In the eighties there became a little thing called the "guitar hero", the names of Rhoades, Malmsteen, Vai, Nugent, Mars, Schenker, Halen, Perry, Iommi, Gunns, the list goes on and on ... became household names and inspired many of today’s guitar players to pick up their axe's.  Tonight we see one of those guitar hero’s return to the stage after a much troubled and documented couple of years, the one and only Michael Schenker.

This tour has been listed as many things the bridge building tour, a pub tour, a reconciliation tour, a "I’m sorry" tour to name but a few.  After lasts years summer tour saw Michael fall out of favour with a lot of his fans it wasn't until Adrian Fisher took up the mantle of agent to promote Michael that we'd see Michael return to the UK stages.  The idea was for Michael to play smaller more intimate venues, hence the pub tour reference.

With reports of all going well with the tour so far, we decided to journey down to Sheffield’s Boardwalk to see for ourselves if the rumours about the reformed Schenker were true.

As we entered the venue it was clear that the entire North Yorkshire Schenker fan club had arrived in mass at the venue, as the near capacity crowd of aging rockers, (I can say this safely due to the vast number of old tour t-shirts being worn by the patrons), stood round in anticipation of their hero.

With the absence of any support act for the shows it wasn’t until 9 pm that the lights went out and all eyes were stage left waiting for the German axeman to make his entrance.

It wasn’t long before all doubt about Michaels demeanour was thrown aside as he stood on stage, clean shaven, brushed back hair and donned in black, but judging a book by its cover was never my thing and it wasn't until the first few chords of ‘Assault Attack’ broke the silence, that it was clear to me the man was back.

Joining Michael on stage were Thomas Broman on drums, Kjell Haraldsson on keyboards/rhythm guitar, Thomas Torberg on bass and completing the line-up of friends Leif Sundin on vocals.

Tonight's set focused mainly on the MSG and UFO material from Barden years and the 'Strangers in the Night' album.

I was amazed to be looking at a more relaxed Schenker on stage, he seemed to be relishing being on stage and playing at his best as the band went into ‘Are You Ready To Rock’, another MSG classic before the first of the night from 'Strangers In The Night' ‘Let It Roll’, with Leif doing his best Mogg impression.  Although all eyes were firmly on the German as he spewed out the licks with such ease and even flashing us a smile once and a while.

The surprise of the night for me was the inclusion of 'Angel of Avalon' from the 2006 album 'Tales of Rock n' Roll', but with Sundin at the mike it would have been an insult not to include at least one song from that album.

It was back to the classic material again going back to the infamous 'Strangers In The Night' album for ‘Lights Out’, which got instant approval from the crowd.  Again Schenker was note perfect as he rolled back the years and really seems to have put all his troubles behind him.  He was simply doing what he does best, playing outstanding guitar.

Then it was time for Leif to leave the stage as the set went into overdrive with the excellent instrumental ‘Into The Arena’, this is where Michael really shined for me as he just let that famous black and white Flying V sing.  Sundin only came back on stage briefly during the song for a few band introductions.

However it wasn't long before he was soon back at the mike permanently as the set continued with ‘Too Hot To Handle’.  Even a broken string didn’t put Michael off his stride as he continued to play on regardless, (this wouldn’t have happened last year!), before a quick guitar change for ‘But I Want More’.  Then my favourite all time MSG song ‘On And On’ followed from the sublime 'MSG II' album.  The only thing that left me disappointed about tonight’s version is that Barden wasn’t up there to sing it.  That would have really made my year never mind the night, but you can't have everything.

Again it was back to the 'Strangers In The Night' opus for one of UFO’s finest ‘Only You Can Rock Me’, once again Schenker was truly inspiring as he showed us what he really can do when he puts his whole heart into it.

The song that got me into MSG in the first place ‘Armed And Ready’ was next and with the spotlight firmly on the German. who seemed to be loving every minute and even sang the backing vocals tonight.  Now when was the last time you saw that?

The main part of the set was capped off with another MSG classic ‘Attack Of The Mad Axeman’ which saw Schenker firing on all six again.

It wasn’t long before the band returned for the encore and what show featuring the man wouldn’t be complete without the UFO’s classics ‘Doctor Doctor’, which needed no introduction and rounding things off with ‘Rock Bottom’.

This wasn’t exactly 'One Night In Budokan' more like 'One Night In Barnsley' but for many this was the man at his best and judging by the banter after the show many will continue on supporting him whatever so JOB DONE!

Lets hope the rest of the tour is on par with tonight's performance and that Michael has put some of his demons to bed.