I guess the danger signs are already there when you discover a band's contact address is ironmullet2000@yahoo.com , but after struggling to get used to the NWOBHM moves proferred by Medicine Hat of late, to come across another band so hopelessly steeped in the denim'n'leather sounds of 'classic' heavy rock so soon after seems like carelessness. Actually, the obvious place to lay the blame seems The Darkness's door. Oi, Hawkins: I'd like a steel toe-capped word or three with you. Outside now!!
HEADRUSH, the band I'm skirting round discussing, hail from 'the Potteries', which is basically Stoke-on-trent to the rest of us and, while they couldn't possibly hope to make the kind of apocalyptic racket the city's finest sons Discharge once patented, they do make a satisfying (very) old skool noise in the kind of way that would like to have pulled Girlschool in 1982.
"Perfect Drug" leads us off with a spate of classic G'n'R/ Hanoi Rocks riffage and singer Andy Law immediately informing us: "Back again, rock'n'roll/ The love will never fade". Well, yeah, absolutely lads, I doubt I'd have spotted that if you hadn't pointed it out. Actually, it's alright really, even though Law's OTT vox sound like someone's plugged his dick into the mains and the guitar solo's pure Brian Robertson uber-widdle.
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Second tune "Saviour" is the inevitable, lighter-wielding power ballad, but the band carry the dream majestically above their be-mulleted barnets and when not straining at the leash, Law proves he has a decent enough voice. Not that it gets much of a look in on the closing "Just Bring It On", which re-instates the stalking, mean riffola (can I still use that term?) and finds Andy warning of "taking a beating tonight". Phewee! Well hard or wot?
It's difficult to resist taking the easy option and simply ripping the piss out of such a bunch of dinosaurs, but Headrush play this stuff with tangible love and affection and have sold out midland clubs without any kind of record company push. In themselves, not achievements to scoff at. Whether they stand a chance in the wider world probably depends what the public makes of spandex kings The Darkness's second album, but there's always those who can nip through in the slipstream. Who knows? Headrush could be one such band.
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