W.A.S.P.
DATE:
VENUE:
Saturday 12th September 2015
Academy in Leeds, UK
Review & Photography by Gina Godfrey
W.A.S.P.
Anticipation filled the air as the lights went down and the stage filled with a sea of red flashing red lights, accompanied by a mash up medley of some of the many hits W.A.S.P.’s expansive 33 year music career. Blackie Lawless and the boys exploded onto the stage to their infamous opener, ‘On Your Knees’, sending a roar of adulation through the crowd. They showed no mercy as they ripped into ‘Inside the Electric Circus’ and the classic The Who song, ‘The Real Me’. Taking the briefest of moments to catch his breath, Blackie screamed: “Leeds, are you ready, cos all I need is my loooove machine!!”, and the crowd were instantly ignited into a heavy metal choir.
This tour is to promote the new upcoming album, ‘Golgotha’, due to be released on Napalm Records on the 2nd of October 2015. The first introduction to the album was the song ‘Last Runaway’, which seamlessly slipped into the set alongside ‘Crazy’ from the band’s last studio release, ‘Babylon’. The stage darkened to ‘The Titanic Overture’ from ‘The Crimson Idol’, accompanied by the video screens portraying the story of Jonathan, and his ‘Arena of Pleasure’. Continuing with another track from the new album, ‘Miss you’ (originally penned for ‘The Crimson Idol’), showing Blackie's vocal acrobatic stamina still powering on through the years, Mike Duda's thunderous bass tones, and Randy Black's strong percussion formed the back bone for Dougie Blair's blistering guitar solo finishing the song off in a magnificent crescendo. The intro to ‘Thunderhead’ paved the way for the 1984 classic ‘Hellion’, before the cover version of Humble Pie’s 1971 track, ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’, arguably made more famous by the W.A.S.P boys!! The title track from the upcoming album finished off the set ,with religious iconic imagery providing the backdrop for the epic sounding ‘Golgotha’.
The crowd wanted more… W.A.S.P delivered, and as the sound of the chainsaw motor filled the auditorium this could only mean one thing: ‘Murders in the New Morgue (Chainsaw Charlie)’. As the crowd chanted for even more, they returned back onto the stage for the final time; Blackie teasing us with the guitar intro to ‘Wild Child’, before entering a rip roaring rendition of the timeless classic, followed by ‘I Wanna Be Somebody’, and sending the crowd home on a high, reminding us that W.A.S.P have still got that STING! in their tail.
This tour is to promote the new upcoming album, ‘Golgotha’, due to be released on Napalm Records on the 2nd of October 2015. The first introduction to the album was the song ‘Last Runaway’, which seamlessly slipped into the set alongside ‘Crazy’ from the band’s last studio release, ‘Babylon’. The stage darkened to ‘The Titanic Overture’ from ‘The Crimson Idol’, accompanied by the video screens portraying the story of Jonathan, and his ‘Arena of Pleasure’. Continuing with another track from the new album, ‘Miss you’ (originally penned for ‘The Crimson Idol’), showing Blackie's vocal acrobatic stamina still powering on through the years, Mike Duda's thunderous bass tones, and Randy Black's strong percussion formed the back bone for Dougie Blair's blistering guitar solo finishing the song off in a magnificent crescendo. The intro to ‘Thunderhead’ paved the way for the 1984 classic ‘Hellion’, before the cover version of Humble Pie’s 1971 track, ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’, arguably made more famous by the W.A.S.P boys!! The title track from the upcoming album finished off the set ,with religious iconic imagery providing the backdrop for the epic sounding ‘Golgotha’.
The crowd wanted more… W.A.S.P delivered, and as the sound of the chainsaw motor filled the auditorium this could only mean one thing: ‘Murders in the New Morgue (Chainsaw Charlie)’. As the crowd chanted for even more, they returned back onto the stage for the final time; Blackie teasing us with the guitar intro to ‘Wild Child’, before entering a rip roaring rendition of the timeless classic, followed by ‘I Wanna Be Somebody’, and sending the crowd home on a high, reminding us that W.A.S.P have still got that STING! in their tail.
Click on thumbnails for larger images:
W.A.S.P. in the Academy, Leeds, UK, 12th September 2015
Photograph copyright © 2015 Gina Godfrey - www.metal-discovery.com
