Big Jimmy Mania 22nd August 2026 - Audio, Glasgow

I still count myself as a relatively new member to the Rockfiend family, even tho' it has been a few years. Rockfiend history is still something I'm not totally sure of. I know festivals and arena gigs have been reviewed and photographed, the same with mid sized venues, not forgetting the really small venues and local bands. But has Rockfiend ever shot and reviewed a birthday party?  I can now say with 100% accuracy, one has been shot and reviewed now!

It's Saturday night and I am once again in one of my favourite venues in Glasgow. I am back in Audio!  Maybe it's just me, but this place oozes Rock & Roll, even when empty the vibes you get when you walk in, well, it's difficult to put into words. Nothing feels like Audio, well not since The Apollo, even the mighty Barrowland Ballroom feels nothing like Audio.

Tonight I am here for what is billed as Big Jimmy Mania. Tonight we are celebrating the 40th birthday of Crusaders UK frontman, Jamie Paterson. Also tonight, it is a charity event raising some funds for Marie Curie, who looked after our friend and brother (from another mother) Bobby McDougall before his passing, Bobby was the frontman of Nocturne Wulf which featured tonight's birthday boy on guitar. Everyone who bought a ticket knew what tonight was all about, so most of the crowd were in Audio before the first chord was hit.

Tonight the remaining members of Nocturne Wulf, Jamie, Stevie, Chris and Scott open tonight's frivolities playing a set of Nocturne Wulf favourites. If there was any doubt how tonight was going to roll, well the first few notes from the lads told us, this was going to be one hell of a night of HEAVY METAL. It was great to hear Nocturne Wulf again, even with Jamie on vocals. There was a lot of emotion in the air tonight.

Even the changeovers were different tonight, not the usual frantic changeover, it was a more relaxed chaos all friends here tonight, so there didn't need to be the usual melee, because we were all here tonight to party.

The next band on stage announce themselves as Cool Bros, all wore silly glasses with an added big fake nose, but none of the lads were able to keep them on for long, we got to see rather quickly that the Cool Bros were actually the Catalysis lads. 

As tonight was Jamie's Birthday bash AND a charity night, all bands played their favourite cover songs.

The Cool Bros opened with The Crusaders UK song "Rohan" which went down well, they also played "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Metallica, "From This Day" by Machine Head, "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, "Last Resort" by Papa Roach, "How You Remind Me" by Nickleback, which got a few laughs, and ended with their own "Connection Lost". You can imagine the crowd reaction, everyone was singing along at the top of their voices, and yeah, even to the Nickleback song!

Another short break and leisurely changeover before the third band took to the stage, Scotland's own Viking Warriors, Eld Varg!

Eld Varg are another band who unashamedly wear their influencies on their sleeves, to say Eld Varg are influenced by Swedish band Grand Magus is like saying Ronnie James Dio casually mentions stars and rainbows. 

All bands tonight are playing a covers set of bands and songs which influenced them, it is no surprise that Eld Varg play a set of Grand Magus songs. I have to admit I am not knowledgeable when it comes to Grand Magus, however, several of the more mature audience clearly did, air guitars, a mass of hair and lots of headbanging from the front row helped boost an already intense atmosphere.

Again there was another relaxed changeover. Next band was for the charity part of the gig, yeah I know the whole gig was for charity, but the fourth band is the Band Of Bob, a band which was put together for a fund raiser after Bobby passed, a band of friends from local bands and who are available to play. Members are the four remaining member of Nocturne Wulf, Crusaders UK, Pyroclast, Victorius, Eld Varg, Catalysis, Arranthrax and a couple of lads from the birthday boys first band, which I cannot remember their bands name or the lads who played. Yes, it would be very easy to message Jamie and ask him, HOWEVER, I want to give Jamie a surprise to see the photos and review in Rockfiend. I want to give this event as much publicity as I can as the sentiment this event has built deserves all the publicity it can get. Yes the event was put together for a friend, but the support it got from Glasgow's (and surrounding areas) Metal family was immense.

At one point there were at least six guitarists on stage. and at one point we had a member of the audience go on stage to help with the vocals!

The setlist for the Band Of Bob was

1 Battery - Metallica

2 Creeping Death - Metallica

3 The Trooper - Iron Maiden

4 Antisocial - Anthrax

5 Symphony Of Destruction - Megadeth

6 Breaking The Law - Judas Priest

7 Seek And Destroy - Metallica

8 Whiskey In The Jar - Thin Lizzy

9 My Sacrifice - Creed

10 Live For This - Hatebreed

11 Overkill - Motorhead

12 Enter Sandman - Metallica

Of all the lads that were on stage playing, one moment stood out for me, I spoke to him after the set, plus posted on my social media page. Robbi Islam absolutely nailed the bass throughout The Trooper! I even said to Robbi that I am not a fan of people covering my favourite bands (yeah I'm a snob about that, so sue me lol) I think "Bomber" would have been proud of that.

I won't dwell on the vocalist who forgot the lyrics to the second verse of Enter Sandman, at least he got help from the woman from Dundee :-) 

The ultimate Heavy Metal jam session by a group of mates celebrating a birthday plus a departed brother AND helping a charity.

Without any prompting, many of tonight's crowd spoke about making tonight an annual event. I mentioned this to Jamie, I think he was a tad overwhelmed but said he didn't know because the organisation has taken a lot out of him, I instantly offered to help if he did try again. Hopefully it can happen again, because, you'll agree, it is a worthy cause!

I cannot say my usual ending as all the bands were playing a covers set, so I'll just end with my final five words

See you at the Barrier.