Guns2Roses @ Oxford Cafe, Bethune

Bethune is a town about an hour's drive from Calais. Myself and a good friend of mine took the ferry and rocked out en Francais!

Also posted on GrapevineLive.co.uk

Guns2Roses, Le Oxford Café, Bethune, France
Saturday 14th January

My buddy Arran and I embarked on probably the longest excursion I have ever taken with the soul intention of seeing a band. Across the channel and down the E15 for a bit is a town called Bethune that on Saturday night played host to Guns2Roses, Hole Xpander and Four Wheel Drive.

Le Oxford Café in Bethune is a pretty small venue, with wood panels on the wall and a Belgian beer called ‘Troll’ on the taps. There was also a refreshing disregard for the law as when we stepped into the place our clothes immediately smelled of cigarette smoke, yes there is a smoking ban in France, just nobody told these guys! It’s hard to remember the last time I came home with my jeans smelling like they'd been worn by Keith Richards. We also had a chance to test our French speaking skill, which ranged from ‘little’ to ‘none’ and it wasn't long before we were settled in to get some high voltage rock and roll, Français style!

First up were London lads Four Wheel Drive, the main reason for travelling to Béthune, and the first thing we noticed was the volume! Seems the environmental health were off Saturday night as the band damn near blew the windows out! Even though one of the four wheels couldn’t make it, the now Three Wheel Drive put out a massive sound and as far as I could tell the capacity crowd were well and truly up for it ! A great rendition of Highway to Hell saw any language barrier torn down as every voice in the building sang along and the band produced probably the loudest performance of their own song 'High Roller', setting the benchmark at a very high level. A great start to the party ! As Four Wheel Drive pointed out, we English fans (all two of us) had travelled a long way to be there and we were ready to have a good time, fortunately so was everybody else!

Next up were French outfit, Hole Xpander (Googleing that with safe search off might not be a such un bonne idée !) I was really impressed, plus it was their first proper gig and they had a great crowd behind them throughout. I couldn’t understand what they were singing about most of the time but it makes a change for me to listen to a band without paying attention to what is being said. Of course there was a chance to join in as the band performed my favourite Twisted Sister song, ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’, which set the bar alight! Twisted Sister are probably one of the bands that sprang to mind upon hearing Hole Xpander, there are also Judas Priest and lots of thrash elements in there. I’d had a chat with the drummer before the gig and the front man a bit later on, both really nice guys and both were keen to do some shows on the other side of The Channel with Four Wheel Drive, which I would be more than happy to see, honestly, if you speak the language or not these guys are well worth a listen.

By this point we had made a couple of nouveaux amis, including a guy that wanted to learn English and ended up exchanging email addresses with me to help him learn it because I is well good at talking English and stuff, innit! He’s helping me learn some French too, so it’s win win! A short break and with our vocal chords suitably warmed up and our glasses topped up with Troll beer it was time to really have some fun with Guns2Roses.

I like Guns n' Roses and Guns2Roses are probably the best chance I have of seeing G n’ R as they were in their late eighties/early nineties heyday. Featuring two members of Hole Xpander, the confidence, passion and great selection of tracks ensured our voices would be raw by night’s end (and they started on time). The band clearly love and respect Guns n’ Roses and after a quick Google it seems they are a highly acclaimed tribute band having played with members from the actual Guns n’ Roses. We spoke to the front man before the sound check and he told us they had just got back from India, playing to 10,000 people, soon they are going to California but at the moment they are playing some smaller gigs, stuff like that always makes me want to start a band. The setlist consisted of the obvious big hits like Paradise City, Sweet Child of Mine (which they restarted for reasons I am not sure of, maybe that’s the kind of thing the real Axl Rose would do) and You Could Be Mine. But the real treats were the lesser played GnR songs like My Michelle and a personal favourite Night Train. Each track was done as good as (if not better) than the originals and the crowd loved it, so much so that the landlord and a few other Frenchmen got up on stage with the band mid set! It was a crazy night with plenty of singing and air guitaring and it was nothing but a good time!

The Oxford was jumping until the early hours and then a bit longer and after exchanging ways to swear in each other’s language with some French blokes we went back to l’hotel, slept for not nearly long enough and then drove back home. I was more than a bit drained by the time I got back to North Essex, but all I can say after all that is ‘I’m going to venture to distant gigs more often’!

Four Wheel Drive play the Ipswich Railway on Friday 8th February, so all you hard rock fans should make a point of going there!- fourwheeldriverock.com

Hole Xpander – facebook.com/holexpander

Guns2Roses - http://www.guns2roses.co.uk/


Hole Xpander translated the bit about them to their native tongue after I shared it on their Facebook page... 

Juste après passait un groupe français, Hole Xpander (rechercher ce nom sur Google avec le filtre de recherche désactivé ne serait pas une si bonne idée !) J'étais vraiment impressionné, de plus qu'il s'agisait de leur premier concert. Il y avait une foule de monde pour eux tout le long . Je ne comprenais pas les paroles la plupart du temps mais ça me change d'écouter un groupe sans faire attention à ce qui est raconté. Il y avait bien sûr de grandes chances d'accrocher car le groupe a joué ma chanson préferée de Twisted Sister : "We're Not Gonna Take It", qui a mis le feu au bar ! Twisted Sister est certainement le groupe qui nous vient en premier à l'esprit en écoutant Hole Xpander, il y a aussi du Judas Priest et pas mal d'éléments du Thrash dans tout ça. J'ai parlé avec le batteur avant le concert et avec le chanteur un peu après ; les deux sont des gars vraiment sympas et ils aimeraient tous les deux jouer de l'autre côté de la Manche avec Four Wheel Drive. Je serais plus qu'heureux de voir ça, honnêtement. Que vous parlez leur langue ou non, ces mecs méritent vraiment qu'on écoute ce qu'ils font.