Live Review : Alice Cooper + Primal Scream + The Meffs @ AO Arena, Manchester on October 17th 2024

For all his household name and national treasure status, Alice Cooper is still very much an enigma. There are two distinct personalities at play. On the one hand, he is a Vaudeville showman, hawking around his macabre freakshow designed to shock and scare in equal measure. On the other hand, he is the custodian of probably one of the finest musical songbooks of the rock 'n' roll era. An Alice Cooper live performance is a fine-tuned balance between the two. As he sings in ‘Hello Hooray’ (sadly AWOL from tonight’s setlist) “Ready as this audience that's coming here to dream, Loving every second, every moment, every scream”. You go to Alice Cooper for a Circus of Horrors but packed with tracks that have perminated themselves into the rock lexicon. He is a living legend, with the musical credits to back up those credentials.

Live Review : Tool + Night Verses @ AO Arena, Manchester on June 1st 2024

How the hell has a band as complex and as unconformist as Tool become a mainstream affair? Usually, when an act reaches a point where it is selling out arenas and headlining festivals, it has had to forego a chunk of its authenticity and individuality to do so. This is not the case with Tool. There has been no candlestein deals with the devil using the currency of souls. This evening in Manchester they exhibit the same level of authenticity that they had when they formed 34 years ago. They have not changed or budged in their eccentric uniqueness, yet fame, fortune and adulation have sought them out without them having to move an inch.

Live Review : Nickelback + Lottery Winners @ AO Arena, Manchester on May 20th 2024

Nickelback are the band that everyone loves to hate. Fact. Over the past 20 years, they’ve been the butt of all jokes and the subject of countless memes, all because the internet said so. Sure, they’re a little bit safe, a little bit corny, but a band doesn’t maintain their status as an arena band if they don’t have something about them that makes people want to attend their shows. Tonight, at Manchester Arena, they bring their Get Rollin’ tour, to prove to those in attendance that they still have it, even 25+ years into their careers.

Live Review : Tenacious D @ AO Arena, Manchester on May 8th 2024

For the genre with a reputation for being poe-faced and humourless, there is an awful lot of comedy metal about. Steel Panther cater for those who still find tits and blatant sexism funny. Evil Scarecrow have made a career of combining metal with Mighty Boosh level surrealism and Raised by Owls manage to be simultaneously hilarious and impenetrable to anybody who doesn't know their Benediction from their Bolthrower. But like a gargantuan skyscraper looming over the whole scene is the behemoth that is Tenacious D.

Live Review : Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators @ AO Arena, Manchester on April 2nd 2024

On the passing of Lemmy, Slash inherited the mantle of being the true living embodiment of rock 'n' roll. If you want to dress as a cool rocker you simply adorn yourself with a curly black wig and an oversized top hat and Saul Hudson’s your uncle you are instantly recognisable as a cool rock n’ roll dude. If you want to give your showstopping Oscar number a shot of scuzzy cool, then all you do is pick up the phone to Mr. Slash and instantaneously it has oodles of rock 'n' roll street cred. Our Slash has become a cultural phenomenon. An instantly recognisable persona that transcends the bands he is involved with and the shackles of his back catalogue. The arena is reassuringly full and it is obvious that its temporary inhabitants are here for the myth as opposed to the material.

Live Review : Greta Van Fleet + Mt. Joy + Hannah Wicklund @ AO Arena, Manchester on November 19th 2023

There is a new messiah in town. Whilst we have all audaciously argued about who are the next festival headliners in our world, Greta Van Fleet have ascended to an arena-bothering level with little or no fanfare. They exist in that really interesting intersection between heavy rock and indie that you can trace the linage of all the way back to John Squire living out his Jimmy Page fantasies on ‘Love Spreads’. The arena is inhabited by a really interesting and predominantly young bevy of Merrymakers that are in the main, not your ordinary rock show attendees. The audience is far more likely to have spent time this summer at the Leeds Festival than they are to have inhabited the hallowed grounds of Donington Park.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas21 November 2023AO ArenaGreta Van Fleet, Mt. Joy, Hannah Wicklund, AO Arena, Manchester, 2023, Live ReviewComment

Live Review : Hollywood Vampires + The Tubes @ AO Arena, Manchester on July 8th 2023

Torrential thunderstorms around the UK and particularly here in Manchester threaten to wreck the evening before it gets underway with a half hours delay in starting, allowing more time for the drenched and sopping wet people to purchase a 2 pint pot of beer, grab the nibbles and take up a seat in the sold out show tonight.

Just after 8.00 pm the lights go down, and an enthusiastic cheer echoes around the AO Arena signalling the entrance of The Tubes. Dressed in rather colourful suits, the 1970’s San Francisco quintet kick tonight off nicely.

Live Review : KISS @ AO Arena, Manchester on July 7th 2023

There is a level of cynicism about whether this truly is the end of the road for perennial rock monsters KISS. After all, this is the second time in four years that their never-ending final hurrah has wound up here in Manchester. Adding fuel to that fire is the fact that this is their second conclusive lap of victory around the world, having already done the farewell tour pizzazz 20 years ago. However, all that will they won't they gossip is put to one side as we stand to marvel at probably the purest and most unrefined personification of arena rock.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas9 July 2023AO ArenaKISS, AO Arena, Manchester, 2023, Live Review, Stewart LucasComment

Live Review : Iron Maiden + Lord Of The Lost @ AO Arena, Manchester on June 30th 2023

You are unlikely to find “Somewhere in Time" in any list of the greatest albums of all time, in fact it would struggle to make any best heavy metal records countdown. However, it manages to hold a very special place in the hearts of Iron Maiden fans across the globe. For many of a certain age (including myself) it was our entry point, it was where we came in.

"Number of the Beast" may well have been the album that plunged them into the public perception and "Powerslave” may well have cemented them as an international commodity, but it was with "Somewhere in Time” that they became a household name.