What a day, great bands from front to back and a truly awesome send-off from Blackie Lawless’ WASP.

Witchfynde
Imagine if it had been different. Imagine if Nottingham NWOBHM quartet had gone on to become one of the biggest metal bands of all time, flying around the world in jets, hosting radio shows, a mantelpiece brimming with awards. What if we were here watching five lads from West Ham who released their debut in the same year as Witchfynde’s ‘Give Em Hell’ and band whose careers hadn’t unfolded quite how they planned. We watch Witchfynde hammer out their grade A retro metal; a couple are bald with pub landlord arms and prescription sunglasses and guitarist Montalo looks like a monochromatically dressed version of any given rock dad. Google images of the band and there’s not much between them and NWOBHM kings Iron Maiden, and when you listen it will surprise the uninitiated quite how good the music is: a blend of ‘Sad Wings Of Destiny’-era Judas Priest sonics and Dark Diamond Head songwriting. And with the great hooks, flawless vocals and great crisp single-guitar attack you wonder why Witchfynde never became much more than also-rans. As well as a great sound the guys are clearly having fun, promoted from the back room of some King’s Arms pub to this handsome stage in North Wales, they smile and quip and dodge about the stage like old mates having the time of their life.

Read our Ratt and Monster Magnet reviews here.

Tigertailz
In the CD rack in my mind I appear to have filed Tigertailz incorrectly under ‘Bad British Hair Metal’. Every time I see them I refile the band in ‘Underrated Crue-esque Hard Rock’. Lucky for them (and us) the four middle-age Welsh rockers aren’t trying to convince us that they’re Bon Jovi, just that they’re four normal dudes with abnormal haircuts that want to build a party in our faces. The songs are strong, the rock is hard and the inter-song banter is charming in its unpretentiousness.   

Four Wheel Drive
We gather in the Queen Victoria pub to witness this pub rock outfit from England’s sunny south. Plundering an already much visited tomb has left many 70s/80s-inspired rock bands feeling empty, and while 4WD bring little sonically to the table, their songs are strong and the musicianship artful. Their unassuming bassist singer – looking like Nicholas Lindhurst playing Richard Beckinsale – builds to a rocking fervour over set, clearly letting his inner animal out on a long leash. Meanwhile the two appropriately dressed guitarists flanking their frontman both rip a mean riff and shred front row faces with their enviable fretwork. Sounding like a cross between The Black Crowes and Airbourne the band prove that there’s more to pub rock than AC/DC as they hint at The Rolling Stone and Little Richard, though a modern energised performance straight out of the heavy metal handbook. By the end we’re all standing in awe of the no bare-chested guitarist as his sweat-covered hands pull more notes even faster from his guitar, the clear winner for focal point of this band. Sod the arenas, rock’n’roll belongs in the pub – just hope that Four Wheel Drive drink in yours.

Rogue Male
Jesus. I guess age catches up with us all. My enduring image of Rogue Male is their 80s album artwork which pictures them as looking some Mad Max-inspired Japanese pop rock outfit (Google X Japan). The biggest poodle perms, the most severe 80s make-up and clothes that are illegal in many countries. Tonight however – a good 20 years on – they are (mostly) without hair and make-up and their costumes toned-down to a more modern and flattering collection of clobber. Their frontman still has a presence, looking not unlike Disturbed’s David Draiman, and leads the crowd wrapped in faux-barbed wire. It seems like 99% of bands are cursed within a decade of their inception, to ten years or more as frogs that no metalhead wants to kiss. And so for many bands like Tigertailz and Rogue Male, the next decade could well bring a well-deserved return.  

WASP
We were at Shepherd’s Bush Empire for WASP’s London show only three nights ago, and THAT was good, but nothing can beat this. Word is that the show almost didn’t happen. The ‘almost’ being very real, having cancelled their Cardiff show a couple of nights previous. We pity the fool playing in the other room while WASP take the stage, everyone is here, expectant and ready. And Blackie and his hired guns don’t disappoint. In fact the fact that Blackie Lawless’s reputation as ‘a very difficult person’ is untarnished with accusation of being easy going or actually a really nice guy, adds to the appeal of WASP. While Motley Crue only seems to flirt with evil, WASP had enslaved evil and were teaching it how to rock. With limited time to perform songs from a 25 plus year career omissions are inevitable but we are still treated to wall to wall classics: ‘I Wanna Be Somebody’, ‘Love Machine’, ‘Blind In Texas’ and even some who while their specific names escape me I was shouting every word back with a few thousand others. It must be noted that WASP’s current lead guitarist is an absolute genius, ripping through the solos leaving a trail of his own personality in each note. The great thing about WASP is that Blackie Lawless still plays with the conviction of an idealistic teenager, a furious black sheep still raging at anyone and everyone. As Blackie has explained he won’t play the song so many people associate with the band before other songs, ‘Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)’, after his return to the cloth. At the end of the set everyone stands up and cheers, even the bar staff converted. Surely the weekend’s apex.

Read our Delain, Hysterica, Korpiklanni and Black Spiders.