TICKETS : £16.50

What’s in a name? Well, quite a lot it would seem. Tygers of Pan Tang (the name was appropriated from a Michael Moorcock novel) began their career playing the pubs and clubs of their native north east and ended it with a sold out tour of Japanese concert halls. Or so it was thought.

Releasing their first single on the (then) Wallsend based Neat Records, the band were quickly snapped up by giant American label MCA records for whom they made 4 albums, all of which graced the UK top twenty albums charts. During this time the band recruited guitarist John Sykes, who later joined Thin Lizzy and followed this by co-writing Whitesnake’s multi-platinum ‘1987’ album. He also contributed to their top fifty single ‘Love Potion Number 9’, a radical rearrangement of an old Clovers song that has been frequently copied, most recently on American Idol.

Headlining tours of major UK venues, dates in Europe and finally a tour of Japan, where they outsold acts who were considered to be their superiors, the band returned to England only to dissolve after a series of disagreements with their record company.

And…that could have been it had it not been for the tenacity of founding member Robb Weir from Whitley Bay. Reforming the band Robb carefully chose Italian singer Jacopo Meille, Gav Gray from South Shields a veteran of the hard rock scene on bass, drummer Craig Ellis from Doncaster and the youngest member of the band guitar prodigy Micky Crystal from Washington, to both perform the old material and write new songs.

Earlier this year invitations to play South America and headline a festival in Chicago demonstrated extent of the band’s fan base and after a summer of touring in Europe they are now looking forward to the release of a new album (‘Tygers of Pan Tang’ released 21st October 2016) and their first UK tour proper for….a long time. With a new record label (Denmark’s Mighty Music) and even their own beer (Tyger Blood brewed by Box Social Brewers in Newburn) the stage is set for a triumphant return to the UK!