Anchor Lane – ‘Casino’

My interest in Anchor Lane’s career started on Friday 23rd September 2016. This was the day that I conducted an interview with former Europe guitarist Kee Marcello for my then weekly rock radio show in Ayrshire. I’d never recorded an interview with any musician before, so I trundled into Audio, Glasgow fairly early in the evening with my newly purchased Olympus digital voice recorder. I was quite nervous, even more so when I was told the interview would have to wait until after the gig. So I stood in the small venue with a handful of other people as the support acts set up to perform.

I’d never heard of any of the support acts. One was a female fronted group from Wales (who I now know to be Kane’d) and the other was a young band from the Glasgow area called Anchor Lane. The local boys were first on stage and considering there must have been about 15 people at most in the venue at that time, they put on a powerful, energy-filled performance. To Anchor Lane, the tiny Audio venue was their Wembley! They had my attention. I spoke to the four young lads after their set, asking if they had any music recorded as I’d happily play it for the poor souls who listened to my dulcet tones on the radio! Frontman Conor Gaffney handed me a live CD they had recorded and I listened to it on the drive home. It was a very roughly produced live recording but their talent and potential was clear even then. I did indeed play a few tracks from that CD on my radio show and I still have it somewhere in my vast music collection!

A few weeks later, I was interviewing legendary rock DJ and all round nice guy Tom Russell who was promoting the launch of his autobiography. During that interview, Tom started speaking about his passion for new music and finding new bands. I mentioned Anchor Lane to him and he took a note of them, saying he’d check them out. Not long after that, I met Tom in deepest, darkest Auchinleck during his library tour. I asked if he’d had a chance to listen to Anchor Lane and he said he had and that he really liked what they were doing. It’s fair to say that Tom has done a lot to help champion the band since then. I’ve watched with Tom and many others and attended gigs as they’ve gone from strength to strength on the live circuit and at festivals as well as releasing a well-received EP called ‘New Beginning’. I’m still taking the credit for telling Tom Russell about them though!!

With the aforementioned tale in mind, you can hopefully understand why I was delighted to get the chance to write this review of Anchor Lane’s debut album ‘Casino’, due for release in January 2020. I listened to the promo of it with great anticipation, especially after discovering it was produced by Little Angels/Wayward Sons frontman Toby Jepson with some tracks co-written with Ricky Warwick (Black Star Riders, Thin Lizzy, The Almighty). Conor Gaffney (lead vocals/guitar), Lawrence O’Brien (lead guitar), Matthew Quigley (bass) and Scott Hanlon (drums) aren’t just talented musicians. They are also exceptionally nice guys! They deserve some success for their hard work. I hoped ‘Casino’ would be everything I expected it to be. Could it possibly hold up to my lofty expectations?

I probably expected the album to start with a bang but I was wrong! Opening track ‘Blood & Irony’, co-written with Ricky Warwick, is a slow burner, starting with Gaffney’s vocals and a repetitive but infectious little riff before exploding to life halfway through with a simple but effective guitar solo. It really rocks heavily in the last 30 seconds with the vocals reminiscent of Soundgarden/Audioslave legend Chris Cornell, particularly during the screaming/howling towards the end. The lyrics are quite prophetic for the opening track of a debut album; “Time will tell in the end. Time will tell my friend”. It will indeed tell a lot by the end of the album.

Next up is ‘Fame Shame’, the lead single from the album that came with an accompanying music video and received some airplay on radio and in rock clubs up and down the country. It’s actually a song that covers a very current and topical social issue, explained by the band as “condemning modern society’s fascination with social media and reality television”. Amen to that! It’s a high-tempo song that to me is very punky sounding with its gang-like backing vocals at the chorus shouting along with Gaffney “We don’t care. We don’t wanna know”. Quigley’s bass drives this song along whilst O’Brien delivers a scorching solo. I can see this being a live favourite! Third track ‘Voodoo” once again finds Gaffney sounding very much like Chris Cornell with clear and soulful vocals. Cornell must surely be an influence! Musically, there’s a Richie Kotzen sound to this track, particularly in the guitar during the verse. The chorus is very catchy and I found myself singing along in no time!

This leads into the album’s title track ‘Casino’. Opening with a bluesy/funky opening riff, this is very similar to the type of sound found on Maroon 5’s 2002 album ‘Songs About Jane’. Yup, it’s a strange comparison to make and I accept that in 2019 Anchor Lane and Maroon 5 have absolutely nothing in common… but 17 years ago, Adam Levine and co were actually a very funky, rocking band and ‘Casino’ could easily compete with the songs that made the American band such a hit (before they turned into a chart/pop act, obviously!). The “ah-ah” backing vocals give this song a classy sound whilst Scott Hanlon’s drums really stick out here and this continues into next track ‘Clocks’, where his ability to play hard but remain in complete control is evident. Black Stone Cherry would be happy to have a song like ‘Clocks’ in their catalogue with a hard rocking riff and a bluesy feel to it. “The clock is at it again” sings Gaffney… and he’s right! I find that I’m already halfway through the album. Time flies when you’re having fun!

‘Stone Cold Hearted’ continues to demonstrate the funky/bluesy side to Anchor Lane that has been evident since the beginning of the album. This beginning of this track actually wouldn’t sound out of place as a Bond theme. You’ll have to hear it to understand what I mean! It then bursts to life and builds to a magnificent crescendo where Gaffney once again channels his inner Chris Cornell. If Cornell sang with Led Zeppelin, it may well have sounded like this! ‘Shell of Me’ is the next track and it is in complete contrast to what came before. It’s a laid back track harnessed by some clean sounding guitar and a melody to die for and highlights the band’s ability to explore a softer, more introspective side. It’s not an easy thing to deliver high-tempo rock for pretty much the first half of an album and then suddenly drop it down a few levels without compromising quality but Anchor Lane managed to do so with ease. At almost 4 minutes long, ‘Flatline’ is one of the longer tracks on the album and it picks the pace back up. If I’m honest, I initially struggled with the stop/start “na… na-na-na-na” chorus. To me, it just didn’t flow with the hard rock bass, drums and guitar of the rest of the song. However, I persevered and listened to it a few more times and gave it a few days to sink in… and eventually found it to be bloody good fun!! This will demand crowd participation when played live.

‘Casino’ races towards its conclusion with two of the heaviest tracks on the album. As mentioned earlier, Black Star Riders/Thin Lizzy/The Almighty frontman and guitarist Ricky Warwick co-wrote two songs with the band and penultimate track ‘Dead Run’ is one of them, with Warwick himself providing backing vocals at the chorus. His vocals are unmistakable as he sings “Can’t you see you are lucky ones”. Indeed, Anchor Lane are the lucky ones to have a rock musician as prestigious as Warwick being willing to work alongside them and this track is probably my favourite from ‘Casino’. In fact, it might actually now be my favourite Anchor Lane track! It’s a driving, modern hard rock track that starts with drum and bass before being joined by a terrific guitar riff that leads to the verse. It’s probably one of the heaviest tracks I’ve heard Anchor Lane perform. The full-on sound of the chorus, complete with aforementioned backing vocals, power chords, driving bass and hard hitting drums is everything I look for in a modern hard rock song. Truly brilliant!

Closing track ‘Honey’ has a classic Black Sabbath feel to it in the opening few bars and keeps with the heavier vibe found towards the end of this album. It’s fair to say that the whole band are on fire by now and are playing out of their skins. Hanlon is crashing symbols all over his drum kit as Conor Gaffney continues to impress with another faultless vocal performance. Even when screeching “don’t let them steal your honey” at the higher point of his vocal register, his tone and tuning remain intact. Quigley keeps the engine running with his bass whilst O’Brien delivers yet more riffs. It’s a great song that’s very reminiscent of Royal Blood and is the ideal track to close the album.

Like all bands, Anchor Lane have their musical influences. As I’ve mentioned several times throughout this review, Chris Cornell and Soundgarden must be intertwined somewhere in the band’s DNA. The danger of being influenced so much by an artist or band is that the music doesn’t really sound fresh or new and can just sound like a complete rip off. That’s where Anchor Lane have been able to show a musical intelligence and talent way beyond their experience. They have clearly embraced their influences, from the grunge sound of Seattle and newer hard rock/metal bands like Foo Fighters and Alter Bridge to the classic British rock of Free and Led Zeppelin. But they have been incredibly careful not to simply copy the sound of their heroes. They’ve literally merged their influences all together to create a modern, funky, bluesy hard rock album that rocks from beginning to end. The songs are short, snappy and to the point with no room for over indulgence! It gets better with every listen and demands to be played loudly!

If the music business was an ocean, it would often be stormy and unforgiving. Let’s just hope that this is one ‘anchor’ that can hold firm and keep steady in the quest for success. With ‘Casino’, Anchor Lane have made a great start to their journey.