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Setlist: It's Electric, Give It To Me, To The Devil His Due, In The Heat Of The Night, Alimony, Fever, Sucking My Love , Mine All Mine, Am I Evil?. Diamond Head @ The O2 Academy Manchester : Live Review That opportunity arrived last Friday, but surprisingly for me, only at the smaller Manchester Academy 2 (more about the venue later). It was therefore not surprising that the 1,000 show had sold out weeks ago. With Brit rock veterans Diamond Head in support, it promised to be a great show.
Diamond Head have been around since 1975 (how’s that for durability!) and now have a new singer on board, together with a workable distribution deal so should provide an enthusiastic set. The first couple of songs from the band (‘It’s Electric’ and ‘Give It To Me’) were somewhat shaky with lead voice Nick Tart looking pretty apprehensive. He shouldn’t have been. The crowd warmed to the band and by the third song (‘Devil His Due’) Tart and the crowd were as one. And it just got better and better with Tart in full vocal flow, egging punters on for more response, which he received and returned in good measure. ‘Heat Of The Night’, ‘Alimony’ and ‘Sucking My Love’ drew some incendiary riffs from lead guitarist Brian Tatler, while I could see that drummer Karl Wilcox was losing water at a rapid rate through his gargantuan efforts. The highlight came with ‘Mine All Mine’ when Tart’s jocular taunting and expressive, powerful vocal delivery generated an audience singalong that nearly lifted the roof. There were moments during later songs that Tart would retreat to the rear to allow Tatler (lead guitar) and “Abbz” Abberley (rhythm guitar) to hold centre stage, and then returned to apply the killer vocal stroke. ‘Am I Evil’ closed the set in classic heavy rock style, and to huge applause. Diamond Head gave an honest and workmanlike rock display, and more importantly carried off the ‘crowd warming’ role with aplomb. Review from www.shakenstir.co.uk Photgraphs by Tony Porter |
