Live Review: Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons – The Bread Shed, Manchester
24th November 2023
Support: Sweet Electric, The Cars
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Julian Tanner
It’s suddenly taken a turn for the arctic in Manchester this evening, more noticeable as I was in town on Wednesday and it was perfectly pleasant. I’ve had to dig my beanie out for the first time this season and, by the looks of things, it’ll be staying out passed Skynd, The Almighty and even Wolfsbane.
The Bread Shed seems to have become quite a popular venue in the second half of 2023. I’ve reported from here three times since the end of July yet had only been through the doors once before that, back in 2018. It is a cracking little venue though, generally a good view and no issues with the sound system.
Tonight, it the turn of ex-Motörhead man, Phil Campbell to bring his Bastard Sons back out for another study in the art of good old fashioned hard rockin’.
Cologne’s Sweet Electric are on stage early for some AC/DC style tunes and a thoroughly entertaining start to the evening. The Cards, featuring Paul Quinn of Saxon and Harrison Young of Doro and Udo, get down with some Blues-based hard rock, showing an arrow in Paul’s quiver that rarely gets fired. Princess of the Night goes down well and is in keeping with the ethos of the evening.
But it is Mr Campell and his clan that we’re all to see and no one alive today can lay a better claim to being most suited to keeping the Motörhead flame alive. But this isn’t some kind of tribute show, as the Bastard Sons have a new and third full-length album out this year and are keen for us to hear it. Keen for us to pick up a copy on vinyl too as, by singer Joel Peter’s own admission, they’ve got shit-loads of them and they weigh a ton.
Deep Purple’s Highway Star is the perfect intro tape for the band and they segue straight into We’re the Bastards, the quintet’s calling card. Based around Phil’s familiar guitar tone, it gets the show off to a flying start. The first of the new record’s tunes is up next, in the form of Schizophrenia, a pounding, fist-pumping anthem that heats the crowd up early.
The family affair that is the Bastard Sons sees all three of the Campbell progeny taking a position: Dane on drums who blasts and pummels throughout; Todd on guitar and harmonica, who steels the spotlight from his Old Man in a wholly collegiate divvying up of the leads; and Tyla, who must have one of the most difficult jobs in music by having to play those bass lines usually heard from the unmistakeable rig of one Mr Kilmister.
Freak Show sleazes and oozes its way along and challenges you not to bob your head or tap you foot along with the timelessness of the tune. It gets slowed down to the heavy blues of Dark Days’ country drawl and a riff that wouldn’t get tedious if it was still repeating now. Hammer and Dance, from the new album has an urgent backbeat going on and a modern sound. The Age of Absurdity’s High Rule is all about that insatiable groove and Strike of the Match again proves the future classic status of Kings of the Asylum, and a stomping Ringleader sees us home.
Motörhead’s back catalogue is too vast and too important to be laid to rest with Lemmy, but Mr Campbell understands to idiosyncratic nature of those songs and sprinkles them liberally throughout the set. Going to Brazil, from one of my fave ‘head records, 1916, comes early; the anthemic Born to Raise Hell has Joel pitting us against them in a split-down-the-middle sing-off and Killed by Death is an encore. Ace of Spades comes and goes without any fanfare, though it is received like the jewel in rock’s crown that it is.
With plenty of original material from which to choose, it’s interest that the band play two Motörhead covers of other artists’ work. Namely, the Pistol’s God Save the Queen, as heard on the 2000 release We Are Motörhead, and Bowie’s Heroes from the posthumous Under Cöver album and was one of the last songs Lemmy recorded.
To remind us all that this is a Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons’ show, they finish with the final newbie of the night, Maniac, a Punk-infused, Ramones-adjacent banger that sends us all out into the chill Manchester night with warm hearts. As ever, the band tread the line between their own material and acknowledging Phil’s past with perfect precision; they are a consummate hard rock outfit and always a great live experience.
Photo credits: Julian Tanner
