The Dutch multi-instrumentalist
Robby Valentine released back in 2014 his most recent album
Bizarro
World. In 2016, the album finally got a limited edition pressing on vinyl. People who pre-ordered the album
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Robby Valentine |
were invited to join the official vinyl release party. This was held in Purmerend at the P3. It was for me the
first time I ever went to this venue and strangely enough also the first time I witnessed a concert by Robby Valentine.
So you could say I was very curious that evening.
Wow! When the band started to play it was an instant hit. What an energy and what a performance. What also helped
was the bright and colourful stage lighting. The music is a real mixture of symphonic rock and metal, but with
a lot of pop influences as well. Robby Valentine plays several guitars and also on a grand piano that was on the
right side (for the audience left side) of the stage. His voice was in good shape and that also applies to the
band. After playing a couple of songs, Robby thanked the audience for coming and said that he saw a lot of familiar
faces but also new faces too.
The band obviously didn't only perform tracks from Robby's latest album but several tracks from other albums as
well. Robby also surprised the audience by
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Anna Postumius |
playing and singing
Life On Mars from
David Bowie on
his own behind his piano. I noticed that female vocalist
Laura Guldemond was only on stage when she had
to sing along with some of the songs. Furthermore Robby announced that the other female vocalist,
Maria Catharina,
sadly couldn't perform because of voice problems. It has to be said that guitarist
Paul Coenradie is a
fantastic guitarist who knows how to play interesting guitar solos. During the whole show it became clear to me
that Robby is a real virtuoso on the piano. Playing not only his own compositions but also played some classical
piano pieces composed by Chopin and Tchaikovsky.
After the set, the band came back on stage, treating the audience with the track
Mustapha, a song from
Queen. A contributor of the magazine Aardschok entered the stage in between the encore tracks, and handed
out the first pressing of the vinyl version of
Bizarro Wold to Mister Valentine himself. During the track
Black Rain Robby pointed his microphone towards the audience from time to time. The audience replied by
singing along with the song and this was done of course very loudly.
I really enjoyed the performance of Robby Valentine and his live band. They played a lot of varied music and were
very good too! You could tell they certainly know how to entertain an audience. Finally I can only hope to see
Robby Valentine and band perform again in the near future soon!
Iris Hidding (edited by Robert James Pashman)