My sixth and final gig of October 2025, saw me back up the M1 again to the Corporation for my fifth rendezvous with Canada's 'The Birthday Massacre'. My most recent time seeing them was in Wolverhampton back in 2017, which was the last in a series of three annual gigs following on from 2015 and 2016 at the Birmingham Library.
As you can see from the poster above, demand for tickets was high and unfortunately I arrived at the Corporation just as the band were starting their set, which meant I was kinda stuck near the back of the room... and as generally happens in these situations the only places to stand are the places where people walk back and forth to the bar / toilets / wherever the fuck it is that people NEED to keep walking back and forth from...
Added to this there is a pillar in the middle of the Corporation which means that standing in certain parts of the floor means you can't see the singer, which is really helpful when it's sold out. But anyway, I could see reasonably well and the sound was excellent, if almost a little quiet - perhaps it was louder nearer the stage?
Well The Birthday Massacre do what they do really, their music is pretty samey sounding so it's really just a question of you know the songs or you don't... and I can't complain because they played probably my favourite five songs of theirs, plus a few more I know well and a few (newer ones) that I didn't really know at all. Because they don't really change I haven't taken much notice of later albums, I tend to just stick with 'Pins and Needles' and 'Walking with Strangers'.
So, the sound was good, the band were fine and the setlist was fine, the only real issue was the crowd which was just full of fucktards, at least near me. Perhaps because it was Halloween there were a lot of people there 'with friends' and some of them seemed to be more interested in standing in a circle next to me chatting (while one of them used a lightsabre as a fucking lamp) rather than watching the band. Hence why I say the band were too quiet, if they had been louder these arseholes would have fucked off to the bar and left me in peace.
Anyway, they didn't, it was annoying, the gig itself was fine. Would I go and see TBM again? Probably not if I'm honest. But I did enjoy hearing Red Stars, Sleepwalking, In the Dark and Pins & Needles live again.
Aaaaaaaand it was back to the Rescue Rooms (again) for the 'Graham Bonnet Band', led by the 77 year old Graham (formerly of Rainbow, MSG and Alcatrazz fame); not exactly someone at the top of my list of 'must sees' admittedly, but nevertheless an entertaining evening and Rose (in particular) has a special fondness for Rainbow's 'Down to Earth' album, so why not?
On this tour though Graham was focussing on the Michael Schenker Group album 'Assault Attack' which he performed on in 1982. Pre-warned, we listened to that album several times in the weeks leading up to the gig and while it is a bit patchy, it does have some good songs (Dancer, Samuari and Desert Song, for example).
The band took the stage at 8:35, with a supposed curfew of 10pm (more on that anon) and launched into the title track of said album, following on with 'Dancer' before Graham told us the first of his 'stories'. Graham likes to chat... he likes to chat a LOT. So he told us how he told Michael Schenker it should be 'Run You to the Ground', not 'Rock You...' but he wasn't having it... so then we got 'Rock You to the Ground' and 'Desert Song', but not before Graham told us how he had to explain to Michael what a 'dusky lady' was. 🤣
'Searching for a Reason' was the fifth MSG track and then Graham declared he was going for a sit down. So we got a cover of the Deep Purple instrumental 'Lazy', before Graham came back to perform one of his own songs 'Night Games' and then 'All Night Long' and 'Since You Been Gone' from the 'Down to Earth' album. A bit more jamming ensued, including a drum solo, and snippets of Alcatrazz's 'Jet to Jet' and Rainbow's 'Stargazer'.
During the show it became evident that the rather attractive bass
player was 77 year old Graham's 'lady friend'... respect! 👍
'Into the Night' (another Graham Bonnet song) followed and then we got the story of how Graham got kicked out of MSG for being too drunk to play their first gig together.... 'Samurai' was (somewhat ironically) followed by Alcatrazz's 'Too Young to Die, Too Drunk to Live'... and kudos to the guitar player for handling Malmsteen's solos.
By this time it was after ten, but it seemed the curfew wasn't all that rigid, because the band left the stage and then came back on to close out the show with two more classic Rainbow tunes from Down to Earth - 'Eyes of the World' and 'Lost in Hollywood'.
It was certainly entertaining, despite the annoying Halloween ghosts hanging from the ceiling and getting in the way, and surely there can't be too many more chances to catch Graham before he retires. We're never going to see Rainbow (or Michael Schenker Group for that matter) so it was definitely worth the effort.
Like the previous Sunday though, knowing we probably wouldn't be able to get to sleep, we elected to stay up to watch the Mexican Grand Prix, which (exacerbated by the clock change on the Saturday night) meant a very tired start to Monday morning!
Way, way back in the mists of time, well... December 1983, I saw Y&T at Leicester's DeMontfort Hall. It was actually my second ever gig and even then, as a fresh faced 14 year old (barely) it already felt a little bit... lame. For a start it was supposed to be a co-headlining tour with Rock Goddess, which in itself was a bit ridiculous since Y&T were about six albums into their career and well established by this point, whereas Rock Goddess were only two albums into their (very soon to falter) career. But of the two, Rock Goddess were certainly the more 'attractive' prospect, with short snappy, catchy songs, a 40 minute set and, well... not to put too fine a point on it... three hot chicks in spandex (one of whom was almost the same age as me!).
Come on, I was fourteen years old. What do you want from me?
By contrast Y&T seemed old, even then. Some of their songs rocked, that you can't deny, but for every 'Forever' or 'Open Fire' there was a 'I Believe in You' or a 'Dirty Girl', and let's not even get into the nonsense that is 'Barroom Boogie'. The truth is, you see, that I've never liked the blues (unless it was Lemmy that was singing it) and on top of that Y&T seemed like 'old men' who shouldn't be wearing spandex at all, never mind red spandex and ripped T shirts. Of course they were only 30 or so, but when you're 14 everyone over 25 looks old. Oh I don't know, it just all seemed a little bit ridiculous, even then... and it seemed even more ridiculous six months later in the bright light of day at Donington.
By unanimous agreement Donington 1984 was 'the shit', with a truly MONSTER line up that opened with Motley Crue and finished with AC/DC, in between taking in such legends as Ozzy, Van Halen, Accept, Gary Moore and of course Y&T. I don't honestly remember much about their set (even though for many years I had a cassette tape of the gig, taped off The Friday Rock Show), except that the wind lifted their backdrop and dropped it on Leonard Haze's head... that was quite amusing and a truly Spinal Tap-esque memory.
To be honest, after 1984 Y&T fell off my radar, and with the onset of thrash metal and younger, cooler 'hair metal' bands their career had pretty much peaked. The band's next album was a live set, which opened with the sole (new) studio track 'Summertime Girls'... and just like that any credibility they still had left went right down the toilet.
Y&T continued without me, the albums getting further and further apart, but seemingly still touring like clockwork. There was always the temptation to 'give them another go' but it always seemed like the wrong time, the same day or too close to something else, and so we just never ended up making the effort. But in the meantime the 'classic' albums 'Black Tiger', 'Meanstreak' and 'In Rock We Trust' grew in my estimation so when Y&T announced their 50th anniversary tour, we figured maybe this would be the last chance and maybe this time we should make the effort.
But true to form, Y&T's dates came right at the busiest possible time... three days after my birthday, and one day after Assemblage 23 at the Corporation. In fact Y&T was just one of SIX gigs I attended in October 2025 (Rose only came to four of them) and it was difficult to find a date that worked with all these other gigs and my birthday and not being able to leave work early to go to Wolverhampton on a Friday because Rich was on holiday.
In fact at one point it looked like we wouldn't be going at all, and then I looked at the dates again and thought aloud 'where on Earth is Holmfirth'. I genuinely had no idea, it could have been in Scotland for all I knew, or Wales for that matter... but it transpired that Holmfirth was actually in the Yorkshire dales and not a million miles from Manchester. Of course, it was a Sunday night, just twenty four hours after another gig, but what the hell, let's finally put this to bed.
And so on a rainy Sunday night, still tired and achy from the night before, we piled into the car and headed up the M1 in the darkness. Holmfirth is exactly 100 miles from home and my phone told me it would take two hours to get there. We left at 5:50pm and stopped briefly at Woodall services and arrived at the Co-op car park just after 8pm.
It was weird, coming to this small town in the middle of nowhere to see an internationally renowned American rock band... especially since we had to cross a bridge, in the rain, in the dark, over a river to get there. But once inside, well... WOW! What a brilliant venue. A steeply sloped floor and high stage guaranteed a good view for everyone and two balconies offered seating for those who got their early. If only venues in bigger towns were so well appointed!
The sound was also crystal clear, and loud enough, but not so loud that you felt fatigued by it (see Destruction and Obituary in Birmingham!) which was just as well because once Y&T took the stage to the strains of the 'Black Tiger' intro and launched into that particular song, they didn't stop playing for two hours!
Along the way, we got nearly all the key songs, with only 'Open Fire' absent from the extensive set list. Unfortunately we did get 'Summertime Girls'... the only song that was joined to another one I noticed, didn't want to hear the deafening silence after that one I guess. Hahahaha.
Oddly, it felt like the set list was front loaded, with 'Meanstreak', 'Keep on Runnin', 'Black Tiger' and 'Midnight in Tokyo' all played in the first half of the set. Of course for the Y&T cognoscenti the 'true' classics are 'I Believe in You' and 'Rescue Me', but yeah whatever. At least they kept 'Forever' for the big finale... so I got five out of my top six Y&T tunes.
Black Tiger
Lipstick and Leather
Don't Stop Runnin'
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
Mean Streak
Don't Wanna Lose
Winds of Change
Rock & Roll's Gonna Save the World
Hurricane
Midnight in Tokyo
Summertime Girls
Contagious
I Believe in You
Eyes of a Stranger
Dirty Girl
I'm Coming Home
Rescue Me
Lonely Side of Town
Forever
I have to say, for a seventy one year old cancer survivor, Dave Meniketti sounded fantastic, and he can still play too! In fact Dave is the only surviving member of the classic Y&T line-up, with Joey Alves, Phil Kennemore and Leonard Haze having all succumbed to various illnesses through the years. Their replacements are certainly capable and enthusiastic and to be honest it always felt like Meniketti's band anyway.
Y&T's influence on such luminaries as Metallica, Dave Mustaine and other Bay Area musicians is often overlooked, but staring at the Y&T logo high above the stage before the band came on, I couldn't fail to notice the 'familiarity' of the font. Particularly in that colour, it screams 'Peace Sells...' era Megadeth. How did I never notice that before?
Well, it was a long, long, long wait... (41 years) but it was definitely worth it and I would definitely consider seeing a band play in Holmfirth again, should anyone we like decide to play there. Of course by the time we got home we were wide awake, so we decided to stay up and watch the United States Grand Prix. Sure that meant going to work on about 4 hours sleep, but at least we avoided finding out the result.
Just two more gigs to go this month, Graham Bonnet (Rainbow, MSG) and The Birthday Massacre. Phew......
My third gig this month (with three more still to go), and our fourth time seeing Mr Tom Shear (previously London 2015, Manchester 2017 and London 2018!). I'm actually quite astounded that the last time was seven years ago (the tour for 'Endure', one of his best albums ever) and to be honest I thought we'd seen him more than three times... but apparently not.
After much rushing to get to the Corporation, we arrived and climbed the stairs to the upstairs room (why not the big room?) just as Mari Kattman (Tom's wife) was starting her support set. The first song was okay, sounding not unlike Assemblage 23 truth be told, but after that it got a lot more hit and miss and a lot less interesting. Mari herself rather reminded me of Charlotte Church in her 'Crazy Chic' phase, with her shirt hanging off her arms and her 'drunk girl in a nightclub' stage moves.
While by no means awful, it wasn't really that inspiring either and I don't feel like there's any need to investigate Mari's musical output any further.
As ever the Corporation didn't disappoint us with it's ramshackle collection of strange people, among them a couple of transvestites, a girl with a dragon on her shoulder and a chubby bloke with a mullet and a moustache wearing a decidedly unflattering crop top. Honestly, I've never felt more fuddy or duddy.
Assemblage 23 are the real deal when it comes to electronic music, and while the last album 'Mourn' was a little bit disappointing after the previous three (maybe FIVE) masterpieces, it was still good by anyone else's standards and it has grown on me over the years. Tom has a new album coming soon and tonight saw three new tracks being aired for the first time alongside a slew of classics including 'Disappoint', 'Drive', 'Document' and 'Naked'.
We also got 'Bravery' (the sole track played from 'Endure' unfortunately), 'Damaged', 'Ground', 'Complacent', 'Opened', 'Let Me Be Your Armor' and best track of the night by a country mile 'The Noise Inside My Head' from Bruise (so NOTHING from 'Compass', for fuck's sake!).
Okay, the guy has a lot of good songs and he was never going to be able to play all of them, but I must admit the tracklist wasn't the best and I would definitely have swapped out some of the older songs for more from Bruise and Compass, and judging by the reaction to 'The Noise Inside My Head' perhaps the crowd would have agreed with me too.
Still, it was a good show and Tom exuded plenty of energy, with a nice big empty stage to stomp around on. I'm not sure finishing with a brand new song was the best idea ever (seems to be the new thing, that) but it was okay. At least we finished the show on an energetic new song after the depressing (but excellent) couplet of 'Disappoint' and 'Damaged'.
Hopefully Tom will return for more shows next year once the new album is released as it would definitely be good to see him perform again soon.
Another wonderful meal at The Grey Goose; our usual fillet steak accompanied by triple cooked chips and a lovely rocket and red onion salad, followed by a magnificent Biscoff cheesecake. The food simply cannot be faulted and it's good to see that the toilets have received some attention (if not the complete makeover they really need). My only complaint is that the chairs are still in need of replacement, the seat of mine was very lumpy and my arse is still aching 24 hours later, which is such a shame as otherwise it was fantastic....
Even though I hadn't seen Paradise Lost since 2015 they have remained unchallenged as my 'most seen' band, this being my fourteenth time! How is that even possible, I wonder... well it started it 1993 at Rock City (supporting Sepultura) which I attended with Rich Mabbutt if I remember correctly. After that we saw them twice in 1994 (Rock City and Wulfrun Hall) then in Milton Keynes under a different name (secret warm up gig for Monsters of Rock I think).
Then there was a break of four years, so we didn't see them on either of the 'Draconian Times' or 'One Second' tours, but we reconnected with them for 'Host' at JBs in Dudley. The next two tours we also saw them in Dudley ('Believe in Nothing' in 2001 and 'Symbol of Life' in 2003') and we saw them play the Wulfren again in 2004. Next up was as support to Nightwish at the Hammersmith Odeon in 2005 and then headlining their own show two days later at JB's! Then it was back to the Wulfrun in 2009, which was in support of the 'Death Divides Us - Pain Unites Us' album.
That was Rose's last Paradise Lost show for sixteen years, but I saw them with Rich at the Wulfrun again in 2013 with Lacuna Coil and Katatonia (who both sucked ass, even though Katatonia were supposedly playing their 'Viva Emptiness' album). Paradise Lost were great though. It was their 25th anniversary tour and they played a wide selection of songs from just about every album including 'Host', with Nick taking no shit from the crowd.
"Listen to it," he said. "It's a bloody good album."
Finally Rich and I went to Rock City to see them in 2015, which I have very little memory of honestly... and that was it until tonight. Amazing how all that adds up to thirteen shows, especially with some big gaps, but then if you see a band twice in three days then it does add up.
And so to this show at the Rescue Rooms... oddly I thought we'd seen them here in the past, but apparently not. I guess we must have considered it at some point and decided against it, probably because we assumed it would be rammed. And so it was tonight, sold out in fact, which I discovered on the day. Oh joy. How we love 'sold out' gigs... not.
High Parasite were first support, but for God only knows what reason they were coming on at 6:20pm. We hadn't even eaten our tea by then and the venue is 70 minutes away so we had fuck all chance of seeing them, and while we didn't actually fancy 'Messa's' jazz metal stylings, there wasn't much chance of making it in time to see them either. In fact we arrived to the venue at 8:05pm, just ten minutes before PL were due to take the stage.
Predictably, once through the doors it was a tightly packed throng of people and it looked like being a complete waste of time and money. I really don't understand why PL were playing here, surely they should be back at Rock City. Well anyway, we decided to try our luck on the balcony and while it was a bit hopeless to start with, after a little while people shuffled around and we could see Nick and Greg, some drums and occasionally the bass player (Steve). No sign of Aaron Aedy, but I assume he must have been there, cos we could hear him! 🤣
TRUE BELIEF LIVE AT RESCUE ROOMS 14.10.2025
The band started with 'Serpent on the Cross' from the new album and then once again took in songs from a wide selection of their older albums, including 'True Belief' (Icon'), 'One Second' and 'Say Just Words' (One Second), 'Once Solemn' (Draconian Times), 'Pity the Sadness' (Shades of God), 'Requiem' (In Requiem), 'Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us' (Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us), 'Beneath Broken Earth' (The Plague Within), 'Ghosts' (Obsidian), 'No Celebration' (Symbol of Life), Silence Like the Grave' and 'Tyrants (also from 2025's Ascension) and also 'Nothing Sacred' and 'Mouth' from their 'controversial' Host and Believe in Nothing albums.
Sound was generally good, and the crowd was very receptive and responsive, even singing along with Nothing Sacred, despite the man behind me loudly telling his friend that no one likes 'Host'. Ha!
Some of the guitar work was a little sloppy though and Nick's voice does not sound like it used to, lacking power for a lot of the set. The problem with that is that Nick's voice is a huge part of PL's sound and when you're singing along and he's singing it 'wrong' it does throw you a bit.
Still, I'm glad we went, but next time I think we will go somewhere bigger because this place is just too small for a band of this size. Really we were lucky that we could find a tiny spot on the balcony otherwise this would have been a right disaster of a gig.
SETLIST: Serpent on the Cross / Tragic Idol / True Belief / One Second / Once Solemn / Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us / Pity the Sadness / Beneath Broken Earth / Nothing Sacred / Tyrants Serenade / Requiem / Mouth / Say Just Words / No Celebration / Ghosts / Silence Like the Grave
Unbelievably this was my seventh time seeing Testament, which means they are now my sixth most seen band of all time. Admittedly three of those seven have been gigs where Testament supported other bands... and one time headlining a festival in London; so it's not like I've purposely seen them that many times and they've never really been a favourite band of mine. Truth be told I probably wouldn't have gone to see them on their own this time, nor Obituary, or Destruction come to that... but put them all together in one package and it made a lot more sense. Plus Obituary were mainly playing songs from their second album 'Cause of Death' which is one that I am reasonably familiar with.
I left work at 4:30pm, thinking I would be in plenty of time, but after a torturous journey through previously uncharted areas of Birmingham (with the sun blinding me for most of it) I eventually found myself in the maze that is central Birmingham, missing turnings and tunnels left right and centre and gradually getting grumpier and grumpier. Finally my phone told me to turn into this dodgy looking alleyway and around two more corners and there before me was the car park. Hallelujah.
Except it looked shut, with roller doors down behind the barriers. Fuck! Where was I going to park now? I stopped in the middle of the road, much to the driver in the car behind me's annoyance I'm sure! Unsure what else to do, I turned into the entrance and the machine offered me a ticket. When I took it the barrier raised and the roller door slowly trundled upwards too. Maybe a sign would be a good idea for people who don't know? FFS.
Anyway, I left the car and made my way down the stairs with the painful sound of an alarm ringing in my ears down all three flights of stairs (a portent of things to come perhaps!) and out onto the street. Now, because this is an 02 venue you don't have a proper ticket or even an email ticket, no you have to use the stupid fucking app. And, exactly as I knew it would, the bastard thing had signed me out! So I had to stand out on the pavement, cursing under my breath. Fortunately I had tested to make sure I knew what my password was earlier in the day, but given I was already grumpy this was the last bloody thing I needed. I don't know how often it signs you out but it's a bit weird that it does it right before you want to use it when I must have been signed in for weeks!
So I went inside and realised that I had been here before, a couple of times actually, albeit twenty years ago (to see Nightwish and Machine Head). Thankfully attendance was a bit lower tonight and so the problem of the wide, low balconies blocking the view didn't mean that we were packed in like sardines. Actually, it was the perfect number of people for the size of the venue, meaning it felt well-attended, but not crowded.
As I arrived Nervosa were already on stage, I knew absolutely zero about them before I got there so I was a little surprised to see four women onstage playing a sort of clunky retro-thrash/death. Apparently they are from Brazil (I thought they were probably German) and I can't help thinking that if they were blokes then no one would give them a second listen because they are fairly unremarkable. I did quite like a song called Jailbreak, mainly due to the twin guitar parts, but I don't think I'll be investigating too much further there, I've already got more mediocre music than I will ever listen to again.
I watched Nervosa from the back of the venue, but decided to move closer to the stage for Destruction. I moved to the right side and there was plenty of space there, but by Christ it was loud - I mean, obviously I was standing in front of the PA, so durr...
I'd seen Destruction six times already, the last time being at KK's Steel Mill a year or two ago, and they were okay, nothing special. I kinda miss Mike not being there as it really doesn't feel like Destruction anymore without him and I don't really like the way the two guitar players interpret some of the older songs. But still, I was hopeful that it would be a good show and given that the band had been playing 'Infernal Overkill' in full on some of their recent festival appearances, I hoped that at least the set would be leaning in that direction.
Things started well, with the classic 'Curse the Gods' intro tape announcing the band's arrival and while the PA was painfully loud I was enjoying the show. In the end the setlist was only eight tracks long, with three coming from the 80s and only one from 'Infernal Overkill', so that was a bit disappointing. But still it was pretty good and on balance probably a little bit better than the show at KK's Steel Mill.
I was relieved to see the Obituary backdrop appear as the roadies swarmed the stage to make the next changeover. While it was a co-headliner I naturally assumed that Testament would be last on, since to me they are surely the bigger band, but who knows... and while I definitely wanted to see Obituary I wasn't sure how much of Testament I could stomach.
Trevor Peres roadie plugged in his guitar and started playing and there it was, that thick as treacle, heavier than hell guitar sound. Wow. Awesome. I was meant to see Obituary supporting Slayer seven years ago, but due to the wonderful Birmingham traffic we arrived to see the band launch into their final song. I was pissed off about that at the time, but again, if I'd seen them then I probably wouldn't have been here...
Obituary started with a few more recent songs that I didn't know before launching into a selection of tracks from 'Cause of Death'. I had looked at a setlist from a few days before and they had dropped the Celtic Frost cover 'Circle of the Tyrants' from the running order, which I was extremely disappointed about, so I was super happy when John Tardy asked if we wanted to hear some Celtic Frost! The crowd responded with a big pit and a bunch of crowd suffers appearing out of nowhere - good to see these people appreciate Switzerland's finest!
'COTT' was undoubtedly the high point of the set for me, well... the night, let's be honest, which seems a weird thing to say, but Celtic Frost are better than all these bands (at least in their current incarnation) so it makes sense to me. Also, Obituary are not the easiest band to listen to live. Their music is quite samey, and while I enjoyed them, there were times when I felt like I wasn't really paying attention. When they played songs I knew well I was invested, but other times it does come over as a bit... meh.
This all sounds rather negative, I know... but after seeing the number of gigs that I have it's hard to be truly blown away, especially by bands you've seen time and time again. Not that that applies to Obituary of course, but I was never a hardcore 'Obies' fan, or really a true 'Death Metal' fan come to that!
At the start of the night I had been in two minds about Testament. I'd seen them six times already and never been that bothered, so I was debating leaving early and getting to bed at a sensible time, or staying... or staying for the first few songs maybe. I knew they were opening with 'DNR' (which is my favourite song of theirs) so it made sense to at least hang on for that, so that's what I did.
Again the roadies swarmed the stage and Testament's hilariously cheesy skeleton thing was inflated behind the drum kit. I mean, the last time I saw an inflatable onstage it was probably Iron Maiden at the DeMontfort Hall in 1986 and it was only for one song... blowing it up before the band even came on was a bit embarrassing, and then the lights dimmed and the intro rolled...
At least I think 'Fight for Your Right to Party' was the intro tape....
Thankfully, once that stopped we got the proper intro tape and the band launched into the blistering 'DNR', with (jazz) guitarist Alex Skolnick looking distinctly disinterested. I've never felt good about Skolnick being back in the band, because he left after 'The Ritual' to go do his jazz trio and saying that he was never really that into metal. Fuck off and let someone who is into metal play then! Fucking pussy.
They blended DNR into something I didn't recognise but with a similar drumbeat and then followed that up with 'Practice What You Preach'. It had been sixteen years since my last encounter with the band and I have to say I was enjoying it more than I really expected to. So I stayed a bit longer and a bit longer and then suddenly we were half way through the set and my foot was really hurting (and my ears were buggered too, though Testament were definitely the quietest band of the night). I thought about leaving, but I was intrigued to know if they really were going to play 'Return to Serenity' from the hated 'The Ritual' album.
We got a short drum solo, which I believed was supposed to follow 'RTS' and I wondered if they'd dropped it from the set already, but no... they played it a few songs later. Wow, well I never thought I would see them play that. It was 10:40 by now and I knew they would have to stop at 11pm, so I figured I would stay until they played 'Electric Crown' and then get out of the car park before the rush.
As the night wore on the previously sparingly deployed pyro became more and more prevalent, maybe they needed to use it up or something? Sometimes it was effective, but after a while it got a bit silly really. Venom did it best on their 1984 Hammersmith show, use each effect only once and go hard!
I enjoyed it, but it was a long show and it was a relief to get back to the car and take the weight off my poor foot, and thankfully the satnav took me directly back to the motorway, without the need for navigating strange parts of Birmingham and the sun in my eyes. The journey home was pretty uneventful and I got home at midnight, had a shower and got straight into bed, my ears still ringing like bastards!
