Words by: Robert Sutton
Images by: Robert Sutton Photography
www.facebook.com/robertsuttonphotography
UDO Dirkschneider played the last date of their six date UK tour on the 19th April at O2 Academy Islington London as part of their forty-seven date European tour titled ‘Back to the Roots –show -Farewell to Accept’. The supports for the night were I.C.O.N and Anvil.
I.C.O.N.: A four piece UK heavy metal band are a no-holds-barred true heavy metal band from the north–west, with their no nonsense approach to their music and gritty performance. Following on from their debut album ‘New Born Lie’ in 2009 , I.C.O.N now have a second album ‘The Blacklist’ and a third on the way ( no release date for this one yet though) and have been touring with the likes of Geoff Tate’s Operation: Mindcrime , Anvil and now with UDO Dirkschneider , both in the UK and in Europe. I have seen this band several times and have to say they are really a great band to watch with their northern quirkiness and approach and Mark Sagar’s (vocals) way of saying ‘Metal Bastards’ whenever he can throughout the performance…just makes me smile. Super guitars from Scott and Reece on bass and the heavy drums from Larry (who we need to say ‘Get well soon mate’ as he is unfortunately not too well and in hospital at the moment). Great opening act for the evening, who hopefully now, have a few more ‘southern’ followers to add to their ever growing fan base.
Anvil: The Canadian three piece rockers have been around for many years, but since Chris Robertson (bass) joined the band in 2014, they seem to have had a new lease of life and have just released a new album ‘Anvil is Anvil’ back in February. They opened their set with ‘March of the Crabs’ with just two members on stage so we wondered where ‘Lips’ (vocals/guitars) was…. then we realised he was right in the middle of the audience, where he stayed for the majority of the opening song. He then joined his fellow band mates on stage for the rest of their performance. With an eight song setlist comprising of their most well known songs but they did have room in the set to play one from the new album ‘Die for a Lie’ , which seemed to go down very well with the audience and it wasn’t too long before they/we were singing along to it. Of course they finished with ‘Metal on Metal’ with the whole crowd joining in with the chorus…
UDO Dirkschneider: This was billed as a ‘Farewell to Accept’ tour, with UDO (vocals) saying that it was a tribute to the Accept songs, (where UDO was the lead singer from 1976–1987, 1992–1997 and 2005) and it would be the last time that he would be singing them to allow him to move on and concentrate on his solo band’s songs. So was this a tribute band show or a band playing tribute to Accept…not too sure on that one, but either way for a Tuesday night there was a very good turnout for the event…but not quite a sold out show..
Blimey, from the off it was a non-stop performance with very little, if any, gaps between songs. With a great performance from Andrey Smirnov (guitar) and Kasperi Heikkinen (guitar) who just spar so well together, Fitty Wienhold (bass) who just seems to love every moment on stage and with Sven Dirkschneider (drums), UDO’s son, at the back the whole band just made the over two hour, twenty two song set, fly past in no time. I couldn’t believe just how quickly this evening went, which just shows how enjoyable I found the night.
They played all the best Accept hits and had me, and most of the rest of the audience, singing along to every song. After the eighteenth song ‘Loser and Winners’ the band left the stage , but soon returned for the customary encore, which this time around consisted of five songs with UDO keeping asking ‘want more?’ after each song…of course we said yes each time… They finished the evening’s performance with ‘Balls to the Wall’ from the 1983 album and ‘Burning’ from the 1981 ‘Breaker’ album.
Is this really the last time UDO will perform any Accept songs?…I don’t know but from the way the audience appreciated all of the songs tonight I think that it would be a shame if he didn’t sneak just one or two into his new band’s setlist in the future…( would be rude not too ..Wouldn’t it??).
Setlist:
1: Starlight
2: Living For Tonite
3: Flash Rockin’ Man
4: London Leatherboys
5: Midnight Mover
6: Breaker
7: Head Over Heels
8: Neon Nights
9: Princess of the Dawn
10: Winterdreams
11: Restless & Wild /Son of a Bitch
12: Up to the Limit
13: Wrong is Right
14: Midnight Highway
15: Screaming for a Love-Bite
16: Monster Man
17: TV War
18: Losers and Winners
Encore:
19: Metal Heart
20: I’m a Rebel
21: Fast as a Shark
22: Balls to the wall
22: Burning
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