We will finally return to rehearsals after recent shows at Cambridge and Hastings last week, and having played The Rock Den last night to continue to work on the set and our forthcoming EP’s. We enjoyed our return to The Rock Den after over 3 years since our last appearance there. We will as ever be rehearsing at Unit One, Colchester later today after a busy few weeks on the road.
We will be playing The Rock Den, Hatfield today for the first time since 2018. You can still order tickets from here or on the door. We will be playing alongside Brazen Bull and Born To Destruct with doors at 6:45pm.
We will be returning to Unit One today to resume our regular rehearsals after a break recording the start of our new EP. Today’s focus will be the set for the forthcoming gigs in March which are:
Tickets are still available for all these dates here.
We will be deciding the sets for these shows and prepare for gigging again after not playing live since the end of 2021. This was due to uncertainties regarding Covid restrictions going forward. England however has returned to limited restrictions which means gigs can go ahead once more without any COVID measures in place beyond the Governments basic guidelines.
We have announced our first run of shows for 2022! We’ll be returning to a number of regular haunts as well as a new venue. One Eyed Toad Records have graciously booked the majority of these dates for us where we will be playing alongside our friends in Neverworld and Planet Fatale.
Tickets are already on sale for this show here. This is our first show back at Club 85 since September 2017 and the first ever with the current line-up. The last time we played at the venue was the only time the band ever played the single “Holding the Line” live and was the very same day they recorded it at Threecircles Recording Studio. The single is now included on the latest prints of the A Crisis of Faith albums.
We played a show at CODA for the first-time last year, which was the band’s first gig without Covid restrictions since the Pandemic began in early 2020. Lead guitarist Toby Woods is unavailable for this date so will be replaced by a guest guitarist which will be announced soon.
Another venue we haven’t played in several years, the last time being back in October 2016. Much like with Club 85, this is our first gig with the current line-up, and we’ll be joined by Raze who will replace Neverworld at this event. Raze are another great band, so well worth checking out this unique line-up on the night.
The last time we played here was for Mearfest back in December 2017 with the A Crisis of Faith line-up. A fun fact about this venue, is due to the local Councils zealous enforcement of parking restrictions we have had parking fines every time we have loaded into the venue in the past.
We had been the resident band at The Rock Den back in 2016 having played there regularly in the years previous, however this will be our first performance at the venue since 2018 and only our second with the current line-up! We are very much looking forward to returning this year and entertaining the massive once more.
This is a brand-new venue for us! We haven’t played here before but we did play Martin Shorts Badass Bash in Nottingham at the Maze all the way back in January 2014 with The Waystone line-up of the band.
Our first gig was on May 26th 2018. It was one of our regular shows there as I had booked a reasonably busy schedule that year to help promote A Crisis of Faith. We arrived at the venue early and were chatting outside prior to load in when Dan Mailer and Josh Birch arrived together (from Osmium Guillotine) pulling up in the carpark, I had a half empty bottle of Coca-Cola which I was able to throw through the passenger window, past Josh’s head and straight into Dan’s face as he pulled up. Dan, looking for revenge, jumped out of his car and came charging up the B2 steps towards me, having forgot to put his handbrake on, turning to see Josh and his car going for unplanned trip into the Brickmakers beer garden!
The other amusing moment from that gig was the late great Wayne MacConnachie had arrived with Peter Keliris for the gig, he looked at me, looked at the guys and said “where’s ya band” obviously having not heard the news, I said to him that this was the band, he looked at me, looked at them “your fucking joking aren’t you?” I said the others had left the band and he was gobsmacked “they left you? They all left you? They all fucking left you?!”. Wayne simply couldn’t believe the last line up had left! That was sadly the last time I saw Wayne alive and were informed of his passing on the way to the Reforge The Steel Live recording gig in November 2019. We played a tribute to Wayne alongside Osmium Guillotine and Walk in Coma in January 2020 in Braintree.
Gent aka local legend Andy Martin opened the night, and Osmium Guillotine obviously also played. Dan Mailer jumped on on stage with us for the encore and all in all it was a successful first gig with very few mistakes. I think we genuinely shocked a few people. The band was formed in a fortnight and was already playing live, and to a good level, the transition seamless from the previous line-up.
Our next gig was a charity event in Long Melford, famous for being the place the legendary Hellfire Club was founded and much of the local folklore surrounds nefarious activities by the local nobles at Melford Hall. It is also famous for Beatrix Potter having stayed there. The gig itself was for our friend Bonnie Kelly’s fathers best friends memorial – Bonnie has her own band New Pages which can be checked out here. Toby and Isaac had to perform double duty as Cannon were also on the bill. Chris MacKinnon was also doing sound that night, obviously unable to stay away from us! After that we played the Unicorn in Camden for the first time. We would play a few gigs there in 2018 which were all really good, but weirdly after that we were never invited back! Kaine actually hadn’t played the gig since 2013 when we supported Canadian Metal legends Striker there! Again the gig went well and the band started to gel on stage.
After that we played with Alter the Sky at the Blue Moon, Cambridge. This is another venue we used to play a lot back in the day when it was the Man on the Moon, we even had a residency there for a bit in 2013. Again the show went incredibly well and people struggled to believe that this was a brand new band. We also started playing songs from Reforge The Steel around this time in the set as well. We were literally rehearsing, learning the Crisis material and adding new material into the set as well which really helped progress the Reforge The Steel album quickly.
It was in this period that I wrote the 8 tracks for Reforge The Steel at home. I decided that to prove the band wasn’t dead and this band was as good as ever, I had to get a new album out as quickly as possible. I wrote Reforge The Steel, Black and Rebirth first, Wake was a song and I and Saxon Davids started working on some years previous that we even played live in instrumental form toward the back end of 2017, and songs like Master of Mankind and In Cold Light were written later with Loudwire being the last one I think I wrote for that album. It was important to show the world that we were still going and that is why Reforge The Steel came out so soon after A Crisis of Faith. We just learned the new songs between the Crisis material, and then played them live to iron out the cracks. It was a very busy period for the band. I had also started a new job around that time, which was less all over the place then the warehouse work but infinitely more stressful!
We had another gig at the B2 in July. Anthony Murch joined us for a few songs that night and a solo trade-off on stage, which I part inspired the ending of Master of Mankind! As Ant arrived the venue I was able to sneak around his car with a traffic cone, and block his door off so he couldn’t get out of his car! Is it any wonder people leave my band….Having looked back at the dates we had a very busy 2018! We were back at the Unicorn that month and also played our first and only gig at The Rock Den in Hatfield, another venue we’d previously been a resident band at.
At the end of July we played Swanfest at the Swan, Ipswich in what was one of the hottest gigs I have ever played. Long term band friend Adam Prowse (who had played bass in Cardinal) joined us for the encore on vocals. The Swan is famous for having Ed Sheeran play there before he was famous. Ed recently having sponsored Ipswich Town Football Club, my football team and is famous for other things, but for me that’s the most important! Much like me he’s a regular at Town games, but at least he has a successful musical career to drown out the misery! It’s good to see him plough some money into the club under the new owners, but having said that if the club dropped any lower then I could have probably afforded to buy it, let alone sponsor it!
So I thought I would give a little detail on our early gigs as a band. It’s weird to think this was all three years ago now. I will cover the back end of 2018 and the start of the recording of Reforge The Steel next week.
Kaine recently gave a in depth interview with The Rock Den website talking about the origins of the band name, the background of the band, their influences as well as the songwriting process and work of the 5th album.
You can read the interview in full here.
https://www.therockden.com/a-heavy-metal-rebirth-interview-with-kaine/
As many will know the Crisis of Faith line-up split shortly after the album’s release. This was seen as many as the end of the band, and I was beginning to accept that it may have killed off myself and Kaine for good. I had essentially a fortnight to recruit a brand-new band and get it on the road at the same level it was previously. I was very lucky to be able to recruit Liam, Toby and Isaac, and continue the band.
Since then the band has slowly come back to strength, we’ve spent many hours in the rehearsal rooms ensuring the material was up to scratch and last night we completed our 7th gig in this line-up. Last night was undoubtedly one of our best performances so far, as a band, and many in attendance, who hadn’t seen us before, struggled to believe the band had only been together since the end of May. One attendee said, “If that’s how good you are, after such a short space of time, then what’s the future going to be like?!”
Those who have seen us a couple of times, with the new live up, have said the band performs the songs as if it were the band on the album. We’ve also introduced two brand new songs to the set, Reforge The Steel and Black, both of which have been positively received so far. Those in attendance agreed that the new material, and the old, blended together seamlessly.
The feedback and support from most people has been incredible. Of course, as with anything, in music, you have your detractors, and some have written the band off. However, it’s unlikely many of those people ever really supported us to begin with.
I am not letting any of this get to my head, there is still work to be done and we’ll be working hard, rehearsing to ensure the quality of the band does not change so that the band continues to grow and improve.
Things are, however, looking up, even if only on a small scale right now and we have a few announcements to make very soon. We also have the Ten-Year Anniversary show, next year, at the amazing Colchester Arts Centre. Can I recommend you buy a ticket for this show? It’s £20, which I recognise is a touch expensive, but if we can get a good attendance we can do a stage show, DVD and live album as well. The hire costs for a venue of this quality are not insubstantial which means we had no choice but to charge £20. Sales haven’t been great so far, so please buy a ticket!
It’s been a tough year for bands in general, with social media changing rapidly and many of the old tools such as Facebook are no longer delivering for promotion, and with YouTube becoming less ” band friendly” the end result is bands are having to shout louder to get noticed.
Finally, the band will be in action at The Rock Den on Saturday 21st of July. The previous line-up was once the resident band at the Rock Den, I am personally very much indebted to the venue for the support and encouragement the fledgling Kaine received, it is also the place that helped develop the songs for our album A Crisis of Faith. This is the first time this new line-up will play the venue, and we’re on early so please try to get there in time to see us! You can get tickets from the link on our Facebook page.
As ever, thank you for continued love and support.
Love
Rage
Poster for the final Power & Glory Fest
Kaine will play the final Power & Glory Festival this Saturday at The Rock Den, Hatfield. The NWOBHM festival will not be continuing due to poor ticket sales for this years event as The Rock Den looks to the future, recently partnering up with TBFM as part of a working agreement moving forward.
Rage Sadler commented: “I was greatly saddened to read the news that this will be the final P&G Fest at The Rock Den and that a future festival wouldn’t be a NWOBHM inspired one. Dean has worked incredibly hard to make the event a success and book some great bands for it since it’s started and it’s a shame that his work has not been rewarded this year with adequate ticket sales. The Rock Den’s audience has been one of the most supportive of Kaine and our music. I wish The Rock Den all the best in the future, we of course remain the house band there for 2016 but I would urge as many people to support this final show as possible.”
The final line-up will feature New Wave of British Heavy Metal legends The Handsome Beasts, High Treason, Dealer, Troyen and Tytan (featuring Kev Riddles ex: Angel Witch) alongside Revival Metal acts The Filth Hounds, Lord Volture (from Holland) and Kaine.
Tickets are available on the door for £20 (just £2.50 per band) for this historic show, which takes place at breaks Manor, Link Drive in Hatfield (AL10 8TP). Doors are at 12 midday on Saturday.