‘Rock n fuckin roll’ the banner draped at the back of the stage read. Possibly a little trite but it seemed a fair warning to spending a night with Velvet Revolver on their opening night at Hammersmith Apollo last Thursday.

Velvet Revolver are Scott Weiland, Dave Kushner, Slash, Duff McKagen and Matt Sorum –a line-up that cannot fail to raise an interest. Scott Weiland’s impressive use of megaphone and tight leather trousers and Slash’s energetic fingerwork are still huge crowd pleasers and it has been a long time since I have seen such impeccable guitar duels!

Despite all this the evening did start disappointingly with bad sound and bad songs. Though I got the sense both the band and the crowd needed warming up and with the reappearance of Slash, his infamous top hat and rendition of ‘I Used to Love Her’ the power of rock had returned!

Highlights were the energetic assault of ‘Big Machine’ and ‘Set Me Free’, though Weiland’s introduction to their latest single ‘Fall to Pieces’ as the song he wrote whilst in “fucking jail” failed to hype the song into anything other than soft focus rock tripe. However with an encore that included ‘Its So Easy’ and a brilliant cover of Nirvanas ‘Negative Creep’, all was forgiven.

The Revolver’s debut album has gone platinum and the gig was sold out months ago which some might say is perhaps due to their previous incarnations. However, who cares, lets just face it, its great to see some loud rock in all its campness, some entertaining banter and of course some impressive talent.

Rock n fuckin roll!

words: Suzanne Gailey