unknown Newspaper
November 1997
Rotterdam – Singer-guitarist Gavin Rossdale from Bush was surprised when the audience treated him three birthday songs yesterday in Ahoy’ : ‘Happy Birthday’, ‘Lang zal-ie leven’ and ‘Hij leve lang, hoera, hoera’. Thanks to this surprise sung by the 6,000 fans ( and arranged by the other band members ), the performance of this British post-grunge quartet got as yet the enthusiastic gloss that hadn’t been there for the previous 105 minutes. With the following encore “Swallowed” the birthday boy suddenly broke out, through which the sports center really went crazy.
It’s such a shame that not every performance by Bush could end like this. The London foursome would be released from their ‘climax-problem’ then. And with that they could be helped with getting away the continuous misjudgment in many countries, but especially in their homeland. Rossdale and company are still fighting towards a rigid division concerning their popularity. Opposite to their surprising success in the USA ( immediately after their debut album “Sixteen Stone” ), here at the other side of the ocean they get a moderate appreciation. Only in Holland and Portugal they are ‘big ones’ in music ( Bush played at PinkPop festival this year ).
The ones who love them are definitely the ones that walked away from Nirvana and Pearl Jam. For the alltime haters, including the entire British press. Bush is nothing but a fake band who steals from the grunge pioneers named above. Bush’s music then isn’t very refreshing too. The power of this band hides especially in the accessible repertoire, which is established by ‘noice producer’ Steve Albini (Nirvana) on their second album “Razorblade Suitcase” (1996) which got some rougher songs on it.
With Gavin Rossdale Bush has a singer who guarantees a high level of swoon among the fans. But his voice, in Ahoy’ the most impressive during his first solo “Bonedriven”, isn’t just that tored up as voices by Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder.
Bush at Ahoy’ stadium. With : Gavin Rossdale ( singer, guitarist ), Nigel Pulsford ( guitarist ), Dave Parsons ( bass ) and Robin Goodridge ( drums ). Support act : 3 Colours Red