Ken Tamplin's take on The Gods 2003 and specifically the performance by Talisman.

I would first off like to say that it was a HUGE breath of fresh air to walk into a class act venue like Penningtons in Bradford England and be treated with dignity and respect. My hats off to Mark Ashton for going a step above and beyond to provide excellence in the "live" world of melodic rock. Thank you Mark.

(And before I go on, I am not one for placating, so please don't think I'm kissing anyone's keester for my comments because I don't do that for anyone)

We arrived and Ashton put us up at the Hilton, hired a great transportation company that was on it, a sound and light crew that actually knew what they were doing and at NO TIME did I feel that everpresent concert festival feeling of "hurry up you lame second rate act, this is a festival so you get nothing and we're just putting up with you pathetic morons to get you out of the way until the headliner appears" feeling (all of you who have done enough of these things know exactly what I am talking about). It was quite the opposite. Everyone was gracious and very professional.

Now with that said, Andrew asked me to give my honest "over-all opinion" and a specific review of the Talisman performance.

Over all, I was quite suprised that most all the acts (or at least all that I got the chance to see) were really pretty good. Yes I could get nit picky and if there was one disappointment for me was that a lot of groups used sequences or tape for everything from background vocals to keyboards, but given the bugdet constraints for players and most of these groups (like myself) only getting a couple of rehearsals, I almost understand. (ok guys don't get pissed at me for saying that) The reason it's a little bit of a sore spot for me is because back in the day, we (like everyone else) had almost all our backgrounds and a lot of keys and in many spots even some lead vocals fired off by sequencers. Then one day a German magazine busted my balls and changed my band's name from "Tamplin" to "Samplin". From that day on, I have never used another sequence. I figure what you lose in fatness of sound, you get back twice as much in energy. So for all the groups that used samples this was true. I felt that some of the energy was lost, yet the sound was big.

OK, now on to Talisman

I have been to a lot of concerts in my day, and have seen a whole lot of great players and in fact, until Talisman came on I thought my group Tamplin played pretty well. Well let me tell you, it's 3 days later and my ass still hurts from the musical whipping I got last Sunday at The Gods. You know there's good, and then there's great. Talisman was great. A great rock band. I thought it funny that by definition, the name Talsiman means a charm or amulet that is magical and produces extraordinary results. Yep, that just about sums up their show. Jeff Scott Soto sang his ass off. I didn't hear a missed note (and I was looking/listening). He just has the frontman thing down! He grooves like a soul brutha. I must say that an audience that has just heard more music than maybe should be allowed over the course of two days, Jeff took the crowd, put them in the palm of his hand, and instead of flaunting that power in arrogance and strutting away with it, he gave it back to them with class. Just simply a great front man.

The guitars were rediculously great. Howie Simon and Fredrik Akesson on guitar make a deadly duo.
It's kinda like having Yngwie, Uli Roth and Michael Schenker on stage all at the same time. From blistering leads, to tasty european melodic solos. Exceptional guitar playing all the way around.

Even Marcel Jacob played a bass solo that you didn't immediately run for the consession stand 'till it was over. He played a very tasty tapping and arpegio bit with just the right amount of distortion on his bass that Billy Sheehan would have appreciated.

No exageration folks. Down to Jamie Borger who entertained with his stick twirling, while laying down rock solid grooves.

Not a weak link in the band.
They played some of the old, some of the new, they even broke into a version of Seal's "Crazy" (which by the way I've heard Seal do live and in my opnion, Jeff did a better job)

After the second encore (and possibly getting a call from Sharon Osborne to help out with the next Ozzie tour after she heard Howie Simon and Fredrik Akesson) it was time to go home.

No one left disappointed.

-Ken Tamplin