoria 18th October, 1989

Mancunian act Dare are pretty new on the live circuit. Up to date they have headlined numerous club shows following an extremely successful support stint on the Europe UK tour.

Their debut album Out of the Silence caused quite a stir within the rock n' roll circles when it was released in the autumn of 1988. Noted for its classy harmonies and catchy hooklines, it gave many an AOR band a good run for their money!

It was an obvious that there was quite a 'buzz' surrounding their headline show at the Astoria as personalities and punters rubbed shoulders side by side.

"Hello London" was the cry as Darren Wharton's soaring keyboards seared the smoke stacks of dry ice surrounding the stage. Opening the proceedings with Abandon and Into the Fire, the band steamed along their rock n' roll ironing board with pensive precision, although marred by a bad sound courtesy of the mixing desk.

Matters somewhat improved during their third song The Raindance with its Springsteen-sounding hookline coming across razor sharp as the boys neatly slipped into gear. Darren's sweet-scented, low key voice pierced the PA precisely. Indeed, Mr Wharton and his "likely lads" have learned their stage-craft well, and now they feel considerably more rock n' roll!

Nothing Is Stranger Than Love, Heartbreaker, and I Can't Follow You Tonight immediately earned an appreciative roar from the crowd, as they gave the band the thumbs up! Songs which would all sound great on the FM network -- Radio One get your act together! It's a crying shame that bands of this ilk have to go overseas to get commercial airplay when Britain is a marketplace of prime importance. 'If music be the food of love -- play on!'

As memories of Thin Lizzy came to the fore, the band launched into Heart of Mine and King of Spades which were passionately dedicated to the late Philip Lynott. Calm and classy, cool and collective, Dare musically honoured their Irish roots admirably!

Runaway and new rocker We'll Rock Tonight ended the set as the band 'blew off their banjos' with their brand of media-oriented metalism.

When the band were joined onstage by ex-Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham and an 'ozone friendly' Joey Tempest for their encores The Boys Are Back In Town and Don't Believe A Word the crowd naturally went ga-ga as they ploughed through the Lizzy classics.

Joey "opened his heart" as Scott slumped into the groove . . . Darren's 'delight' surprised everybody! Dare I say more!

Mark Crampton
Riff Raff
December 1989

Revenge...?

Riff Raff was a legendary rock magazine based in London in the late 1980s and 1990s. Edited by the ultimate music biz insider, Mark Crampton, and employing such talents as Mark Blake, Jerry Ewing, Mike Harris, Paul Smith, Chris Collingwood, Alan McCrorie, Simon Robinson, Lyn Guy, Anna Marx, Nick Douglas, Marion Garden, Peter "Grunty" Grant, Joe "The Crow" Mackett, Billy "The Kluck" Kulke, and, lastest and mostest, the incredible Liddell Brothers, Mark (a.k.a. "El Perro") and Colin (a.k.a. "Der Fly"). Unfortunately, Riff Raff was just too R n' R for its own good. A genuine working class rock mag, written, edited, and translated into 16 European languages in a drug-N-Jack-D-fuelled haze, often on the back of motorbikes, with spell checking by our staff of attentive rock bimbos (chosen purely for their blondeness and big knockers), it soon fell behind more trainspotterly, nerdish, and politically correct publications like Q, Kerrang, Mojo, Metal Hammer, and Horse & Hound. This website is an archive and kind of shrine dedicated to the writing of its greatest writers, some of whom, luckily for the Rock Kosmos, still continue to write about music. This is the REVENGE of Riff Raff...Rock on!