PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Saturday night and it’s time to head off to the Garage in Islington for the final show of Girlschool’s Hit and Run revisited tour and first up this evening are Nottingham’s Ng26.
Having been in the venue earlier in the day talking to Ng26 I was looking forward to their set, not having seen them live and only heard a little bit of their stuff on the interwebs I must say I had high expectations of these guys and thankfully I wasn’t disappointed, opening up with “Bring Back the Day” which is the first track from their 2010 album “Open Your Mind” the lads begin to set the pace which is fast to say the least, this first song is a proper piece of metal as it should be (in my opinion anyway) fantastic guitar riffs (Rich) thundering bass (Rob), double pedal drums (Jon) with clean melodic vocals (Chris) beautifully layered on the top.
These guys are obviously at home on the stage and enjoying the space the Garage provides whipping the crowd up and getting even the most stubborn of the “I fold my arms until the headline act are on brigade” to move their heads . Third track tonight is “Look to the Sky” which begins with a gentle rolling cymbal with sympathetic guitar until Rich lets loose another riff and well it becomes a classic rock song , intelligent lyrics another set highlight.
As the set progresses we hear a total of ten tracks which had my friends asking me if Ng26 had an album out to which I happily replied “yup it’s at the merch stand” anyway couple more tracks to mention and the next is eighth up in the running order and also just so happens to be the title track of the album just mentioned (and earlier up the page in case you’re not paying attention) “Open Your Mind” sounds like (and I hope the guys forgive me for saying this, it’s just what I heard) a cross between the vocal styling’s of Levellers front man Mark Chadwick mixed in with an almost Velvet Revolver ballad-esq backing yet with those guttsy riffs still playing a menacing part in the proceedings.
Final track tonight is “One More Road From Home” which begins punchy then Jon kicks in a fast double pedal bass drum which leads on to the vocal then has an awesome guitar part which leads you into the chorus, as the guys finish off Chris pulls a camera from his pocket for one last tour memento and the crowd respond with horns and hands in the air a plenty in fact I couldn’t see anyone without their hands in the air. I immediately sent the guys a quick text summing up my thoughts on their set in three words “Thunderously fucking awesome!”
Rating: a brilliant 7.5/10
Full set list: Bring Back the Day, Otherside, Look to the Sky, No One Left In Line, Fire Inside, Open Your Mind, Ceasefire, If We Fall Tonight, One More Road From Home.
So on to the main event then Girlschool featuring material first recorded in 1981 some 31 years ago on the Hit N Run Revisited tour and this final show of said tour and the lights dim and girls take to the stage to the infamous air raid sirens of “Demolition Boys” bringing the already excited crowd up to a new plateau with them, everything’s in place and sounds fantastic as the girls move on to the first track from the Hit N Run album “C’mon Lets Go” then jumping back to their first album for “Not For Sale” and by this time the front had got a slightly too packed for my liking and I slipped out to the bar for some refreshment and a less constricted viewing area, from my new viewing persective I could tell Kym, Jackie, Enid and Denise were all loving the vibe looking every bit as energetic as I imagine they ever could have (my first time seeing Girlschool was at the now demolished Astoria supporting the late great Ronnie James Dio in 2008) however if they had any more energy on stage it would quite possibly ignite from it.
The ladies (got fed up with writing girls and they are ladies, lovely ones I might add) continue to slay us with a fantastic back catalogue of material continuing with the title track from “Hit N Run” then moving on too “The Hunter” from the same album. The north London venue’s audience was enjoying every minute of the set.
Onto the later part of the set now with the equally brilliant “Yeah Right”, “Race with The Devil” and “Emergency” being the last three tracks of the main set. Now unfortunately due to time constraints I had to bug out after Emergency however I am reliably informed (incorrectly or not) that they returned to the stage for a two song encore consisting of “Take it All Away” from their first album “Demolition” with a bit of audience participation and finishing on ZZ Top’s “Tush” which they also covered on Hit N Run.
Demolition, C’mon Lets Go, Not For Sale, Hit N Run, The Hunter, I Spy, Never Say Never, Everything’s The Same, Screaming Blue Murder, Future Flash, Kick It Down, Watch Your Step, Yeah Right, Race With The Devil, Emergency.
Rating: a very well deserved 9/10
Girlschool Official Website here
All photos courtesy of Linda Heron Photography save Girlschool Hit and Run Revisited Logo courtesy of Girlschool.
