2012 saw the beginning of popular rock band ‘Black Star Riders’, whom feature former members of Irish rock band ‘Thin Lizzy’. After releasing their debut album as a group earlier this year and performing on the main stage of the largest rock festival, Download, the only question on everyone’s mind was how they would compare performing in a much smaller venue.
The first support of the night came from the recently signed ‘Western Sand’. The four-piece band brought exceptional talent to the stage and built a great connection with the audience throughout the performance. Their upbeat songs and the enjoyment they portrayed whilst being on stage was injected throughout the venue, leaving the crowd nodding their heads and revelling in the set. It was nice to see a band so grateful to be touring alongside such a popular band and being given the opportunity to share with people their passion for music.
As a much larger crowd gathered in the centre of the LCR, the second support act, ‘The Dead Daisies’, swiftly arrived on stage. The band, consisting of members who have worked with the likes of ‘Whitesnake’, ‘The Rolling Stones’ and ‘Guns N’ Roses’, clearly demonstrated their experience of performing as they played a set of songs off their self-titled album. Although they lacked the crowd connection that ‘Western Sand’ carried, you could see from the reaction of the crowd that they were a popular support.
The atmosphere saw an immediate change as the lights dimmed, anticipating the arrival of ‘Black Star Riders’, the band everybody was there to see. The cheers and screams filled the whole of the LCR upon the entrance of the band on stage. They brought their unique style to the stage in their performance, giving a sense to the crowd that it was somewhat larger than it actually was. Glancing around the room you could see the crowd were undoubtedly enjoying their performance, dancing and singing along to the hits. They had a real stage presence, owning the whole stage, along with a great connection with the audience. The band themselves were revelling in the performance just as much as the crowd were. One of the highlights of their set was when they performed ‘Bad Reputation’. Along with the strobe lights, their performance really had the crowd going wild. Towards the end of their set the band performed one of ‘Thin Lizzy’s most popular songs, ‘Boys Are Back In Town‘, which also went down extremely well with the crowd. The band finished their set with several encore songs whilst the crowd sang and cheered the loudest they had all evening.
The band definitely made a good impression on the crowd and left them wanting more.
Words – Mollie Maddox
Photography – Kayleigh Warren
