hardcore superstar live

Wrexham-based classic rockers Decadenze (now rebranded as No Lights at Lockdown) opened very early, but the crowd increased throughout the set and quite a few eventually caught some of the songs. Singer Chris Edge is a confident frontman with strong vocals suited to this kind of classic rock, backed up ably by Ste on backing vocals. Easy on the eye, these relative youngsters play a solid and traditional rock sound, sometimes verging on bluesy, and with some stronger songs could go far. Closing with the catchy Dragging Me Down they won over many new fans.

Sweden's Bullet are the main support and doing the whole tour with Hardcore Superstar and they are truly magnificent. This was only the second night of the tour, but I’d managed to interview guitarists Hampus Klang and Adam Hector before the show and just knew they were going to be an absolute bundle of fun, energy and (probably!) drunken trouble on these dates. (They’d already had a run in with the Police the night before in Glasgow). They didn’t let me down. The stage was transformed using a portable home made lighting rig which has their name, BULLET, spelt in light bulbs like a cheesy backstage dressing room… with the obligatory five bulbs not working. Looking like they’ve stepped out of the 1970s, the guys rocked out with synchronised head banging and Status Quo guitar and hair moves, with huge grins on their faces, as front man Hell Hofer screamed his best Angus Young impression. The studded belts and guitar straps, and Spinal Tap style gurning could be ridiculous, but it’s done with such a sense of fun, and the music is actually so fantastically well executed and VERY catchy, that they pull it off. Soon they’ve infected everyone in the crowd and the audience are punching the air and chanting ‘Bul-let! Bul-let!’. They were soon singing along to songs with easily learnt lyrics like Turn it up Loud and Bite the Bullet, which sees the three guitarists holding their guitars over their heads spelling out the title of the song , one word written on the back of each guitar. Bang Your Head has all the crowd, well, banging their heads and cheering Bullet off the stage. Totally clichéd, totally fun, totally brilliant.

Hardcore Superstar have tried to play the UK a few times, and have always been plagued by bad luck everywhere. Power cuts, freak weather, broken down buses; various acts of God that made some of us feel like they were destined never to make it here. A great performance at last year’s Download finally saw all going 'Well at last!' but for some utterly inexplicable reason they still don’t attract the numbers of fans to gigs that a band of this quality should. Oh well, means I get them all to myself more in wonderful cosy little venues. It’s fantastic to have them back and I was so excited about hearing the new album Beg For It live again (I’d seen the first night of the tour in Hamburg). They launched straight into the title track, looking like they always do, and blasted it, old skool sleaze rock style. Frontman Jocke Berg was immediately marching backwards and forward with his trademark shuffle, muttering frantically to himself in between singing. The Swedes whizz through a frantic set. No sloppy ballads to slow things down here for the first ten songs, there was just no let up.

Berg regales us between songs with banter, introducing one song by telling us all how he met Nikki Sixx coming out of the shower (the girls in the venue glaze over a they picture this rather marvellous image in their head) and Sixx informed Berg that the wonderful Shades of Grey is his favourite from the album, cueing us nicely for the track.

The band looked like they were having a blast, laughing and joking with the crowd and each other; there was a lot of male bonding between Berg and guitarist Vic Zino, showing a camaraderie that had sadly been lost just before previous guitarist Silver departed. Bass player Martin Sandvik and Zino regularly crossed the stage to swap sides whilst Zino was up on the speaker, long hair flailing.

The only breath we could take was for the hauntingly beautiful Standin’ on the Verge which I cannot hear live without getting tears in my eyes. One of the most amazing songs ever written.

Drummer Magnus "Adde" Andreasson pounded away in the background adding great backing vocals and cowbell with the help of his drum tech who joined in in places to do double drumming and took over for a short spell to allow Adde to go sit on the front of the stage and have a beer and go out into the crowd during Bag On Your Head.

For the older fans, there was Shame and Someone Special; massively welcome additions to the set. The lack of songs from the Dreamin’ in a Casket album didn’t bother me in the slightest due to the strength of the songs on the latest album. The encore came all too soon and then the power went. Here we go again! It was quickly rectified however and we were treated to the obligatory ending with the anthemic hit single, We Don’t Celebrate Sundays, which brought the house down.

by Lynn Wyeth