MOW-TER-EAD!
Motorhead (with Saxon) - Manchester Apollo (Friday 14th November 2008)
Another perfect day? Well, yeah... not bad at all!
After the big day trying to do the recording and the pasta dinner, we didn't feel like getting any food as we had planned, so we met our Rockmen compatriot, The Leg, at the pub and had a few pints and a chinwag, which was jolly good. We hung out for a while and then wandered off to find a 192 bus to drag us to Ardwick and the Apollo. We got there in good time and wandered into the gig. We both had a good buzz on from the pints and we were eager to hear some tunes. Danko Jones were on when we arrived, but since I've seen them before and Rich wasn't arsed about them, so that was OK.
There was nothing that tickled my fancy on the merch stand, thank god, so I saved some money there, so we went for a quick piss and wandered into the hall to take our place. Danko Jones were finishing up when we settled down. They were giving it the "big ending" and managed to throw in the intro riffs to "YYZ" (which I mistook for the intro to "2112" on the night, shame on me!) which went down well in my mind. So that was all good.
We only had to wait fifteen minutes for the stage to be set up for Saxon, which was grand. I like it when they hurry it up a bit. Biff ran on to some big intro music ("Jerusalem" if I remember rightly) and flashing lights and screamed into "Motorcycle Man". Even though he looked as though he was 84 years old, the man put on one hell of a show. He was all over the place and his vocals have seemingly held up well over the years. Rich pointed out his "Old Man Headbanging", but it all went down really well and he got the crowd well and truly revved up for the headliners.
The Saxon set seemed to follow a new-song-old-song format, which was good to kepp the crowd awake and to introduce some stuff off the next album that's due out in February. It all sounded satisfyingly magnificent with "Denim and Leather" and "747" being welcomed very loudly by the crowd and sung along to very loudly. There were a fair few Saxon shirts in the crowd and, as Rich also pointed out, they proved that they are the perfect 'Head support.
The one thing I will say is that the sound was pretty grotty for the most part. It all just mushed together at times and sounded messy, which was a shame. But the performance and the likeability of the band carried them off well and got the Apollo well-and-truly rocking. It was just a shame that the changeover took thirty long minutes and let the energy in the hall drop for a while. It's a pain that they feel the need to do this as it does really get on my wick.
Anyway, after thirty minutes and a lot of pissing about on stage, the hall lights dropped and the hall erupted in a true Motorhead welcome as Lemmy and co marched on the stage. "Iron Fist" kicked the set off and we, again, were presented by some shitty sound. It was loud enough, sure, but you couldn't hear Lemmy and the rest of the sound was muddled, although Mr Dee thumped his way through in his own true style. It didn't take long for the sound to settle and the volume to increase though and all was fine.
The set list was good. I've not seen a 'Head gig for a few years now and I do remember thinking that at the last show I saw that it was all starting to get a little samey. But now they've shuffled it all about and changed some tunes up and given the set a new lease of life. There was some stuff that I'd not heard them do and some other changes like substituing "Sacrifice" with "In The Name Of Tragedy" with Mikki's solo in the middle of it. Inclusions of songs from "Another Perfect Day" was good too, and it's always good to hear "Metropolis" live. You could go on forever trying to put all your MotorFaves in there and you know that everyone can't have their favourites, but this set was a nice change and there was something for everyone in there.
Mikki's solo was fast and furious again. I get bored with drum solos, but his one never fails to entertain and amaze with the sheer force behind it. The man is a force of nature behind the kit, he really is. On Friday night, it was so amped-up that you could litterally feel the pounding of the double-bass drums from the PA in your chest everytime he kicked them for the whole four-odd minutes of the performance. You can see why Lemmy introduces him as "the best drummer in the world" every night, and it's not just because he's grateful for the chanceto go off and have a fag break in these modern times where he's legally not allowed to smoke on-stage anymore. Phil also got a solo spot at one point too, so Lemmy must have been gagging for a smoke that night.
The band were playing very well on the night, as usual, with some furious energy coming from on stage. I can't imagine them having an off night, really. These boys know exactly what they're doing, after all. It was all tight and fast and, of course, loud.
It seems that the band have splashed out on a new stage setup too. Mikki's drums were on a higher riser and there was a new lighting setup. There was also the addition of video screens on the backdrop. These showed album covers during the first few songs, but then switched to close-ups of the band from hidden cameras on-stage, which really did work quite well, especially during Mikki's solo, even if it did get confusing due to the delay fro mthe camera to the screen leaving it all out-of-sync. But it was a nice addition to the show.
The set seemed pretty short, but I think we got a good 90 minutes out of them, which in Motorhead terms is quite a lot when you consider the speed of the music! We were left with the triple-whammy of "Whorehoue Blues" (with Dee getting all "Bron-y-Aur Stomp" on us with his hi-hat and bass drum as well as his guitar), "Ace of Spades" and a very brutal "Overkill"... and then it was all over. So, there is was. My first MotorGig for a few years and a very good one at that. I was glad to have had a break from seeing them every year and very happy to go back and see that they never seem to lose it.
We left the hall all keyed-up and VERY thirsty. We should have really bitten the bullet and bought a shitty warm and over-priced Carling to keep the beer buzz going and at least a little liquid in our systems. We went to the Salisbury and then onto Rockworld, but I didn't feel 100% for all of it. I think I was just a bit dehydrated and lobbing a pint of extra cold orange squash on my stomach before drinking a really shitty pink of bitter didn't help matters. Still, I had a sit down (for my old bones) in Rockworld for five minutes and I was up-and-running again, although I left off the booze for the rest of the night, favouring to sing Whitesnake songs to some bird I met on the dancefloor in Rockworld instead. Luckily, I was married to the bird, so the missus didn't mind! (We had met Kez and Mary after the gig, by the way!)
We got home at 3.30am-ish, all had a shower each and chilled out for a while before lights-out at 5am. A great night all round!
Setlist
Taken from the iMotorhead forums and looks about right.
- Iron Fist
- Stay Clean
- Be My Babe
- Rock Out
- Metropolis
- Over the Top
- Another Perfect Day
- The Thousand Names Of God
- I Got Mine
- Rosalie
- In the Name of Tragedy (with Drum Solo)
- Just 'Cos You Got The Power
- Born to Raise Hell
- Going To Brazil
- Guitar Solo
- Killed by Death
- Whorehouse Blues (Encore)
- Ace Of Spades (Encore)
- Overkill (Encore)
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