Hammersmith Apollo, Saturday 18.10.03
The pubs of Hammersmith have been taken over by hairy old men in denim jackets. Two of the greatest British rock bands ever are in town: the legendary Motorhead, carved from rock a million years hence, and The Wildhearts, wild at heart and guitars slung low.
First up though are Young Heart Attack. They’re from Texas, there’s about a million of them and they have a winning way with a riff and a chorus, like a young AC/DC with a girl in.
Then there’s the three guitar assault of The Wildhearts, who seem to be on a bit early and are criminally underappreciated by the crowd. They mostly stick to the stuff since their much vaunted comeback a couple of years back such as ‘Vanilla Radio’ and new single ‘Top of the World’, on which they’ve reined in their prog-metal tendencies – it used to be they’d cram three great songs into every one, now it’s back to one great song at a time. They’re fookin’ ace, the Wildhearts.
Then it’s time for Motorhead to “tear Hammersmith a new asshole” (thank you Ginger Wildheart.) And they’re AMAZING! It’s MOTORHEAD! Just over there! Look, it’s Lemmy! I haven’t got a clue what they’re playing, but it’s BLOODY BRILLIANT! Obviously they save ‘Ace of Spades’ for the encore, but before that there’s a version of ‘God Save the Queen’, a frankly ridiculous drum solo, and full-tilt rockin’ all the way. Fantastic.
This interview originally appeared at www.uelsu.net.
