There was a time when Skid Row were huge, proper unit shifting and arena bothering huge. They were the last of the Hair Metal bands to go stellar before the extinction event when grunge came along and forced metal back underground. They were also one of the bands that crumbled first and fell furtherest. As they didn't have the back catalogue or solid fanbase of say Mötley Crüe or Aerosmith to fall back on, their audience disappeared over night. They fought hard for survival with the rather excellent but hugely overlooked “Subhuman Race” but it was 1995 and nobody was interested any more and a year later they were gone. 

The core trio of Sabo, Bolan and Hill started trading again as Skid Row in 1999 but the last twenty years has been an uphill slog of poorly received albums. However there is now suddenly a chink of light appearing, as in former Dragonforce screamer, ZP Theart, a man with lungs of steel, they have finally found a frontman capable of filling Sebastian Bach boots. Live, they are a band reborn, the tired looking quintet of ten years ago that were trading on past glories are gone and have been replaced by hungry rampant bunch of middle aged men that have learnt to love rock again! Skid Row may sadly not mean much to the metalheads of 2019 but go see them on Friday as they have finally refound that magic something that made them such an exciting live proposition in the early nineties. 

By Stewart lucas