overlap

With two gigs I wanted to see on the one night, one of which was a band for whom this was the first tour in many years and who I hadn't seen in sixteen years, and one of which was a band I've been trying to see for a little while and who don't pass this way very often, I was left with a tricky decision.

Much as Indiscreet is an almost perfect album of its kind, the new FM album didn't quite jump out of the speakers and grab me, apart from the track that sounds just like Bryan Adams, so I jumped the other way.

A couple of years ago I was on the M4, heading for a gig in London I think, and Simon Mayo on the radio started talking about a band whose name was familiar. 'Oh yeah, that's the band with the guy called Lips in', I thought, remembering all those hours spent poring over articles in a too tiny font size in Kerrang! Mayo went on to chat with Lips and the film-maker who were doing promo work for a film that was shortly to be released in cinemas in the UK.

Despite the suggestions that it was a Spinal Tap type work of fiction, and despite the cringeworthy nature of at least half of Spheeris' 'Decline Of Western Civilisation - The Metal Years', my residual memories meant I knew it was for real, and the brief chat with Lips and Sacha meant I knew this was a film I had to see.

If I make it to the cinema twice a year that's a pretty busy film-going year for me, but I was delighted to see my local arts cinema was showing the film in question, a heady mix of despair and pathos, followed by catastrophe and letdown, with a side order of failure leavened with frustration and an inescapable layer of hope. I don't believe I've ever been to see a film where the end credits are received with a spontaneous round of applause, but that's what sort of film it is. If you have even the slightest appreciation of metal and you haven't already seen it, you should and if you don't enjoy it then I'll refund your cinema ticket myself.

So, decision made, I bought my ticket for what was supposed to be a two band bill in the upstairs baby venue, effectively the upstairs bar which holds 350. With an early start time on the ticket, I didn't want to be too late getting in and yet I still walked in through the front door to hear some rocking already going on. And quickly found myself in front of the main stage, the full venue which holds more like 1200. Ok, so the balcony wasn't open, but it's reassuring to see any band selling out and getting bumped up to the bigger stage, and if you've seen the film you'll know how much.

Despite appearances, four guys all looking a little bit too close to a Rocking R*ss*ll Br*nd for anyone's comfort were doing their thing. Listening to them on myspace as I write this, Dark Horse are roughly what you'd get if Gaz from Supergrass (it's the singer's voice) had a Black Rose-era Thin Lizzy covers band which cut right down on the twin solos. As a fairly local band, they had a small following of mates and hangers-on, and I can see why; I'll be trying to catch them again soon if I get the chance.

When I last wrote that I didn't want to leave it quite so long before the next time I saw Girlschool, I wasn't necessarily expecting it to come round quite so quickly, or in this way. Their appearing on this bill clinched the idea that not seeing FM this time was something I could live with, and I was fairly close to the front. Despite drummer Denise Dufort's brief technical difficulties as we got going, this was a fuller set than last time's half hour, a full fifty-odd minutes. In addition to introducing I Spy (on which he and Iommi collaborated) with a dedication to Ronnie James Dio, they even did Yeah Right, which is an absolute corker of a track and made my night.

And then the headliners, what can you say about Anvil? I have a vague wonder if the crowd might be be this full in a couple of years time when the film's impact has dulled a little, but I'm hardly surprised Lips seemed genuinely moved to see so many people there when they hadn't "played this town since about 1983". So, a guy in his sixth decade playing a Flying V with a vibrator, what's more metal than that? What you see on the film is what you get, Lips is the real deal and Anvil is a band everyone should see once in their lives. If you've seen the film, you'll understand you probably owe him that too!

Nicko McBrain, gurn your heart out!

Labels: Anvil, Dark Horse, gigs, Girlschool

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

Girlschool were one of the first bands I ever saw, and even twenty years ago their heyday had gone, as had Kelly from the line-up that I saw. All the same Screaming Blue Murder is a track I'm rarely without on my mp3 player, and Yeah Right is just genius. There are few enough women in rock, and especially so at that point in time. Other than Rock Goddess, you start looking quite hard pretty quickly and that's even if you include The Runaways. And forty nine isn't much of an age for anyone, on this part of the planet at least. Rock on, Kelly.

Labels: Girlschool, Kelly Johnson, metal