overlap

I'll happily own up to being more interested in numbers than is healthy but then that sort of thing has kept me in a decent living for the last dozen years or so, so this shouldn't sound like I'm complaining. It's now a matter of record that in the meantime I've seen Magnum once again, pulling off a performance that belies their combined 270-odd years of age. Still on excellent form, and the new album sounds even better in a live environment.

On that same note, it's another vintage line-up that leads to one of those great little venue incongruities. When you're in a council-run venue where getting into the gig means passing within sight of the bathers in the swimming pool, it doesn't quite seem especially rock n roll at its clichéd, dramatic worst, but at least we are spared the vision of Lemmy in Speedos. Once upon a time all gigs were like this; a decent raised stage and a line of big black boxes called things like Marshall, Peavey and so on. Add a stack of lights and a bunch of sweaty people in denim and t-shirts, and you're about there.

The guitar intro to Demolition rings out for some time before Girlschool come into view, closely followed by a broad grin that I can't shake for a day or two afterwards. By the time we get into Screaming Blue Murder, there's a tear in my eye and I'd have felt £25 was worth it for those three and a bit minutes on their own, because it's perfect popmetal guitar, and because of where in my life it takes me back to. In fact it turns out it's twenty years since I last saw Girlschool, and on this showing I really shouldn't let that happen again.

Kim cheers-you-lot McAuliffe seems ageless, Jackie Chambers plays a big white Flying V with a great big grin, Denise Dufort drives it along while doing a decent Chris Griffin impression, but the revelation for me is Enid, rocking singing and playing like there's no tomorrow. Setlist goes something like Demolition, Hit And Run, I Spy, Screaming Blue Murder, Race With The Devil, Emergency - I may have missed one, and I'd have loved Nothing To Lose to have been in there, but that is just nit-picking and they were the highlight of my night by some distance.

I like The Damned, and the last (and only) time I saw them was an absolute cracker. And again it's the pop sensibilities (pun intended) behind the franticness that does it for me. "Hello, I'm Captain Sensible and you might have seen me on Top Of The Pops…" remains a fantastic intro, before New Rose rattles the building, the crowd and half the town into submission. Dave Vanian demonstrates that it is possible to make the inappropriate indoors shades thing look cool, when you're not a professional Oirish tax exile lecturing people on their spending priorities. Also included between the less familiar to me material are Neat Neat Neat, Eloise, and a closing run through Smash It Up before the Captain's brief closing burst of Happy Talk sees them off the stage. Excellent fun, and no less relevant than they ever have been.

A long time ago we went to see AC/DC because the Wildhearts were supporting, and expected to stay for just a few songs of the headliners but ended up staying right to the end. This was much the same thing. I can't say I'm a fan of Motörhead, and on the only other time I saw them they didn't leave a lasting impression. But a decent vantage point means I get a really good view of Mikkey Dee and Phil Campbell doing their stuff, and tremendously gifted they both are. Ace Of Spades is a design classic, and something everyone should see live at some point – I probably won't be rushing for a third go, but they were very good.

Girlschool though. Fantastic.

Labels: gigs, Girlschool, Magnum, Motörhead, The Damned