MARCO MENDOZA (Live)

At Trillians, Newcastle, U.K., June 10, 2018

For someone who has, over the years, recorded and toured for 30 odd years with the likes of Ted Nugent, Thin Lizzy, Blue Murder, Black Star Riders, Delores O’Riordan and er…..Right Said Fred, yes, really, Marco Mendoza certainly has a rather impressive and varied CV.

You’d have thought however, in the small break he has off from touring with his current band, Dead Daisies, he’d spend some time off and put his feet up and relax. Mendoza is no slouch however having spent time holed up in a studio in Denmark working on his first solo album in 8 years, Viva La Rock has even managed to find time to slip in a few live shows with his own band before the Dead Daisies set off on their next huge treck around the globe.

With tonight’s show in Trillians being the last night of his tour this promised to be something special and Mendoza didn’t disappoint. As a bassist and backing vocalist in his current and previous bands, this solo tour gave him the chance to step up to centre stage and add lead vocalist to his repertoire and his Soulful, melodic voice was mighty impressive.

Kicking off with Look Out For The Boys and followed swiftly by the Blusey Hole In My Pocket that he cut with Neal Schon set the motor running and backed by local lads Mickey Crystal (Tygers of Pan Tang) on guitar and drummer Kyle Hughes (Bumblefoot), this three piece were on a roll.

The title track from Viva La Rock was an exuberant celebration of Rock’n’Roll itself and pretty much sums up Mendoza in one song and Let The Sun Shine kicking in from his earlier release, Live For Tomorrow showed Mendoza in top class form and lapping it up as frontman in his own band.

Ever the showman, Mendoza pulled out every Rock star pose in the book and Trillians loved every minute of it, especially the ladies as he leant into the crowd at every opportunity to personally deliver kisses. Throwing in choice covers of Chinatown by Thin Lizzy and Ted Nugent’s Hey Baby gave a nod to his previous bands and by then Mendoza had the crowd eating out of his hand.

Rounding off a hugely enjoyable set with Higher ground and Jailbreak made sure this run of solo shows was one not to forget.

Review and Photos By Mick Burgess

Marco Mendoza

Author

Mick Burgess

Mick is a reviewer and photographer here at Metal Express Radio, based in the North-East of England. He first fell in love with music after hearing Jeff Wayne's spectacular The War of the Worlds in the cold winter of 1978. Then in the summer of '79 he discovered a copy of Kiss Alive II amongst his sister’s record collection, which literally blew him away! He then quickly found Van Halen I and Rainbow's Down To Earth, and he was well on the way to being rescued from Top 40 radio hell! Over the ensuing years, he's enjoyed the Classic Rock music of Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, and Deep Purple; the AOR of Journey and Foreigner; the Pomp of Styx and Kansas; the Progressive Metal of Dream Theater, Queensrÿche, and Symphony X; the Goth Metal of Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Epica, and a whole host of other great bands that are too numerous to mention. When he's not listening to music, he watches Sunderland lose more football (soccer) matches than they win, and occasionally, if he has to, he goes to work as a property lawyer.
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