Classic rockers Nazareth heading for Wigan

The group has been dishing out its brand of classic and hard rock to audiences for decades and has built up a loyal fanbase.

Those fans will be out in force alongside the borough’s classic rockers when the band makes what is believed to be its first trip to Wigan.

Nazareth has been booked in for a performance at Pure nightclub just off Wallgate in January and promoter Paul Maiden is looking forward to them hitting town.

He said: “I wanted to put a fairly big band on to start the year in 2018 so Nazareth it is.

“They are absolutely superb live. Ticket sales are moving okay so hopefully we should have a good few hundred people there for it.

“I don’t think they’ve played Wigan before as when Maximes was going and putting on rock bands they were a bit too big.

“They were in there with some really big rock and metal bands and they didn’t just build up gradually, they got very big really quickly.”

Nazareth formed in 1968 and established themselves as part of the 1970s rock scene, enjoying their biggest British and European success with their 1975 album Year of the Dog.

The title track from that provided them with their only US top-10 hit and was a staple of rock radio.

However, despite touring with the likes of Deep Purple they could not quite make it huge and then couldn’t quite follow in the footsteps of the likes of Saxon and Iron Maiden a few years later.

They continued to tour and release albums and were given another moment in the limelight in the early 1990s when Guns N’ Roses covered one of their songs.

Slash and co had already revealed themselves as fans when singer Axl Rose asked them to play at his wedding.

Today bassist Pete Agnew is the only original member, now sharing the stage with vocalist Carl Sentence, guitarist Jimmy Murrison and drummer Lee Agnew.

Wigan classic rockers Second Son will provide the support slot.

Nazareth play at Pure on January 20. Tickets are £20.35 and available from www.seetickets.com.