I had already been primed. “I believe you’re seeing Zac And The New Men next week”, a mate of mine had said at a gig the other day. He followed it up with the phrase: “I’ll be interested to know what you think.” And those words hang heavy as the Welsh band are on stage. Because, it is clear that Zac and the chaps are a supremely talented young bunch, but it is less clear exactly what type of band they are. They arrive on stage full of rock bluster with “Birdcage”, but by the time they are doing “He’s Fallen” and “Embers” they are every inch a pop band, maybe like X-Ambassadors, but pop nonetheless. It’s a fact that Zac himself acknowledges: “We’re going to show you we’re not like every other boring chart band” he says and then they proceed to make good on that as they play “Atom Bomb”. Indeed, the guitar solo alone explains it. Zac looks like a rock star – as do the rest – and they are a fantastically confident bunch. “Deeper” (“It’s my favourite” reckons the frontman) sees him jump off the drum riser, and a real pick and mix of a set, has you asking will the real Zac And The New Men please stand up, as “World’s Gone Mad” is appreciably heavier and the last one, “Off To The Moon” even has a tinge of Wolfmother about it. So that question: what do you think? Well, the talent and skill is undeniable, and they definitely have something special, but what is even more certain is whichever direction they go down, the journey will be worth watching.
The beginning and end of this gig are actually all you need to know when it comes to Collateral. If we may start at the end as it were, they’ve just done their first single “Midnight Queen” and Bon Jovi’s “Let It Rock” blasts out as they take pictures. It is fitting that the weekend came to this town seven days too soon, because “….Queen” is as it always has been. the best song Bon Jovi never wrote.
And yet, an hour or so before, Angelo Tristan and the troops had arrived on stage with new single “Glass Sky”, and it is, as I said in my review last week, a very different sound to that which they had before. It suits them too, and they are clearly proud of it, as they should be.
It sets the tone for the set, given that it is a mixture of old and new. Make no mistake about it either, the “new” is impressive. “Final Stand” Is much heavier than before, while the tender and personal “On The Long Road” about the death of Tristan’s partner’s mother, shows the depth in class to the songwriting and the solo from guitarist Louis Malagodi is a step up.
Somehow that is transferred to the older material as well and “Mr Big Shot”, Promiseland” and the likes are infused with something of a shot in the arm, like even they are coming out fighting in 2024.
When they do their “country” song, “About This Boy” you get a sense of how much this music, but moreover music in general means to Tristan. He later talks passionately about how much it would mean to him to see the new album in the charts, and songs like “Lullaby” and “Merry Go Round” mean you are sorry for him that it hasn’t happened yet.
However, those that get it clearly understand already. A chap down the front is singing so well in the middle of “No Place For Love” that Tristan jokes they’ve found his replacement.
But he also says something else and is the something else there all the way through the set. “I used to look up at the posters on my wall, of all these albums that changed the world and dream of writing one myself.” Says the singer. For these boys, Collateral is more than a band it is their way of life. All of that has been shown in the 60 minutes they are on stage. I’ve seen them many times over the years, and this is unquestionably the best. The brave new world is still theirs for the taking.
