Rock Vibes Nottingham Presents:

Eclipse @ Saltbox Nottingham

with Special Guests Collateral & Spin

Review By Stewart Filbey

Who knew the Swedish Rock scene was alive and kicking off in Nottingham? Lisa Morrison does!

Lisa has been working tirelessly to bring the best of the best to the UK from Sweden. The Swedish rock scene has been growing very strong in the last 20 years or so and it has an extremely dedicated following here in the UK.

My first real introduction to Swedish rock was through my dear friend Steve Drennan Bass player for Romeos Daughter. While on tour together he introduced me to his former band ENGEL and what a band they were! Try and track down their back catalogue if you can! Unfortunately, some of their best work is only available on hard copy CD and Vinyl (which I have them all) as its not available on the main music streaming sites, but you will find videos on YouTube.

Prior to this I must hold my hand up and say I generally thought Swedish Rock/Metal was a bit of a novelty and something I have never taken too seriously.

Steve and ENGEL had convinced me that Swedish Rock/Metal is Awesome!

To reinforce this, I have to say after my experience this weekend working with Lisa hosting ECLIPSE (a complete Swedish powerhouse of a band) at SaltBox Nottingham, my mind has completely changed.

Firstly, what a fantastic venue! The SaltBox is in the centre of Nottingham. Its around 500 capacity and has great stage with PA, big bar lots of seating options and an upstairs. It has large American Pool table for daytime use, a photobooth and a lovely sports bar style food menu with plenty of beers and cocktail options.

Lisa has acquired this venue as the new home Rock Vibes Nottingham. This is where Lisa will host regular Rock events targeting the best of the best from Sweden and maybe Europe, but the Swedish rock scene is currently so stacked she will be chipping away at that talent for some time yet!

The first show at this new venue was the mighty Eclipse with special guests Collateral & Spin.

I can’t really give a detailed music review of the set nor was this supposed to be a review piece so to speak as I was just so busy working to make sure the event run smoothly, and everyone ultimately was happy and having a good time. This was more so to raise the awareness of Lisa’s hard work and the event itself in Nottingham. As the success of the night is just a testament to Lisa’s vision and dedication to her passion with Swedish Rock and the whole scene.

I have worked with Collateral before, and I am sure many of you reading this know what a great band they are too! and Spin who are fronted by Venue23 owner Karl I am sure is familiar to many of you too, they did not miss a beat and both guest bands really fired up the crowd who were anticipating the excitement to come of Eclipse. You could feel the excitement slowly building throughout the afternoon, the venue was sold out on a hot Sunday afternoon and the general feeling in the venue positively electric.

Eclipse came on to thunderous applause and a wave of energy rolled out across the room. Eclipse had a last-minute change of drummer to their original line up and Hardcore Superstar Adde Moon stepped in to provide a unique live performance. The crowd were roaring, and hands were swaying from front to back and side to side. It was like Eclipse were playing a hometown gig in Sweden. It was marvellous.

The entire Eclipse set was rocking, and every element was sensational. These guys a real masters of their craft and the crowd absolutely loved it myself included! The Swedish rock scene is here in the UK and its only going to grow more. With people like Lisa putting in the level of hard work to pull this event together the Swedish rock scene has a home and for now it is in Nottingham!

The next Swedish all-star event is only a few days away! MAYHEM festival will be taking 5 of Sweden’s best bands on a rolling tour of the UK. London, Nottingham and Wakefield will be the 3 locations for this all-out Rock/Metal extravaganza, and I do hope to see you all there! Do not miss out.

Follow Rock Vibes Nottingham & MAYHEM Festival on the Socials and come out and support the venues, organisers and more importantly bands! The entire world needs live music and when we all work together great things can be achieved! Eclipse live at SaltBox is a fine example of that.