Sonisphere Review 2011: Bill Bailey, Motorhead, Airbourne, Motorhead

The last of the Sonisphere reviews, includes insane pictures of Joel Airbourne’s climb to the top of the stage!

Bill Bailey
You almost wonder why no one’s tried Bill Bailey out at a festival before. There’s as much music as a traditional band, it’s played to the highest standard and the banter between songs is not only as good as you could ever ask for, the songs themselves are comedy and so it feels seamless. Bill’s in sparkling form (he apparently went to see Mastodon earlier, in what was surely the beardiest moment at any festival not featuring ZZ Top) and walks the line between knowing, affectionate fun-pokery without toppling into outright mockery with practised ease. The reworking of Gary Numan’s classic Cars using French lyrics and car horns is a particular highlight, and underlines how strong the musicianship underlying the humour is. It’s fairly hard work watching comedy in the rain, but Bill Bailey packs enough laughs in to pull it off.

Motörhead
Lemmy opens tonight with the worst kind of announcement possible: that former guitarist Würzel had died of a heart attack the day before. While the news had filtered around the site a certain amount in the run-up, many are clearly hearing this for the first time. Perhaps that’s why the start to the set isn’t quite the full-blooded rampage it could be, but as time passes it picks up, and Motörhead play rock and roll really fucking loudly. These legends haven’t achieved that status without earning it, and prove yet again exactly why that is. Closing triad of Killed By Death, Ace Of Spades and a thunderous Overkill are rock classics that have lasted longer than many of the audience have been alive, and still sound as mighty as ever. Who doesn’t love Motörhead?

Airbourne
How many times can you say “Airbourne are fucking brilliant”? Well, it needs saying once more at least. Because yet again, Airbourne are fucking brilliant. Riffy rock songs that everyone can join in with are what festivals are made for, and Airbourne have them in spades. By now it shouldn’t really need saying, but Joel O’Keefe’s antics are always jaw-dropping- even if there’s the real worry that he’s about to plummet to death or at the very least serious injury from the terrifying little jaunts he goes on. As usual, he’s not content just to walk around the stage- he wants to climb it. So up he goes, up the frame at the left of the stage before standing right on top to play a guitar solo. Once done, he climbs back down… but not before swinging around on the gantry holding on with only one hand scaring the living shit out of everyone watching. Most bands would settle for just blaring out great performances of Runnin’ Wild and the rest. Airbourne aren’t most bands.

Mastodon
The mighty Mastodon appear to have wisely focused less on their most layered material this year, instead opting for the riffier numbers that can’t be hampered by your standard sonic issues at festivals. Or, put another way, it’s a set that can only be described as massively fucking heavy. A pleasantly large amount of the brilliant Blood Mountain songs feature, not least an immense Colony Of Birchmen, along with the obvious tracks like the skull-smashing March Of The Fire Ants and Blood And Thunder, and the sheer ability on display is almost mesmeric from all concerned, from Brann Dailor’s astounding drumming at the back to the crazed string wizardry from all of the front three. Mastodon are in strong form, and you struggle to name a band whose catalogue is so strong that they can largely overlook their strongest album to cater the occasion and still offer up a riff marathon of constant class. Anyone else now hungry for a new album…?

MOTöRHEAD – Hellraiser on MUZU.TV