Motorhead/Anthrax

BIC, Bournemouth

Being the support for one major band is hard, but for two it’s an impossible task. Diaries of a Hero play mainly as background music to people still entering the venue, their high paced hard rock making little impact on the people filing in. Fair play to them for landing a major tour such as this but I certainly wasnít alone in wondering who they were and how they managed to do it seeing as they are virtually unknown.
On to the other support I say this but it’s really a co-headline as Anthrax easily have the same draw as Lemmy and Co. Original era singer Joey Belladonna is a whirlwind of activity and builds up a fantastic rapport with the crowd. He pelted backwards and forwards across the stage, pointing people out in the crowd and giving them a thumbs-up, generally making everyone feel a part of the show. It helps to have an arsenal of killer tracks to play and Indians, Madhouse, Anti-social, were all delivered with high energy. The whole band were bouncing around like it was 1987 again. A couple of tracks off new opus Worship Music (Fight ’em Til You Can’t being particularly magnificent) and too soon it was the end of the set and the finale of I Am The Law was outstanding. Top Fuckin’ band!

Motorhead 1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11

Motorhead need no introduction, the self-proclaimed loudest band in the world, strolled out and proceeded to make our eardrums bleed! Playing only one song (I know How To Die) off the latest album The World Is Yours, the rest of the set was old school all the way. Phil Campbell’s low-slung laid back but intense guitar style bludgeoning the crowd with riff after classic riff. Micky Dee’s relentless rhythms, complementing Lemmy’s bass lines and forcing heads to just bang along regardless. Speaking of Mr Kilmister, he was in good form verbally on stage. During Ace Of Spades when he got to the line “That’s the way I like it baby, I don’t want to live foreverÖ” the next line is “and don’t forget the Joker” but Lemmy instead quipped “but apparently I am!”

When the band had taken their bows and with the feedback from show closer Overkill still assaulting our senses the audience filed out in to the night, most of us already making a mental note to catch this classic band again next year, be it in Southampton or again at the BIC.
MFFM, Motorhead Forever, Forever Motorhead.

Setlist
1. I Know How to Die
2. Damage Case
3. Stay Clean
4. Metropolis
5. Over the Top
6. Doctor Rock
Guitar Solo
7. Rock It
8. The Chase Is Better Than the Catch
9. The One to Sing the Blues
(incl. drum solo)
10. You Better Run
11. Going to Brazil
12. Killed by Death
13. Ace of Spades
Encore:
14. Are You Ready
(Thin Lizzy cover)
15. Overkill

Words by Dan O’Gara.
Photos: Richard Lee