It looks like rain, it has already rained and the sky is ominously dark and this is an open air gig. Fortunately it hardly spits during the performances.
The name of the ex Motorhead guitarist band, Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons always perplexed me but its explained by a random person that three of the band (second guitar, bass and drums) are in fact Phil Cambell’s sons so that kind of makes sense now. They hit up a big rock sound, lots of screeching guitars and plenty Motorhead covers and its a lot of good hearted rock n roll fun.
Their own songs treading between a Motorhead and AC/DC sound.The Motorhead covers including We Are The Road Crew and Ace of Spades amongst others are performed in their own slightly different style from the originals but still sound fierce, it would just take Lemmy to be on vocals and the sound would’ve been complete.
Then Judas Priest are on and they come on aptly with All Guns Blazing and they do in fact blaze for the next hour and a half out so. The Priest cover so many bases in the metal genre, songs such as the more overtly rocky Freewheel Burning and the distinctly different Another Thing Coming, these are homogenised into a more basic Priest Metal style and it all works fantastically well.
The twin guitars blaze away working perfectly with each other, the drums thunder outrageously and the bass is ace. Atop all that nuclear bomb musical attack is that voice though. It’s still there, amazingly good for someone in their mid 70s. Sure, Halfords not running around like he did (though he does prowl all over the stage) but the voice is not diminished and the highs are reached with a lot of power still there.
Giants in the Sky (and mentions of Ozzy Osbourne) leads into a riotous version of Painkiller and the main set is over. The encore slams the audience with some favourite oldies including Hell Bent for Leather and ending on Living After Midnight that had the crowd punching the air and singing along like all good Metal bands should do and yes, Halford does ride a motorcycle onto the stage.
WORDS AND PHOTO CREDIT – RICHIE YATES
FOLLOW JUDAS PRIEST HERE
HEAD HERE FOR MORE RGM MUSIC NEWS!
