Newman, Athens, Greece (Modu Club)

The community of melodic hard rock in Greece is not such a big one; however it seems that most of the people who like this genre are well informed about the scene. By entering the club I saw people dressed in old school T-Shirts of glam metal bands that I thought only US people knew them. Congrats on these guys! Due to several technical reasons, I was unable to reach the local club Modu before the headline act of the concert, so I only listened to a couple of songs from the last Greek support band and got enthusiastic from the quality of the sound. I apologize for not covering the support bands in this report but I will include weblinks in order to check them out.

Steve Newman and his band, hit the stage on time without any delays in the announced show times. Congrats on the concert promoter for sticking up with the rules! This was my first time as a concert attender at the show of Newman and was not sure about what to expect. The club was not full, around 50-100 persons showed up, most of them in their late 30s or early 40s. From the very first moment, I realized that Steve was in good shape and did not care if the crowd consisted of 50 or 5000 persons. He was communicating with the crowd, making fun of his bandmates and delivering a very professional show. The melodic rock style in the veins of Van Halen (Hagar era) and Whitesnake was a crowd pleasing experience and the fans were singing along during the greatest hits of the band’s playlist. Steve presented his own compositions and offered fair or sometimes better versions than the studio’s sound. The duration of the show was close to 2 hours, a real value for money, especially if you are having a good time. I am sure that Steve was discovered from new supporters that night, including myself, since I saw many persons that were amazed by his energy and discussing how to find his back catalogue releases.

The local melodic rock community consists of people who discovered melodic rock in their heyday (1989-1990), since the local press ignored these bands before and after this period. It is “common” secret that the exclusive distributors of hard rock/heavy metal music in Greece promoted mainly the central Europe’s metal scene and sentenced the “hair” bands, commercially speaking, due to the policy of the foreign metal labels. Under this condition, Steve Newman has been discovered by persons who explored further the rock area through the internet or have travelled outside of Greece and were open to the new culture around them. I hope that in the near future, more people will search beyond the mainstream scene and look for artists like Steve Newman who never became millionaire but is a talented artist with pure pathos about music.

NEWMAN:  http://www.newmansound.com/

Photos and article by Billy Yfantis

Info about all the support artists:

DESIGN ::
Design is a Greek melodic rock band that has been formed in Athens at the fall of 2009.
The original idea came from Chris “Crystal” (drums) and Jimmy “Serra” (bass). In addition, Geo “Mats” (guitar) joined the band in early 2010 and the band’s line up was finalized with the add of Johnny “Sc” (piano & keyboards) and Ili Kar (vocals).
Design release their first album ”In Other Words”, in February 2015 under FM Records. In summer 2015, Chris and Johnny left the band and replaced by Kostas Koukoumtzis(guitar)and Simos Konstantinidis(drums).

Links :
https://www.facebook.com/DesignBandAor

:: HIDEAWAY ::
The HIDEAWAY formed in 2010 in Athens (Greece) by guitarist Dinos Georgiou (ex-Metallist) and Peter Papadimatos on keyboards. During the search of members and after several changes Harris Georgiou takes the drummer position.
Early 2016, with the valuable participation, and the vast experience of Manos Fatsis (ex-Dark Nova, ex-Devilusion) we completed the songs and the band starts to record the first demo.
Late of 2016 two new members are joining the band. Maria Galiatsou as the lead singer and bassist Johnnie Kontos (ex- Flying Mercury). The sound and the influences of the band is a mixture of Αor and Hard Rock from 80’s and early 90’s era.

Members:

Links :
https://www.facebook.com/HideawayGR
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBBAv18iCJYPrfUoq6cC1DQ

::JACKS FULL::
Jacks Full is a hard / heavy rock Band from Athens, Greece. Their self-titled debut album was released in April 2015, receiving good reviews from local and foreign music magazines and blogs (Metal Hammer 06/2015 : album of the month), gives a first taste of their style and influences. From the middle of 2017, Jacks Full are working on their second full length album, which is expected to be released next fall. With many live performances on their back in Athens and the rest of Greece, they promise energy-packed shows and original rock attitude

Members:
Nikos Spathas – guitar, backing vox
Michael Apartoglou – bass, lead vox
Vaggelis Kardamitsis – drums

Links
https://www.facebook.com/JacksFullBand/
https://twitter.com/jacksfullband
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWpYAZG54zIy2Y5UyhdW2Bw