Frontiers are onto a good thing here – put on an annual Festival, showcase all your own bands then release video and audio of the sets by the bigger bands, it’s a nice business model, great for fans and I must admit that so far, so good as far as quality is concerned.
This one though is rather more interesting than some as it was recorded during TNT’s headlining set at the Festival on April 30, 2017 and is the last live footage of Tony Harnell with the band (not the last show – Ed). Tony of course is the voice of TNT for many fans, and he had been there since second album ‘Knights of the New Thunder’ and ridden out the glory years when the band turned from their more Metallic early sound towards a more popular Hard Rock culminating in the classic third album ‘Tell No Tales’.
Up until 2017 when this show was filmed the band had released twelve studio records, eight of which featured Harnell, who was succeeded by Tony Mills – and as expected (though I’d secretly hoped for one track maybe) there is of course no Mills-era material here.
Interestingly the band had already released a ‘last ever concert with Tony Harnell’ record back in 2006 when they released the similarly European titled ‘Live in Madrid’ but here the track-list is hugely different from that release featuring largely music from ‘Tell No Tales’ (7 songs) and ‘Intuition’ (3 songs)
Harnell’s last studio album with the band ‘Al the Way to the Sun’ from 2005 sadly doesn’t get a look in though ‘My Religion’ from the previous year provides the rather fine ‘She Needs Me’ and Invisible Noise’. The album is rounded out by a track from ‘Knights…’ and one from the 2003 EP ‘Give Me a Sign.’
This is an interesting slice in time with Tony rejoining TNT in 2013, quitting in 2015 and rejoining again in early 2016 after his brief stint with Skid Row before calling it a day again in October 2017.
On the night the band sounds in great form with all the expected highlights and whilst the press release states this record contains ” the last live footage of Tony Harnell with the band” remember it wasn’t his last show, and with the back and forth of recent years, who knows?
Tracklisting:
- Give Me A Sign
- As Far As The Eye Can See
- She Needs Me
- Desperate Night
- Invisible Noise
- Child’s Play
- Ironnic (Ronni Solo)
- Forever Shine On
- Northern Lights
- Tonight I’m Falling
- Intuition
- Seven Seas
- Listen To Your Heart
- 10,000 Lovers
- Everyone’s A Star
