VDELLI – Never Going Back

Shane | 3 October 2013 | Reply

Independent, October 2013
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

“Got to get over you/ got to get myself together before I get too old”, sings Michael Vdelli on the opening track of his three piece’s latest album Never Going Back, yet on the strength of their annual Eurotours including repeat appearances at Sweden Rock Fest, the only thing these guys aren’t over is hard rocking blues.

The cover shows a hot car moving at high velocity through a desertscape, and that’s the band summed up – moving forwards fast with high octane power, pedal down hard and looking dead ahead, all eyes on the finish line.

It’s not just the Michael Vdelli show though. Sure, his raw vocals and beefy guitar are the centrepiece, but it wouldn’t mean half as much without such a tight and grooving rhythm section – comprised of drummer Ric Whittle and bass player Leigh Miller – underpinning proceedings with style, power and grace.

Vdelli live on Germany’s Harald Schmidt Show

Highlights are everywhere, from Dream Girl Nightmare’s unconventionally catchy melody and forceful slide solo, the cautionary drug tale of FIFO workers that is On The Mines On The Pipe, Vdelli’s steel guitar dripping in old blues for Friction Addiction, the high octane Western Desert rock of Love Me Or Leave Me and it’s soaring solo that flits and darts around hot and dry like a zephyr, the Tom Jones singing a blues shuffle of Down The Line, or the righteous boogie of What It Is That You Been Missing.

If anything, Vdelli are even more intense and tight live, which explains the repeat visits to the old countries. Never Going Back should, if justice be served, extend that touring far and wide, finally seeing them offered some festival stages in their homeland and The States.

https://www.facebook.com/Vdelli.Band

www.vdelli.com