Doro
O2
Academy
Islington
19.05.14
When
you get the Manofmetal on an express train to London It’s got to be for
something special, well it doesn’t get much more special than a one off gig by The
Queen of Heavy Metal Doro Pesch. As part of the ongoing celebrations of
Doro’s thirty year anniversary, it’s 1983 since she burst onto the music scene
with her band Warlock; Doro is playing just one show in England
Having
travelled down to the capital I find myself in the middle of theatre land where
I’m staying for the night and after the disappointment of finding rock pub The
Intrepid Fox boarded up plan B comes into operation, a pub crawl round Soho
before it’s time to journey over to Islington via one of the nine circles of
Hell that is the tube.
So
the scene is set and as the Doro ‘clan’ gather we’re entertained by support act
Nulldb (pronounced Null Dee Bee) a German metal band who sing all their
songs in their native language, not too much of a problem except they manage to
sound like a Teutonic Metallica. The guys in the band were super confident
however and must have thought in their heads they were playing to an audience
of thousands at Wembley stadium instead of a few hundred in the Islington O2
academy. The half hour set they played couldn’t come to an end soon enough for
me, sorry guys, nice try though.
So
after the Metallica flavoured starter let’s move on to the main course and boy
what a main course, like an all you can eat carvery with four meats and real
Yorkshire puds.
Known
as heavy metal’s Queen, Doro Pesch fronts the eponymously named band Doro
whose current line-up is Johnny Dee (Drums) Luca Princiotta (Guitar, Keyboards)
Nick Douglas (Bass) Bas Maas (Guitars) and Harrison Young (Keyboards). They
arrive on stage to a raucous reception from the crowd who’ve crammed into the confines
of the venue to enjoy this special anniversary show.
Doro
herself looks so happy just to be there on stage as she always does, applauding
and thanking her fans at every opportunity throughout the set. A set which
begins with no fewer than four Warlock songs, I Rule the Ruins, Earthshaker
Rock, Burning the Witches and Fight For Rock all classics from the early period
of her career. The next pair of songs are from Doro’s last two studio albums,
Night of the Warlock and the titular Raise Your Fist in the Air, by now both
crowd and band are hot and sweaty as the emotive show gets better and better.
More
than half the material in tonight’s set comes from Doro’s Warlock albums, every
one a gem, songs like Metal Racer, Für Immer, Out of Control, Metal Tango and
the Anthemic chant along song All We
Are. The lyrics are so familiar to the devotees in the house, there’s singing
along aplenty coupled with much chanting and raised ‘horns’ these antics are instigated
and encouraged by Doro herself. Also there’s always room in her shows to pay
homage to her hero’s and influences so Judas Priest’s Breaking the Law and
Dio’s Egypt (The Chains Are On) were enthusiastically received by the knowledgeable
audience, Warlock toured with both Priest and Dio in the past and Doro wrote
the song Hero as a dedication to the late great Ronnie James Dio.
After
what seemed like an infinite drum solo from the spirited Johnny Dee we are
acquainted with the band members by The Queen of Heavy Metal herself while
bassist Nick Douglas does the honours for Doro, with his American drawl and
delivery sounding like he was introducing the heavyweight champion of the
world.
Then
Doro mentions her meeting with fellow metal Queen Jody Turner (I honestly
thought she was gonna walk on stage) Jody is the front woman of Rock Goddess
who have recently re-formed after many years and are currently working on a
brand new album (plug over) Doro seemed hopeful of a collaboration of sorts
‘maybe we can do something together, I always like to do collaborations’ was I
think the quote.
The
show went on and on, twenty two songs in total, nearing and passing the curfew
time Doro just didn’t want to leave the stage asking the crowd to suggest songs
for them to play. Love Me in Black and Unholy Love seemed to bring the curtain
down on a fantastical show however one more request was forthcoming, Evil a rare
Warlock song eventually brought to an end a superb performance by a brilliant
heavy metal band. All six members take a protracted ovation from some of the
most loyal fans in the world, in fact Doro herself seems to feed off the
adulation of her fans like a benign succubus, she is only a year younger than
me and at fifty she still looks like she’s in her early thirties I think that
portrait in her attic was painted by Dorian Gray.
As
we near the halfway mark of 2014 tonight’s show has been a major highlight of
the year so far for me and with the promises of a return to these shores in
December as Saxon’s special guests (for the London show at least) it’s
beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
For
more info on Doro visit the official website:
Doro
on facebook:
Doro
on youTube:
GD
Manofmetal.
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