LIVE REVIEW: Girlschool, Raven, Tank - Sydney, June 28th 2019

Girlschool touring Australia after 40 years is certainly an event of note. Never mind all-girl bands, not many bands can match the sheer bloody-minded determination that has seen them from the late 70s until now. The bill also included the New Wave of British Heavy Metal alumni Raven and Tank (replacing Venom Inc.) which promised to be an education if nothing else. I was interested in what sort of crowd this would draw, and was pleasantly surprised. The Manning was commendably full, and the audience skewed younger than I expected. It warmed my heart to see younger girls in the crowd playing air-guitar throughout Girlschool’s set.

Local Stalwarts Temtris kicked off proceedings with a bang, diving into their set with gusto. Genevieve Rodda has great presence and a huge voice, while the bass player Nik Wilks boasted probably the best head of hair on display tonight (He was also spotted having a win on the chip machine by the merch table later in the evening – well done Nik). The newer material, ‘Flames of Defiance’ and set closer ‘Run’ (a gallop through Iron Maiden territory) stood out, indicating things are looking up for these guys.

Tank, the Filth Hounds of Hades, rolled on next and it seemed that their set started in a lower gear, the first couple of tunes sounding a little bit staid, but as the set went on, it became apparent that Tank were playing the long game. New Singer David Readman is an absolute pro at working a crowd and built the set up so that by the time they closed with ‘Fell in love with a Sormtrooper’, the crowd were well and truly on Tank’s side

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Raven. These guys made their name with high energy shows and took to wearing elbow guards, knee pads and hockey masks on stage, so when Mark Gallagher pirouetted, knocking out his guitar plug, things could have gone one of two ways. By the 2nd song ‘Destroy all Monsters’ they had the crowd well and truly won over. The ‘original’ Gallagher Brothers energy and great songs combined with drummer Mike Heller’s double-kick assault was an absolute winner. Raven played the Manning like they were playing a stadium, no pads and helmets anymore for these guys, but they still did plenty of damage.

Temtris - Sydney 2019 | Photo Credit: Adam Sivewright

Tank - Sydney 2019 | Photo Credit: Adam Sivewright

The almost obligatory air raid siren intro brought on metal’s cool aunties, Girlschool. an irritable PA and a lurgy was certainly not going to dim Kim McAuliffe’s bright and bubbly disposition and she went right to work with a smile. By the 2nd song ‘C’mon lets go’ things were rolling along nicely, bouncing from one song after the next with an almost Ramones-esque vigour. ‘Guilty as sin’, ‘Hit and Run’, ‘Take it all away’ and ‘Race with the Devil’ all whizzed by.

We had a heartfelt tribute to Motörhead’s Philthy, Fast Eddie and Lemmy with ‘Take it like a Band’ before later rattling through ‘Bomber’ and finishing with ‘Emergency’. Barely off the stage, they were back on for an encore run through of ‘Tush’ by ZZ-Top with a cameo from Raven’s John Gallagher.

The market for so-called heritage acts is strong in this country, and also gives a good platform for the local bands to build on their reputation, long may it continue.