Midnite City & The Continental Lovers – The Eleven – Stoke on Trent – 28th April 2024

Review By Mark Pitfield images by Matthew and his brother Adam Pitfield

First time at the Eleven (a home town show for 2 of the members) and an all ages show made for a perfect and friendly setting to see Midnite City on Friday 28th April 2024 supported by Continental lovers at almost the mid point of the tour. A fair few people had arrived early to witness the well dressed, glam-tinged punk outfit hailing from Nottingham.

For the next 30 minutes, they delighted the crowd with their tunes and received great support throughout their set. Introducing each song gave a great insight into what was being played and helped gel with the audience, including their latest single “Let’s Get Out Tonight”.  It seems to shoot by very quickly leaving the crowd wanting more – they are out on tour again supporting The Andy McCoy band in September.

And then needing no introduction Midnite City hit the stage, tonight as a 4 piece minus keyboard player Shawn (set to return the following day). What can I say, we were whisked back to the 80’s in an instant. 90 Minutes of everything that made hair metal great and continues to thrive in Midnite City.

The crowd stood in awe witnessing songs being played from all 3 albums – along the way and also were treated to a separate drum solo, bass solo and guitar solos. It’s easy to forget we are in 2024 and these solos were and still are a thing of beauty that is sadly missed by many bands today.  Each solo was treated to a huge round of applause!

We turn now to Rob Wylde who has written some classics over the years and moves and holds the stage like someone 20 years young! Posing and interacting with the crowd to great effect and also a battle of the left and right side of the crowd near the end of the show really was a nod back to those days gone by, and boy did the crowd enjoy it. A great mix of party rock anthems, melodic rock monsters and heartfelt power ballads were delivered song after song along with merchandise being thrown into the crowd (a lovely gesture)

If you want to be transported back to the golden age of metal with up to date songs being delivered by a hair metal band that is having a bucket load of fun on stage then please check them out on their remaining dates during this “Raise the Dead Tour 2024”  (see below for remaining dates). Also, a great touch was at the end, 5 minutes after coming off stage and they made time to rub shoulders with the fans (again something that not all bands do) speaking and taking photos with beaming smiles, nothing was too much trouble.

Fri, MAY 3 Birmingham Billesley Rock Club

Sat, MAY 4 Nottingham Old Cold Store

Fri, MAY 10 Bradford Nightrain

Sat, MAY 11 London Downstairs at the Dome