The late seventies/early eighties was quite a good time for music. Believe it or not there was a time when Westlife and Atomic Kitten didn't exist. Life was so much sweeter in those days. Punk/New Wave was at the forefront of music and at the forefront of that the Sex Pistols. One of the Pistols, Glen Matlock, formed ' Dead Men Walking'. Last year he went out with a late seventies/early to mid eighties ' supergroup' to play acoustically the hits of the various band members. It was very much a success, but Glen thought it a little one dimensional, so for this year he beefed it up with a drummer in the shape of Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats and a bone fide Rock guitarist legend in the shape of Billy Duffy from The Cult. Finishing off the line up were ' regulars' Mike Peters from The Alarm and Kirk Brandon from Spear Of Destiny.

After the (not exactly required) introductions they went into a rousing version of "Rock This Town" by the Stray Cats and without a moment to pause for breath straight into The Cults "Wildflower". To be honest with you as I had thought that this was going to be an acoustic evening, I hadn't been expecting quite as much of a jump around as I was actually having - I was thinking that this would be a more refined evening altogether (having said that the writing was on wall when Billy's Gretch White Falcon was spotted on stage as we got into the venue). It was slowed down by Mike and Kirk taking the stage to perform "Never Take Me Alive" - one of the era's best ever songs in my opinion. 68 guns proved a great singalong song - in fact Mike Peters seemed to be very much the ' front man' and he was doing a great job of it. Before the end of the first half we were offered the opportunity to ' kiss a Sex Pistol' during the break, can't say that I saw anyone take up this offer!

The second half started with another Stray Cats song "Rumble In Portsmouth" (Brighton, really!). Going through (I'm not your) "Stepping Stone", "Stray Cat Strut", "Young Men", "Spirits of 76" and others we came to "God Save The Queen" which still sounded fantastic. Funnily enough, Glen's vocals are closer to Bob Dylan's style than that of Sir Johnny of Rotten. By this time the crowd were having a right old knees up. The grand finale was "She Sells Sanctuary" and the encore gave us "Pretty Vacant".

This turned out to be a fantastic evening. A great way to hear some of the best songs ever produced. I recommend to anyone who likes music to check this out next year, if they do it again, needless to say I'll be there. God Save Dead Men Walking.


Ric Mansell


Check Out The Official Website Of The Band DEAD MEN WALKING