Let’s rock like it’s 2004!!! It’s the sort of hook line that a twelve strong writing team would come up with for their latest pet project (who may or may not have been born in 2001) in an attempt to tap into a healthy dose of nostalgia. Of course, for those that genuinely were there 2004 truly did rock, especially for those who managed to get tickets to see The Darkness and Ash on their autumn tour together, two acts seemingly almost perfectly paired with each other to the point where it felt slightly surprising that they hadn’t toured together before.
Looking back now twenty years later, it’s strange to realise that that tour was pretty much the point where both bands had just begun to descend from their commercial peaks. The Darkness were always going to struggle to recreate the magic and impact of debut album Permission to Land, especially amongst the much publicised drugs problems engulfing the band at the time. For Ash the Meltdown era saw the end of their reign as the nation’s best singles bandTM along with the departure of guitarist Charlotte Hatherley. Whilst sales and public acclaim may have declined over the years both acts continued to be successful live acts, so when the bands announced they were joining forces to tour again it felt like a good excuse to pretend to be twenty three again.
Even having the original Saturday date pushed back to a Monday night due to Justin Hawkins’ chest infection didn’t quell the excitement. So when Ash took to the stage shortly after eight opening with a slightly sluggish version of Goldfinger it felt that something had gone slight wrong with the plan (look, no matter how many times they try it as the opening song it never works to set up the tempo for the rest of the set). Instead it was follow up song Angel Interceptor (the least well known of the five singles from 1977, but unequivocally the best) to inject the evening with the impetus that stuck around till the night ended. After which the hits kept coming… Orpheus, Girl from Mars, Burn Baby Burn… and whilst Kung Fu didn’t lead to the sweltering mosh pits it once did it still succeeded in leaving the audience breathless. But by focussing so heavily on their early hits it lead to the slight disappointment of only one song released in the past two decades being performed, despite the band playing in front of the cover art of excellent recent album Race the Night.
But when The Darkness arrived there was no messing about or slow starts. Kicking off with Rock and Roll Party Cowboy (which sounds exactly how you’d imagine a Darkness song called Rock and Roll Party Cowboy would sound) it was then straight into the classics Growing on Me (still the greatest song ever written about pubic lice) and Get Your Hands off my Woman (up there as one of the most gloriously sweartastic songs written). Any fears that this was going to be another nostalgia fest were dispelled as the band then spent the next forty five minutes almost exclusively performing the highlights of new album Dreams on Toast as well as selected tracks from the post-fame albums.
Whilst the newer songs might not have been overly familiar to the casual fans in attendance, the stage craft and ability to connect with an audience kept the whole venue entertained. A sense of fun was always in the air, whether it was coercing the crowd into synchronised walking routines during Walking through Fire, frontman Justin Hawkins being pelted with white roses to celebrate his performance of Weekend in Rome or the constant in jokes and parodies shown on the projection screen behind the band. And that’s before mentioning the repeated tirades aimed at the band’s record label and Mumford and Sons who had caused the band to miss out on achieving their second number one album.
Inevitably the main set finished with a boisterous version of I Believe in a Thing Called Love (complete live for the first time with the synths of the recorded version), with the audience doing their best to recreate the mosh pits seen to the song two decades ago, until knees, ankles and calves started showing their age. By the time the crowd had caught their breath, the final encore of I Hate Myself raised heart rates again to finish the evening in thrilling style.
We’ll never have 2004 back again… which is a shame as it was a great time to be young and enjoying life and music. But the Darkness in particular showed how you can simultaneously connect with your past but also create new memories. And if nothing else, the Manchester Apollo is a far better venue for seeing two of the great bands of their era than the cavernous Glasgow SECC was all those years ago.
Ash Performed:
Goldfinger
Angel Interceptor
Orpheus
Shining Light
Braindead
Kung Fu
Jump in the Line
Girl From Mars
Burn Baby Burn
The Darkness Performed:
Rock and Roll Party Cowboy
Growing on Me
Get Your Hands Off My Woman
Mortal Dread
Motorheart
Barbarian
Walking Through Fire
Love Is Only a Feeling
The Longest Kiss
Heart Explodes
My Only
Japanese Prisoner of Love
Friday Night
I Believe in a Thing Called Love
***
Weekend in Rome
I Hate Myself
Alex Reviews Gigs 
Leave a comment