Music Resource Group's Musician's Atlas Magazine named Pinwheel the Best Hard Rock/Metal Band 2002 for their song, Whatever Turns You On, from their CD, Dear Blue.
In fact, many others discovered what's so good about Pinwheel, when the band rocked the Hard Rock Café in New York on Friday, November 23, to a packed house of hungry New Yorkers who had been busy shopping during the first day of the Christmas Shopping season. Many knew what to expect from Pinwheel, but others were in for a treat and by the end of the show, the group obtained new fans as a line was made in an effort to purchase the CD containing songs from a concert that featured eight...count them...eight encores.
Pinwheel hit the stage at a little after 10:00 p.m. for what was supposed to be an hour set. Timebomb, Dear Blue, Believe, Whatever Turns You On and Frozen, were just some of the songs played from the CD, but Pinwheel also came armed with some new songs that will be part of a future CD. Among those songs, Over You, Radio and A Girl I Knew, are ranking right up there with all my other favorites.
The reaction for each song seemed to be very positive. It is hard to pick your favorite Pinwheel tune, because there are so many to choose from. Fans were definitely into the new stuff, but even I marked out when they play some covers. Keep in mind that this is not some cover band, but when they decide to cover a song, they treat it like their own. Pinwheel ended the set with their cover of the Kinks' Destroyer, which I feel is better than the original. However, that was not the end of Sal, Vic and Peter. One fan asked for another song, and suddenly a large group of people also demanded more. Pinwheel was happy to oblige and played another song for the crowd, and when they were about to step off, they were called back to the stage once more. The fans loved their rendition of Always Something There to Remind Me and even broke out in song when the band decided to honor a dare that they sing Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer. There were several times when the band put their equipment down and were ready to pack for the night, but the fans were not having it.
Pinwheel gave fans the honor of hearing their latest song Waiting for the Sparks to Fly, and judging from the reaction of the fans, this one's a keeper. Before everyone knew it, the band had played for 40-minutes beyond their scheduled time. I have never seen anything like that before. Most musicians plan their encores, but when you are an independent band, you can never be so sure and I don't think anyone can plan for the response they got. Even one person walked up to Sal at the end of the show and told him he would take back the CD to England. Talk about going global!
It was great seeing Pinwheel playing in a new venue, especially the Hard Rock Café. One of the best things about the night was that the band made sure the over-inflated prices for food was actually money well spent. I have to say that no band or singer has ever gotten me excited enough to play their CD over again when I got back home from a concert, but Pinwheel did. They are the only band I would go see so much in concert. They keep things fresh, original and entertaining and even when you heard the songs before, you never get tired of it. We at BANDWIDTH Magazine would like to congratulate Pinwheel on another fine performance and for winning an award we always knew they were capable of. Big things are ahead for these guys, so I hope none of our readers ever forget the name, Pinwheel. We won't let you.
Send comments and or questions about this article to JMinners@ybfree.com.