In these days of media driven celebrity drivel- where everyone wants to be famous for 5 minutes for exposing their breasts, telling some seedy kiss and tell ‘story’ or dancing like a twat and sharing it for some unknown pointless reason on Tik Tok in the vague hope that someone will give them ‘likes’ and comment and praise them into thinking they are talented, real talent often goes amiss and shockingly overlooked. As does the term legend. Again, too often loosely thrown about, bestowed by corrupt media on any such non entity they deem deserved of that title.

An example of true talent and worthy of wearing both those badges and labels with honour however is the man Lemmy Kilmister- ex Hawkwind and founder of Motörhead. His passing in 2015 cemented himself firmly into rock legend status, and as a result the remaining members of Motörhead; Mikkey Dee and Phil Campbell drew the line in the sand and Motörhead became no more, yet destined to live on forever in the memories of rock fans for decades if not centuries to come. Whilst Mikkey Dee has forged a role in the Scorpions, Phil Campbell formed a band with the spawn of his loins, packing out venues and festivals ever since. As a result, the mere sniff or mention of a Motörhead set, first thought of back in 2019, would be more than enough to ensure an 11 date tour followed and tempt 500 or so punters out to The Manchester Club Academy on a hot and sticky Tuesday evening. 

Bolton boys Unknown Refuge are the evening’s unlikely rock heroes.  Taking to the stage just before 19.45, they rock up and play with a maturity way beyond their years. Sounding somewhere like say, a Volbeat having sex with an early Metallica at a festival, this could well be the offspring they produce. They tear not only through a blistering set, but Gorilla Riot’s kick drum in the process as well. By the last riffs of opener ‘Battle Hymn’ coming to a crashing crescendo it was obvious something wasn’t quite right- and it wasn’t. They are relishing this moment and the opportunity to impress upon the burgeoning crowd, and perhaps it was in his over zealousness that caused drummer Morgan Deveney to literally put his foot in it and threaten to royally fuck things up for them. As it happens it became the making of them, and with gaffer tape to the rescue they fired through a set from their acclaimed album “From the Darkness”.  There’s lots of light and shade throughout, the comparison of bass and vocalist Alex Mancini with Volbeat’s Michael Poulson is evident, and this is sheer raw, yet melodic power being delivered.  Lead guitarist Jack Tracey plays with an understanding and maturity that defies his age considerably, in fact all of them- barely out of their teens do. They’re clearly having fun, enjoying it, and despite none of them looking like rock stars, don’t let appearances fool you- they most certainly are. Set closer ‘To the Light’ with its Saxon style intro and Maiden esq solo finishes a memorable set, proving beyond a doubt these boys have the talent and ability to go as far as they can.

Manchester's very own Gorilla Riot continued proceedings by picking up from the aftermath of the ripped kick drum and delivered a wonderful heavy blues and dirty rock soaked set. The five piece smoked their way through their enforced gaffer tape interludes admirably, letting the music do the talking throughout, with songs from their numerous ep’s and 2020’s album “Peach”. Featuring a three pronged guitar attack and multi part vocal harmonies, singer Arjun Bhishma holds the audience nicely, it’s a set full of infectious groovy riffs with great guitars from Liam Henry and Charly T. Their music pecks away into your head from every angle and genre, picking bits of grunge and even country out in there. Being local there was again plenty of support in the house and even bassist Deggy’s mum was in on the act handing out flyers for his superb artwork, and by the time last song ‘Dirt’ hit, you were left suitably warmed up, sad, stoned and completely chilled at the same time. It was a cracking set, and stripped back, they’d put themselves into the groove and they owned it.

The lights finally dim and Deep Purple’s ‘Highway Star’ introduces the arrival of Phil Campbell to the stage. The crowd are whipped into a frenzy as he does a little guitar intro, the rest of the band troop on and we’re off- and right from the familiar first bars of ‘Iron Fist’ to set closer ‘Silver Machine’ we get to visit every dark, seedy and twisted corner of Motörhead and Lemmy’s back catalogue- and what a ride we were to go on, the only problem envisaged would be how to cram over 22 studio albums and countless live recordings into a 16 song set. We needn’t have worried though and quickly following the opener we get the balls out ‘Damage Case’, the infectious beat of ‘Rock Out’, the mighty ‘Orgasmatron’ and the thunderous anthemia of ‘Stay Clean’.

New singer Joel Peters owns the stage; he’s up and down like a bride’s nighty screaming ‘mutha fuckers’ at every given opportunity. He puts in one hell of a shift throughout though, commanding the attention and participation from every corner of the room to either raise their middle fingers or sing along, dividing the room into two halves during the mighty ‘Born to Raise Hell’. We’re revisiting ‘Orgasmatron’ again for the stunning finger salute of ‘Nothing up My Sleeve’. As we have come to learn by now Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons are indeed the spawn of the self-professed and according to his guitar strap- Welsh Wanker. Todd, Dane and Tyla are lead, bass and drums respectively and they are absolutely killing it, nailing every beat and riff brilliantly. The old man is certainly no slouch either and riffs like a bastard throughout. The punky ‘R.A.M.O.N.E.S.’ song drives us to the timeless classic ‘We Are the Road Crew’. The crowd are more than satisfied so far- there’s a great mix of set staples thrown in with golden nuggets from the back catalogue of possibly the greatest rock’n’roll band of all time. Motörhead where the relentless road dogs who notched up literally thousands of gigs over their 40 years, untouchable in every respect, and terribly missed now that they're gone, so its little wonder the interest in this tour has been massive. Phil and the boys aren’t disappointing anyone either and before long THAT intro starts and the place erupts into a sea of flailing arms and banging heads then the song that probably started it all off for the young Ian Kilmister, the aforementioned ‘Silver Machine’ signals the end of the set.

Nobody’s going anywhere though- an encore is more than rightly demanded. Before we go to Brazil, the plane intro of ‘Bomber’ starts the frenzy off once more. There can be only one more song to add to the mix after that ,can’t there? ‘Killed by Death’, surely one of the greatest metal songs of all time starts and the place goes completely bonkers. Just when you think that’s it, in true Motörhead style, it isn’t. The house lights stay low, an almighty cheer rings out as an expected ‘Overkill’ brings a triumphant close, leaving the lights to finally go up and a tired and sweaty crowd to contemplate on a fine evening’s entertainment celebrating a legend and full of that thing called talent.