Tweet My stepson “won” 2 tickets to the annual awards ceremony held by Metal Hammer magazine. I say “won”, but as with recordings of TV shows, they always issue more tickets than capacity to make sure they get the required numbers in, so that meant we’d have to get there early-ish and queue to make sure of entry. I thought “why not”, there’s some good bands on, I might even get to meet a metal celebrity, get a snap with them or something, Plus I’d never been to anything like it before. This meant that we returned from Download and were home for just about an hour before we boarded the train south. Standing in the queue for about an hour and a half, from our position in the queue, we had no worries about gaining entry. Whilst waiting, we got chatting to a couple of plus-30 year old guys behind us, fair enough. What was a bit disturbing though was their rather unhealthy obsession with Baby Metal!! Once in the Indigo, it was the usual London prices, always a bit of a shock when a pint is at least a pound more than you’re used to! And before any awards are given out, we get the bands. Having missed them at Download, where by all accounts they were the band of the weekend, I was looking forward to seeing Suicidal Tendencies. It was more than 25 years ago since I saw them in a hot and sweaty Hammersmith Clarendon and it was brilliant. Tonight may well have been a very truncated set, as they only get 15 minutes but wow, what a 15 minutes! ‘You Can’t Bring Me Down’ comes out with a bang, the whole band moving around like Tasmanian devils but especially singer Mike Muir! ‘Pledge Your Allegiance’, Mike is so happy to be here, spreading the Suicidal message. A killer ‘Possessed To Skate’ and it’s over. No disrespect to the other bands on tonight but you’re going to have be something special to beat this! When I saw the name We Are Harlot, I immediately thought they’d be some sort of emo metalcore band. Oh how wrong I was! Instead we get another of those young buck bands playing in the classic rock playground. A bit more hard rock than the likes of Rival Sons, Vintage Trouble etc., they are actually pretty good, the singer is in the requisite shades and the rest of the band are rockin’ out like good ‘uns. A very pleasant surprise. With regards to the actual ceremony, the “celebrities” appeared to be upstairs on the balcony and not mixing with us mere mortals, unless host Scott Ian or one of the invited guests onstage were announcing a winner. We had the likes of Gene Simmons, Sir Brian May, Dave Mustaine and many others. But other than up on stage, I saw neither sight nor sound of them anywhere else. I don’t know why I was surprised really. Some of the awards went down better than others but in general they seemed to drag out a bit. Back to the bands…… There has been a lot said about Baby Metal. There are those who think they’re great, especially the two weirdos we met in the queue, who are now right at the front of the stage! And there are those who just don’t get it. Guess which camp I fall into! And to make things even worse, their backing band for the night would be Dragonforce, oh joy! One occasion where the short set really is a blessing! I missed At The Gates at Download due to queueing for over 2 ½ hours to get our wrist bands, I was not a happy bunny! So I was more than pleased they were playing here. Blasting through ‘At War With Reality’, the absolute thrashing classics of ‘Slaughter Of The Soul’ and ‘Blinded By Fear’, they show Baby Metal up to be the big sham they are. To be fair, singer Tomas Lindberg’s voice isn’t quite at its best but that doesn’t stop them being anything other than brilliant. Last band of the night are Killing Joke, a fitting end to the night. With the mad scientist like Jaz Coleman leading them through the opener ‘The Wait’, the crowd are treated to one of the best live bands around. ‘Autonomous Zone’ is followed by the older punk days classics of ‘Wardance’ and ‘Pssyche’, amazingly 2 songs that are 33 years old but hardly sound like. The more dance influenced ‘Pandemonium’ closes the set and highlight how vital this band still are. Mixing punk rock and dance with politically charged and intelligent lyrics, Killing Joke are probably more relevant than ever in 2015. So now I can say “I’ve been to Golden Gods awards”, I won’t be going again, the harsh reality is that even with some great bands, it isn’t all that rewarding an experience. You live and learn!