Live Review : Black Star Riders + Stone Broken + Wayward Sons @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on October 27th 2019

Having had the pleasure of seeing all the bands on tonight’s bill before, there's a rather pleasant feeling in the Autumnal air heading to the gig. All three are peddling new wares at the moment. It’s a killer bill, with each one offering something a bit different from each other.

Wayward Sons are opening the show, and, as the first track ‘Any Other Way’ says, neither would the busy crowd who’ve made it down especially early to welcome Toby and the boys. ‘Don't Wanna Go’, then the catchy ‘Ghost’ off the 1st album “Ghosts of Yet To Come“ quickly follows. You can tell the chaps are really up for it; Toby Jepson is on fire after his bout of flu, working the crowd like the pro he is. Guitarist Sam Wood grins constantly like a Cheshire cat, whilst bassist Nic Wastell’s embarrassing dad dancing routine makes us all smile, but who cares? The band are enjoying it and so are the crowd. Tonight they aren’t playing the O2 Ritz- it’s Wembley stadium, they are happy to be here, and it shows. There’s the new album “The Truth Ain’t What It Used To Be” to promote, so new single ‘Little White Lies’, and other newbie ‘Joke's On You’ quickly follow ‘Small Talk’, then it’s a rousing ‘Until The End’ to finish. Toby announces there’s a headline tour in May, I’ll definitely be having some of that!

Stone Broken are playing their final date of the year, announcing that they will be locking themselves in the studio to write the follow up album to 2018’s “Ain’t Always Easy” record. I first saw these guys support FM and Dare a couple of years back and being impressed then. In Rich Moss, they have a strong singer with a powerful voice. They start with ‘Stay All Night’, then ‘Doesn't Matter’. There will always be comparisons with sounding like Nickelback, but is that really a bad thing? These guys write powerful catchy songs which deserve the acknowledgement to their big state side counterparts. They play a solid 9 song set, the acoustical intro on the reworked ‘Wait For You’ from the reissued “All In Time”, builds the song up beautifully before the other guys return and we get the chance to join in and bring the house down. ‘Worth Fighting For’ then the breakthrough song ‘Not Your Enemy’ end the set brilliantly before the lights go back up.

The Black Star Riders hardly need any introduction these days. Seven years and 4 albums later, the boys seem to be growing stronger and stronger since their inception from the ashes of Thin Lizzy. The tour is in support of the recently released and rather excellent album “Another State Of Grace”, and the title track is the perfect opener too. There’s been a couple of line up changes since last time I saw them, but it’s the usual high energy, heavily Celtic influenced material right from the off. Front man Ricky Warwick is the captain of the ship, holding the stage and audience in the cup of his hand, whilst new guitarist Christian Martucci on his Flying V guitar pulls riff after riff, filling Damon Johnston’s shoes superbly, trading twin harmony lines effortlessly with Scott Gorham. Bang into ‘The Killer Instinct’, then ‘All Hell Breaks Loose’, ‘Testify or Say Goodbye’, ‘Ticket to Rise’, ‘In the Shadow of the War Machine’ are all quickly fired out, peppering the crowd with plenty of hard hitting ammunition. The thing about the BSR is they combine so many different flavours and influences, and none more so than in the rousing ‘Soldierstown’ with its angry shouts and stomps to which the crowd chant every line. New ballad; ‘Why Do You Love Guns More?’, very much the flavour of the moment with its anti hate, guns, politics and religious messages. The ballad ‘Blindsided’ and then the upbeat ‘Bloodshot’ continues with the strong Celtic influence. New single ‘Ain’t the End of The World’ and then from the 2017 album “Heavy Fire”; ‘When The Night Comes In’. There’s a full hour and forty minute set of amazing energy and well crafted songs weaving and twisting in and out of each other. They’re all here, all the highlights from all the albums before frantically heading towards ‘Finest Hour’, ‘Kingdom of the Lost’ and the last song ‘Bound For Glory’.

Part of me was hoping, just hoping perhaps for even one Thin Lizzy song; after all they did play an integral part of the bands set for a number of years, but alas, it just wasn’t to be, but, after all when did you ever see Thin Lizzy play a Flying V? A rather excellent night out in Manchester.