Reviews

Sauntering onto the strains of Ride Of The Valkyries, a near capacity-corking Academy 3 fervently hailed the return of the prodigal pack of tattooed love boys.

They were welded together and chromatised in a now near mythical time before grunge when the UK played host to an unheralded, loosely related gang of grebos like Horse London, Crazyhead, Zodiac Mindwarp and The Cult - bands with a love of outlaw lore, grease, leather, petrol, AC/DC, Rose Tattoo and greasy leather.

The Almighty (c) Andrea Ostholt

Voted best newcomers way back when by Kerrang!, they positively seethed through a blistering set, melding the gristle and gargantuan ramrod riff-a-rama to their beery bonhomie in a brutal tunefulness, that saw Foo Fighters clear up at tables from Chinatown’s backstreets to the Vegas strip, and left this self-professed full force lovin’ machine something of a spent force.

While in no way pleading for the infamous ear-rupturing decibel levels of pack-leaders Motorhead, the sound was rather quiet, something mirrored in the sometimes subdued stance emanating from the band themselves.

Nevertheless, tracks like ‘Gift Horse’ (the first song they ever wrote apparently) and ‘Do You Understand’, with Pete Friesen’s frequently fantastical guitar playing in the vanguard of the invading horde, crashed into the chaotic converted at the front. 

Though occasionally dipping boots into stodgy waters, an ever-present danger on such essentially blues-based forms they ride into two encores, the culmination of all-time classic singles ‘Free ‘N’ Easy’ and ‘Wild And Wonderful’ were finely chopped, with the band never letting the lack of lights worry them (after someone thoughtfully poured a pint into the lighting desk).

Though easy to deride as simplistic, chest-beating brawn, it’s great to have such a brigade of no-holds-barred power-rockers back.