If you’re not familiar with The Westworld Weekend, it’s an annual celebration of the music of Kirk Brandon, founder of The Pack, Theatre of Hate, and Spear of Destiny. The weekend consists of 3 from the “ Gov’nor” with on Friday, TOH, and on Saturday afternoon a solo acoustic set, and in the evening with SOD.
But Westworld is so much more! Fans(who were strangers at first) from all over the country come together and meet up with long-distance friends and have a blast. Steve Grantley’s (former drummer of Stiff Little Fingers) RT-Zed kicked things off on Friday night with a powerhouse of riffs from Grantley’s guitar(yes, guitar) and immaculate banter, drew the crowd in, and if that was the type of stuff the fans wanted to start with, then they got it!
Next up we had the mighty Ruts DC an incarnation of The Ruts. The 3 remaining members added DC(DA Capo, a musical term meaning back to the start) came on to the stage with a swagger, and presented the crowd with a fantastic array of tunes, including Staring at the Rude Boys”, “Caught in a Rut”, “Something that I said” and the ageless classic “Babylons Burning”
The driving bass of Segs Jennings. along with the chugging guitar of Leigh Heggarty and the pounding drums of David Ruffy makes this 3 piece outfit one of the tightest I've ever heard.
Then bringing the night to a tremendous climax we had the beast that was Theatre of Hate.
Opening with “Black Irony” “63” and “Solace”. The title track of the latest album “ A Thing of Beauty” soon after came to the classics “Original Sin”, “Eastworld”, and “Conquistador”. “Rebel Without A Brain” followed with the crowd lapping up their favorites all through to the last encore “Do You Believe In The Westworld” 1st night… Yes!
Saturday with the early start and sore heads Kirk Brandon’s amazing acoustic set eased and soothed the “hungover” fans much to their delight. Kirk has a way of bringing haunting tunes and witty banter like no one else. Oh and there’s a Quiz, a raffle, and an auction all going to Kirk's favorite charities.
Saturday night and Descartes Measures are needed (see what I did there?)… these experienced players knew how to get the night started! Hard Riffs, Hard Sounds, they packed a punch!
EMF swaggered on to the stage to the most surprised crowd, as to how we’re going to embrace this funky stuff, they needn’t have worried. EMF was brilliant, or “Unbelievable” if you prefer.
Spear of Destiny did what Spear does best, crowd-pleasers galore, even tracks from a new album that is being recorded as we speak… ending the show with “World Service”,
“Liberator “ and “Mickey”
All in all, it was an epic weekend. Full on, in your face and the fans left wanting more.
I heard the aftershow party went on till 6 am both days… I couldn’t cope… night Westworld till next year.
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