20/12/2007 The Wildhearts & Wolfsbane @ the Astoria

Subject	The Wildhearts & Wolfsbane @ the Astoria
PostedDate	12/20/2007
	I'd been looking forward to this gig for months. I'm always excited about seeing the WiLDHEARTS so I bought a ticket straight away, but then Wolfsbane were added to the bill - WOW! I know some other people who were also very excited about the prospect of seeing Wolfsbane - only six months ago it seemed like we'd never get the chance to see this band again - and now here they are supporting one of our other favourite ever bands!  Quite ironic actually, as the Wildhearts used to support Wolfsbane in their early days. Going to a Wildhearts gig is always a bit of a social event too - even for an anti-social bastard like me - so it was good to meet a few old friends in the Intrepid Fox beforehand, as well as bumping into Jason, Trudi and Stephen in the street outside.  So it was into the Astoria to see tonight's other support act - the US female fronted band Damone. They got shoved down the bill to open the show when the mighty Wolfsbane were added to the bill - tough on the American band, but definitely the right decision. I'd heard good things about Damone, but to be honest they didn't impress me at this show. They play well enough, but it's pretty generic 80's style US rock with nothing to make them stand out. The songs are OK, but not memorable - apart from the cheesy one with the Bon Jovi style sing-a-long intro - 'Living On A Prayer' anyone? Clare Pproduct would have approved of singer Noelle's mullet though!  Some of my friends were as excited as me about seeing Wolfsbane - and judging by the crowd, a lot of other people felt the same way! This was a very popular addition to the bill, and even after all these years the 'Howling Mad Shitheads' were out in force to support their heroes. Less than a year ago there seemed no likelyhood of this band ever getting back together - there was a lot of bad blood after Blaze Bayley suddenly jumped ship to join Iron Maiden when they made him an offer he couldn't refuse. Two albums later he seemed to be made another offer he really couldn't refuse when Maiden realised how much more money they could make if the 'air raid siren' returned and Blaze was out on his ear. He'd been doing OK with a solo career since then - although like a 'metal' Casy Chaos he seems to have a whole new band for every album and tour.  However, I saw him perform with his latest band a couple of months ago and he was so good that I was damn sure we were going to be in for a great Wolfsbane show tonight.  Anyway, earlier this year it looked highly unlikely that Wolfsbane would ever play together again. Then they unexpectedly got back together to play on a one-off charity bill in their home town of Tamworth. That show must have gone OK, 'cos not long after that they were announced as supporting on the Wildhearts tour - I've no doubt a lot more tickets were sold after this news than when just Damone were supporting. From looking at the crowd tonight it's quite obvious that there are a lot of hardcore Wolfsbane fans in the house - the band get a huge reception when they walk onto the stage! The fans are not disappointed - they get a terrific show with all the old favourites. It has to be said, a couple of the band have obviously eaten the odd pie or two in the intervening years - but the Howling Mad Shitheads would have still given Blaze the traditional 'You fat bastard!' chant even if he was anorexic! Naturally Blaze responds in kind and dishes out all sorts of abuse to the fans - and they lap it up! Pies or not, Blaze Bayley still has a great voice and is one of the best frontmen I've ever seen - he really gives it 100% for every minute he's on stage. This is someone who really knows how to get a crowd going - he feeds off their energy and vice-versa. Some of the people who haven't seen the band before don't really get it and think he dishes out too much abuse to the crowd, but people who've seen Wolfsbane before know it's just part of the act - this is great entertainment! At various points in their 40 minute set Blaze launches into rants - about apathetic crowd members (how dare they!), and people who some think might 'save the world'; "Al Gore can't save the world from global warming - Al Gore is shit! The Spice Girls can't save the world - only Wolfsbane can save the World!" This is fantastic stuff and half the crowd love it! The other half either look on in either shock or disbelief, or are simply bemused by it all. Oh yes, and did I mention that Wolfsbane also have a whole load of great songs? Well they do. Unlike the previous band, they have an impressive armoury of catchy and memorable songs. Actually, many of these are catchy enough to be bloody good pop songs - but the Tamworth terrors are unashamedly a metal band.  Blaze mentions at more than one point in the set that this may be the last ever Wolfsbane show, but if it is - then it's been a bloody great one because of the fans. He also says they don't actually know if it will be the last show, and there may do some more "now and again" in the future - but if they do it will be because of the support they got from the fans at this gig. This show tonight was everything I wanted and hoped for from the band - all the songs I expected, and performed really well - Blaze and Jeff in particular looked like they were having a great time. I and many other people had a great time too and thoroughly enjoyed every minute!  I really hope they will carry on - from what I saw tonight I'm sure they could sell out a medium sized venue in London. I saw Ginger watching about half of Wolfsbane's set from the side of the stage. I think he knew that this was one of the toughest acts he'd ever had to follow and the Wildhearts would have to pull something special out of the bag for tonight's show. Well they managed it. Not many bands would have the bottle to open a major London show with a B-side from a recent single that many in the audience probably hadn't ever heard before. The Wildhearts have never been afraid to take chances, so they opened with 'Unbroken' - half the crowd didn't get it, but the other half loved it! Last year's tour was a bit of a 'comeback' (again) with a new lineup just finding their feet, but they pulled it off really well. The only criticism most fans made was that there were only a couple of songs of the then just released album 'The Wildhearts' - the reason given at the time was that the band hadn't had enough time to rehearse up the new songs to play them live. This has been addressed for this tour and there are plenty of songs from the now year old album. Surprisingly, there is nothing from their previous 'pop' (by their standards) album 'The Wildhearts Must Be Destroyed', but plenty is thrown in from their classic first album 'Earth Vs...' to keep the old school fans happy. Not only this, but three songs are played from their 'difficult' and rarely heard album from just before they split 'Endless Nameless' - many fans never expected to hear anything from the bands most challenging album. Ginger observes that there seem to be noticeably more people present than the last time the band played in London - he seems very concious that there are many new fans seeing the band for the first time as well as many fans from the early days. The setlist has been planned to have plenty to keep both old and new fans happy - it does this very successfully. Obviously, a few of my favourites were missing - but even if I wrote the setlist myself there wouldn't be room to fit them all in anyway! The recently dredlock-shorn Ginger is on good form and is obviously well chuffed to see such a full venue on the final show of the tour. He has quite a bit to say, as he always does when he is in good spirits. The band are on top form as well - this is a 'dry' tour with no alcohol on their rider! Even the aftershow is 'dry' - so I'm not too bothered that I can't blag into this one. Not that I even tried. No really. As is usually the case, the atmosphere at this show was terrific - very few bands can rival the amazing crowd sing-a-longs and atmosphere this band generate. The Wildhearts play for about an hour and fifty minutes in total - probably longer than I've ever seen them play before. They give excellent value for money at this show, although to be honest I'd have happily paid the ticket price just for the Wolfsbane performance! This was always going to be one of the gigs of the year for me, and it certainly didn't disappoint! Some people went to Crobar after the show, but when I went over to join them later I was faced with standing for ages in a queue outside then paying £2 to get in to an already packed bar - it was one in/one out at the time so I could have been waiting outside in the cold for quite a while. I went back to the Intrepid Fox instead - free to get in, less crowded, and much cheaper Newcastle Brown. I used to go to Crobar quite often, but since the Fox moved to it's new venue only a stones throw away I tend to patronise that instead - why pay a lot more money to go to a more crowded bar with much the same clientelle and music? Amusingly, the Sun said the other day that Crobar is 'full of people having a midlife-crisis'.  I don't think I'm ready for that quite yet...