Gig review: BENEFIT FOR MICK UNDERWOOD- The Cavern, Raynes Park, London, 18 April 2025

April 25th, 2025 by andynathan

Mick Underwood had a long and distinguished career in that most physically punishing of roles in a rock band. In the sixties he was not only drummer with Episode Six but recommended their singer Ian Gillan for Deep Purple, so it is no hyperbole to say he changed the course of rock history.

Later he played with Gillan’s eponymous band throughout their great period and in more recent times founded Raw Glory, and then Mick Underwood’s Glory Road to resurrect Gillan and other songs from his past, with some musicians of great pedigree. In both of those acts he was happy playing the smaller pubs and clubs particularly in South West London. I never met him but by all accounts he was a modest man unaware how much this music touched his fans.

A year after his passing from a long illness, both those most recent bands reformed for one night only to pay tribute to him at a familiar venue with this benefit gig.

Going in chronological order, Raw Glory came first and an illustration of that pedigree was that they were fronted by Paul Manzi, witnessed only a couple of weeks prior commanding the stage of the Shepherds Bush Empire with Sweet. He came on to pay some words of tribute to Mick (as well as another recently passed drumming great in Les Binks who had also played with Raw Glory), though surprisingly then left the stage to a trio of bandmates for a couple of lengthy blues workouts, including Joe Bonamassa’s ‘The Ballad of John Henry’.

Bass player PJ Phillips was more than respectable on the vocals himself and as usual Cosmo Verrico from the Heavy Metal Kids was unflashy but coaxed a beautiful tone out of his Les Paul. Indeed when Paul returned it was for what I always think of as one of the HMK’s more traditional classic rock moments in ‘Hanging On’.

Raw Glory’s own material was deep and bluesy, like a drier version of classic Whitesnake. After seeing Paul Manzi handle more melodic material with Cats in Space and Sweet it was a timely reminder he can be just as good a heavy blues rock belter. Examples were ‘City Life’, ‘Bad Girls’, ‘Down So Long’ and ‘White Lies’.

In between were some superbly executed covers. ‘In A Broken Dream’ was no less than epic, while ‘Don’t Believe A Word’ put Cosmo’s versatility to the test as it was played in the alternative slow bluesy version with the more familiar fast-paced gallop tackled on to the end. The dirty riffing of Montrose’s ‘Rock Candy’ ended a truly splendid set.

With two band members who I understand had never played with them before including keyboardist Gab Soulavy, and guitarist Jeff Summers (playing alongside bassist brother Gary) just flown in especially from Spain, it was entirely forgivable that Glory Road did a quick soundcheck of ‘Smoke On the Water’. However to my surprise singer Luka Ravase came on halfway through and we were onto the gig proper in very impressive fashion.

It was soon onto Gillan songs, Jeff shredding his way through ‘Secret Of the Dance’ and the catchy riff of ‘Sleeping On the Job’, then ‘She Tears Me Down’ building from its quiet beginnings into a bit of an epic.

As more than one friend mentioned during the evening, Gillan had a high profile at the dawn of the eighties and were regulars on shows from ‘Top of the Pops’ to ‘Tiswas’, yet compared to the rest of the Purple family tree are almost forgotten about by makers of playlists and compilations. That was one of the pleasures of Glory Road originally and it was great after several years to again be reminded of their quirkily original songs.

In excited fashion Luka recounted his pride in going from a childhood fan who had a Gillan poster on his wall to becoming Glory Road’s second and last singer. I understand his main gig these days is a Deep Purple tribute and this showed in the ease the lean Italian screamed the high notes, though on the punkier ‘Vengeance’ his roar sounded more like Noddy Holder.

Talking of which, as we sang along to the ‘hey hey hey hey yeah’ intro to ‘New Orleans’, a friend and I joked whether it was this or Slade’s ‘We’ll Bring The House Down’ came first. ‘No Easy Way’ saw some excellent call and response guitar and organ jamming between Jeff and Gab in the best Purple tradition, before a couple from Mick’s early seventies band Quatermass- a stonking version of ‘Black Sheep Of the Family’ (famously covered by Rainbow) and the contrasting ‘Good Lord Knows’ in almost baroque style with the keyboard sounding like a harpsichord.

Back to the Gillan songs, ‘No Laughing in Heaven’ saw Luka master Ian Gillan’s eccentric spoken dialogue, while the biggest cheers of the night greeted the intro to the epic ‘Mr Universe’. Sadly and possibly due to licensing constraints it was the last song so the encore I expected of ‘Trouble’ never materialised. Special mention has to go to Julius Gamski for fulfilling so well the unenviable task of replacing Mick himself on the drums.

It was a memorable one- off tribute show, not least as it raised a significant amount of money for Mick’s chosen charity, but wouldn’t it be nice if somehow it became a regular event?

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions,

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio

David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 16 November 2025.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This 600th show was first broadcast on 18 November 2025

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen live or listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com

Power Plays w/c 1 December 2025

We feature all the artists selected in this sequence in 2025.

Featured Albums w/c 1 December 2025

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

Our occasional Newsletter signposts latest additions to the website(s). We also include a selection of recent top albums, based on GRTR! reviewer ratings. The newsletter is sent out a few times a year.

If you’d like to register to receive this occasional mailing please complete the form:

If using a smartphone/tablet please tap here or re-orientate your device

(Note that this registration is separate from site registration which allows you to leave comments and receive daily emails about new content. If you wish to register for this – in addition or separately – please click or tap here – for more information – the form is at the foot of each page. Please read our privacy policy when opting-in to receive emails.