Hollywood Vampires, The Darkness, The Damned

Here we are at Glasgow's very own Spaceship Earth/ The Hydro to witness what is bound to be a special evening of excessive rock n roll, with the Hollywood Vampires playing only a few shows in the UK it seemed only fitting that they stop by at Scotland's biggest shed to play a few tunes.

Starting the evening off nicely we have The Damned. Never being blessed or lucky enough to witness this legendary punk band back in the day I was more than eager and excited to see them on this huge stage...they did not disappoint.

It's easy to see why they have stood the test of time whilst others have fallen by the wayside over the years, 42 years strong - that's worth celebrating.

Captain Sensible joked there will be no "Happy Talk" tonight...no sign of a parrot either, that was reserved for someone much later!

Launching into their first song of the evening ‘Street of Dreams’ Goth God Dave Vanian's voice on top form as they raced through ‘Neat,Neat,Neat’ and ‘Love Song’ before playing newie ‘Standing on the edge of Tomorrow’from the

album "Evil Spirits", not forgetting their rich past they play crowd favourites ‘Eloise’ and ‘New Rose’ before disappearing into the night.

The punk veterans put on a great show and must have loved playing to such a large and enthusiastic crowd.

The Darkness are up next, you wouldn't have put money on seeing Lowestoft's finest back treading the arena boards a few years ago but here they are and they aren't about to allow the crowd the time to stare at feet either.

The sound mix is perfect as Justin takes the crowd by the scruff of the neck, he's an entertainer with bags full of energy and enthusiasm and the crowd respond as you'd expect, he even tells the crowd Mr Depp had never heard of The Darkness

but had admired his hair.

Opening with ‘Solid Gold’ from the album "Pinewood Studio" and then straight into ‘Growing on Me’, more favourites follow...’Love is Only a Feeling’ ‘One Way Ticket’ ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman’ and finishing up with the inevitable

‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’

It's a dynamic performance and most definately FUN.

So, to the reason the majority of this crowd is here tonight...

As the Hollywood Vampires hit the stage I'm a little unsure what to expect, parody? pantomime? cash in? with celebrity meets rockstar it could go either way but there really were no need for such reservations as Depp, Cooper and Perry backed by a

more than credible group of musicians gave us a night of pure celebration of rock n roll.

The Glasgow crowd eager from the off, cheering loudy with arms and horns raised high.

Opening with ‘I Want My Now’ followed by ‘Raise The Dead’

Next they play ‘My Dead Drunk Friends’ and the words "We drink and we fight and we puke and we puke and then we die" flash up on the background screen followed by many black and white pictures of rock legends, the whole night feels like a home to the excesses of the industry

and the crowd respond accordingly.

The Doors are represented with two numbers ‘Five to One’ and ‘Break on Through’ quickly followed by AC/DC live favourite ‘The Jack’ gets the whole room singing along, as does Motorhead classic ‘Ace Of Spades’ Depp looking every bit the rocker strutting the stage and throwing all the right shapes, he appears to be enjoying every second.

Depp takes the lead vocal on an emotional tribute to Bowie with ‘Heroes’ which went down very well with the crowd, again with images across the large backdrop to accompany the poignant nod to the British legend.

All to soon we’re in finale territory and it's a bit obvious what were going to get, Alice with cane in hand conducts the masses in a singalong to ‘Schools Out’, he might be a few weeks premature of the real summer break but it feels like New Years Eve in here and nobody is in the mood for it to end.

So what appeared as a bit of a project at first really did have the grit to succeed in the live arena, the blood suckers from Hollywood really did rule and brought a little LA glamour to a Tuesday night in Glasgow.