Crash Rocks 7 Stars

(Screenshot from YouTube)

 No it was just Chris and Phil.

The boys were back in town and didn’t the audience know it.

 For the second time in two weeks “The Original Seven Stars” pub rocked to the sound of “Crash”: Chris Bannister and Phil Ashcroft.
On both occasions these popular, talented, professional musicians played to standing room only, in what is Leyland’s smallest pub.

And what a night they gave us.

 With the quality of their sound system you would have been amazed if you had just walked in to see that there were only two musicians playing.

 In the first set, Phil’s twin stacked Yamaha and Roland keyboards took us through the rock of AC/DC, the rhythms of Fleetwood Mac, to the cerebral sounds of Pink Floyd and everywhere in between.

Chris’s weapons of choice on the night, from his arsenal of guitars, were a Gibson SG and a Fender Telecaster. When he announced that they were going to play a song by Eric Clapton and commented that by coincidence “he is playing in concert in Manchester tonight” a voice from the audience shouted back, to sounds of approval, “No he’s not. he’s playing in here!”

 All the tracks played were cover versions, (they didn’t play any of their originals) but that is what “Crash” is all about in this atmosphere. They can read an audience like nobody else I’ve seen before and in an instant pluck out a well polished song designed to get feet stomping and heads bobbing.

 For Bob Warren the landlord, who has only had the pub for the last six months, it was something of a change from the quiet traditional style English pub popular with regulars that he normally runs. When questioned about it he was, unsurprisingly, talking of plans for more similar events.

 The second set burst upon us with AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” and took us along a path of sounds that bounced from Thin Lizzy’s “The boys are back in town” to “getting it on” with T-Rex.

 The finale had Chris’s guitar weeping and soaring to Leonard Skynard’s “Free Bird”.

 Even that wasn’t enough for the audience who roared for more.
Forever accommodating, “Crash” blasted out a rocked-up medley of Irish reels and jigs that had the audience bouncing, regardless of age or taste in music.

It was a night when the beer flowed, the music rocked and the audience went home happy.

As I walked home, with my ears tingling, I had to smile to myself when I remembered the words of the landlord, Bob, when I asked him if he had a website that I could give a link to. He grinned at me -“I don’t do computers, just beer.”

For more from Crash and their schedule of events go to crashlive.co.uk

For other articles about music and events by C. Jordan:

• The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, U2, Muse: My Generation
• 10 Amazing Music Trivia Facts You Never Knew
• St. Helens Dream: A Cultural Landmark
• Carnival: Dirty Jenny in Aalst! (Carnaval: Voil Jeannetten En Aalst!)