Traveling a hundred plus miles for New Years Eve in Bradford may initially seem like a slightly weird idea if you don't happen to hail from the West Yorkshire city. However when the city is playing host to Roadstar's (nee Hurricane Party) New Years Bash at Rio's Nightclub it makes slightly more sense. Add to that a night out with friends, a damn good Chinese meal and the whole shebang had a certain appeal that was hard to ignore. I guess it also seemed appropriate to round 2005 out with a gig given the amount of shows that HardRockHouse had covered throughout the year.

Having said all of the above the appeal dwindled rapidly with the opening two bands on this bill, Rattlesnake Remedy and Disarm. These two bands were almost diametrically opposed to each other. Rattlesnake Remedy had some good songs hinting at a heritage that included Aerosmith, Black Crowes and a touch of the Rolling Stones. Unfortunately their stage presence left a lot to be desired. Being almost static and with hardly any crowd interaction is not a recipe to endear a band to the majority of punters. It probably didn't help that when Rattlesnake Remedy took to the stage the venue was pretty much empty, but this called paying your dues. Indeed the band seemed far more enthusiastic offstage trying to sell copies of their CDs, badges and signing people up for their mailing list.

If Rattlesnake Remedy had the songs but not the stage show, Disarm were the exact opposite. The band, and particularly guitarist/vocalist Brad attacked this show as if it were Wembley Stadium rather than Bradford Rio's. Where Disarm fell down were with their songs, or rather the lack of them. Admittedly the worst sound mix that this reviewer has heard in a long time didn't help, but the tracks on offer seemed to be a blur of noise with no discernable hooks, time or tempo changes to break up the wall of sound. I guess the band are aiming at a  sort of post LA glam direction but in all truthfulness it just came across as a mess, albeit an entertaining mess thanks to the energy and enthusiasm of all concerned.  .

And so onto Roadstar. If you have read the recent interview we conducted with drummer Chris Rivers you will have seen the reason for the band changing name from the previous Hurricane Party moniker. This small detail has certainly not put the band off their stride in the least and once they hit the stage they proved to the two opening bands how to combine both a stage show and strong songs and were simply a class apart.

Roadstar are reminiscent of a youthful Def Leppard in many ways. They have that strong British classic rock sound coupled with an ear for a pop melody which gives them massive potential crossover appeal. Visually the band works equally well. In the guitarist/bassist pairing of Johnny Rocker & Rob Randell they have a right wing pairing (from the audiences perspective) that never stops moving, posing and preening for the entire hour plus set. Couple this with the laconic style of vocalist Richie Hevanz and the short sharp lead bursts from guitarist Kreepy and I guess it is a classic recipe for success.

Even with only one EP available (2004's 'Get This') judging by the number of people down the front at this show they have built up a strong fan base through touring with the likes of Meat Loaf, Nickelback and The Glitteratti and this experience has led to the band being tight and professional throughout. If there was a downside however it was the slightly abrupt ending to the show, no encore and barely a 'thank you and goodnight' to round things off. Still I guess we can forgive that little indiscretion. Welcome to 2006, the year of Roadstar. Maybe

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