A live album, a 2014 UK Tour and plans for a new album - Millions of reasons for M$R future success

MILLION Dollar Reload have been putting hard rock from Northern Ireland out there live for all to admire and get their rocks out with two fine albums. And now they have a live album - As Real As It Gets - to show just how electric they can be on stage.

Recorded live at The Diamond Rock Club the album (our review is here) it is a statically charged tour de force, crackling with energy and rawness that bleeds like the heart of sacrifice on the altar of rock 'n' fucking roll.

With just two albums - albeit fantastic albums - under their belt, what in the blue blazes inspired Million Dollar Reload to deliver a live album?

"Honestly, it's just something we really wanted to do," said Phil [vocalist]. "Our manager also thought it would be a good idea and suggested that a lot of our friends online are from other territories and wouldn't necessarily have had an opportunity to hear us live or get a vibe for what M$R are all about live. So, this was the best way to, in some way, address that.

"Added to that, nobody at our level would ever expect a band like us to put out a live album at this point in their career - so that was another good reason to do it!"

At this point in their career...Many a band would be proud to have the notches in their belt that M$R have, and as Phil explains there have been many highlights a long the way so far.

"It's hard to pick one highlight to be honest, there have been so many" he said. "Touring in America on a proper tour bus, playing the Download festival a couple of times, playing the main stage at Bloodstock, playing a sold out Ulster Hall supporting The Darkness.

"It is really hard to pick one highlight, but if I had to pick one then it was would have to be opening for Alice Cooper in Vicar Street in Dublin - that was M$R's first really big show."

However, this is a band that does not focus on how they would 're-do' any part of their career.

"We would probably do everything exactly the same all over again - the high points and the low points," said Phil. "The low points you learn from and gain experience. The high points are bonuses."

With such a positive attitude it is perhaps no wonder that in As Real As It Gets is such a superb album, and is perhaps a lesson on how bands should go ahead and record their live output; but Phil says it was straightforward to capture such a fantastic 'raw' sound.

"That was the really easy part - our sound engineer took care of that," he said. "Everything was 'mic-ed' up as normal with a few audience mics too: the over-bleed from the mics helped with the true live feel we had that night.

"The Diamond is such a wonderful small club and the place was rammed, so the atmosphere was electric. We played our normal set and everything went great."

That is certainly reflected in the energy that courses on every song of the album.

Live albums have a proud tradition in the hard rock iconography, from Purple's Made in Japan, through Lizzy's Live And Dangerous, Molly Hatchet's Double Trouble Live and Iron Maiden's Live Evil and many more; the 70s, 80s and 90s are eras peppered with great recordings, but of these eras which would feel was the best one to stretch their rock legs in then - the answer may surprise some.

"This one," said Phil. "Why? Because there are so many ways and opportunities to get your music out there these days in the internet age.

"In the 70s, 80 and 90s for a band like us it would have taken a big record deal to 'get it out there' and the chances of us getting a big record deal to get our music out there would have been very slim.

"These days a small label can do a lot for a band like us and some bands don't even need a label to have a level of success. Yes, it's still challenging to get anywhere, but we love what we do and that's what it's all about.

"We do out best to make the most of our opportunities we get and we will continue to do that regardless."

With As Real As It Gets released on December 17th (ideal Christmas present?) the band are already looking forward to a happy rockin' New Year, with plans aplenty in the offing.

"We are working at the minute with our agent to ensure we tour in the UK and Europe next year," said Phil. "We only toured Europe this year and we really should have toured in the UK: for some reason that didn't really work out, so that has to happen in '14.

"We are also working hard on our next studio album too, so that should be out sometime in 2014."

So, 2013 is ending an appropriate cacophony for Million Dollar Reload with As Real As It Gets, and the New Year looks bright and filled with promise - and we for one can't wait to be reloaded with that hard rockin' vibe.

Live, loud and raw - Million Dollar Reload unleash live stormer

LIVE albums are always hit and miss, you get some that capture the essence of a concert while others sound like a band trying to hard. With 'As Real As It Gets' Northern Ireland hard rockers have sipped at the elixir of magic in delivering a live album that is raw, loud and balanced by power.

There has always been controversy about overdubs being added to live albums - the controversy over Lizzy's Live and Dangerous rumbles on to this day - but Million Dollar Reload have in the words of guitarist Bam laid this album out "warts and all".

Recorded at then Diamond Rock Club, and scheduled for release on December 17th, we suggest that you assure Santa that you have been very, very good in order to get this slab of rock in your stocking...

There is such a thing as being honest in your craft, whether a musician, a writer, of painter, and that honesty shines through on 'As Real As It Gets'. The sheen of carefully produced studio albums is replaced with an honest performance amidst a crowd intent on quaffing a pint or seven and rocking out. Listen to The Last Icon or Goodnight New York and you'll get what we're driving at.

However, it may seem a little ambitious for a band to release a live album after just two studio albums. In some respects this may be seen as a placeholder while Million Dollar Reload prepare for the next stage of conquest in the glorious madness that is rock 'n' feckin' roll.

And it all started with booze...as singer Phil Conalane explains:

"It all started at a late night drinking session after a show we'd done in Paris. Shooting the breeze and telling lies to each other in the hotel bar led to reminiscing about great live rock albums and recordings - Alice Cooper's live albums, Kiss, Maiden, the G'N'R bootleg at The Marquee amongst others. Alcohol fuelled bravado dictated that we should do one too."

Whether it was an idea that span out of control, or as mentioned above a placeholder for the band this is undoubtedly a slab of fine live music.

The sterility of some acts in the live arena is taken, stamped on and a firm boot delivered to any chance of shiny, happy people in plastic promises with plastic smiles neutering this recording.

Turn this up and you get the shivers that only a great performance can deliver; the shivers that you get when a favourite is given new life and dimensions.

We submit to the court of rock 'n' roll for judgement Broken. From the studio it delivers a superb power ballad, suffused with pathos and bathos before hope emerges like a warm zephyr on a summer evening. Live it grows in stature, the raw nature of the recording tearing every part of the musical and lyrical narrative apart and building it up; a harmonica show casing the blue roots before the chorus and guitar lines surge towards the eventual tale of a life reborn.

Let loose the likes of Tattoos & Dirty Girls, Smoke and Mirrors, and Bullet in the Sky strut across the stereo like Mick Jagger on steroids.

Part of that ambience comes from where and when the band recorded the album; the intimate surroundings of the Diamond Rock Club and as they prepare for their next studio release.

That is not to say that this album is not without flaws. The reference to Sebastian Bach resonates in Northern Ireland, but will not travel well. Also, the closer, a cover of the Cowboy Song (not available on the vinyl release) is stretched and strained even if an honest attempt to give an M$R spin this classic; best to say that this works when sampled with pints on board.]

Overall these points barely dent the excellence of this release; this is Northern Ireland rock delivered from the edge, on the edge, from a band leaping off the precipice and a crowd glorying in hard rockin' delight.

As Real As It Gets is released on December 17th exclusively from the band's website - www.milliondollarreload.com and their Facebook page either on double vinyl with gatefold sleeve, or in CD format.