A Double Header of Immense Proportions, Classic/Glam Rock is Here to Stay

★★★★★ (5/5)

**BARNS COURTNEY & THE STRUTS PERFORMING AT NEWCASTLE'S NX**
**PHOTOCREDIT: JOHN HAYHURST**

My first time at The NX in Newcastle, formerly known as the O2 Academy, it has had a small refurb taking out the smaller room at the top and making the whole place feel much more open. Hosting club nights on a Friday means that any gigs are an early start, consequently I miss James Bruner who went on at the frankly ridiculous time of 6:15pm.

With both Barns Courtney and The Struts taking it in turns each night as to who goes on last, we get the better version I feel with Barns up first. A tour manager places half a bottle of red wine next to the mic stand and ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra is blasting out the speakers. Barns wastes no time with the energy, pumping the crowd up, he’s fired up and admits “drinking half a bottle of wine then doing cardio was not the best idea, I nearly threw up there”.

His side kick guitarist Andrew Martin pulling every guitar god pose he can muster in the hour long set. It’s a crying shame that there weren’t more in here to see his set, ‘99’ was impeccable with its classic strut and Barns manages to break 2 mic stands in the process. Jumping into the crowd more than once and crowd surfing back whilst never missing a lyric, it’s an art form that takes 20 years to perfect and he never lets up. Getting everyone to crouch down and then he walks on their backs to a point in the middle, holding the mic lead in his teeth, drops down just as the chorus kicks in with everyone jumping up around him.

There is no let up in the energy on that stage, at one point he was using a band container unit on castors as a skateboard, he slides in front of Andrew Martin who just casually looks up and grins.

Follow that we all thought! The Struts need to bring their A Game in the Toon tonight. Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ is their walk on music, the heavy purple and pink lighting and dry ice collide into a fog not seen near the Tyne since Lindisfarne in the 70’s. We didn’t see a drummer all night.

Each band member walks on to huge applause, enigmatic frontman Luke Spiller is of course last, soaking up the adulation and they launch into ‘Primadonna Like Me’. A perfect opener to showcase every move you are likely to see from Spiller, who has Freddie Mercury vocals and campness to match with a bit of Larry Grayson thrown in for good measure.

Wearing a purple jumpsuit with arm tassles he will cup his ear for applause, push the mic out to the crowd for applause or just stand there half way through a song for even more applause. This is years in the making but he has it down to a tee. I first saw him play on a tiny stage 11 years ago at a festival, they played it like they were headlining Wembley, declaring the next song as your Summer anthem of next year. It is a little cringey for us old timers who has seen it all done before in the 80’s, but the kids here lap it up like it’s a new thing, a bonafide rock star with all the moves and the vocals to match.

Newish song ‘Fallin With Me’ tells tales of the sunset strip in LA “Meet Me at the Rainbow” etc. That’s one reason why British audiences are not as warm to them as the USA crowds, they started in Derby but very quickly adapted to the American market and now live out there only coming back to the UK occasionally, which means they are still largely a niche band playing the Uni circuit in the UK to a select audience. However, those that know a good band when they see them are transfixed with the antics of Luke Spiller and the guitars of Adam Slack, bassist Jed Elliott keeping his cool throughout and as for drummer Gethin Davis, well we assume he was there, he definitely did a short drum solo so he must have been lost in the fog.

Songs come and go tonight, all feel like they should be played on a big stage and then ‘Could Have Been Me’ is the hit that would have put them up in the stratosphere. If that track had gone as global as The Darkness’s ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ then they would be playing arenas by now. There’s no accounting for taste but both of those bands are on a par in my view, they are brilliant entertainers with some of the best classic/glam rock bangers on offer and don’t take themselves too seriously. It’s just one got a break and the others didn’t. Hopefully this double headline ‘Grand Union’ tour will create new fans for both The Struts and Barns Courtney.

The tour heads into Europe next week through to 21st October. This was a classic/glam rock masterclass by two artists that deserve bigger and better audiences, the genre is still very much alive in their hands.