Artist:  McQueen

Venue: Carling Academy, Newcastle 

Date:  25 January 2007  

After catching McQueen on two of their support slots last year, firstly supporting Blackie Lawless and Co with WASP and secondly later in the year with The Almighty, I was really glad to hear them announce at the Almighty show that the girls would returning soon to headline their own tour.  Now a a mere four weeks after the Almighty show the girls have indeed returned in support of their new album 'Break The Silence', which was released earlier this very week and fell mid way through the tour.

After the formality of the two support acts, which I have to say were not my cup of tea.  They came, they made some noise, they left me feeling abused and defiled.  Now it was time for what 99% of the crowd had come to see, Brighton’s own McQueen, who got things off to a flying start after the intro from The Great Escape with ‘Not For Sale’.  A song that hit the mark straight away with Leah Dours in fine voice and Cat just ripping up a storm on guitar. 

The full on approach continued with the rip snorting ‘Cut Me Some Slack’, with Cat showing she can give any male guitarist a run for his money.  Once again she made the stage her own with some great sleaze guitar which was backed as usual with the might of Sophie Taylor on bass and Hayley Cramer on drums.  But it's the angst filled vocals of Dours that really shine tonight as she gets a little up close and personal with the now frenzied male portion of the crowd. Dours stalked the crowd like a tiger at times looking for her next victim with those piercing eyes, as the band ripped into the intro for ‘Dirt’, this only seemed to make the front row of the crowd even more excitable.

After a quick thank you to all those in the crowd who had seen the band at both WASP and The Almighty gigs for returning tonight to see the band, it was time for one of my favourite McQueen tracks, the full on ‘The Line Went Dead’, which again showed off the talents of De Casanove on guitar. 

Now it was time for the a little audience participation as Dours got the crowd clapping along before they launched into the title track of the debut album ‘Break The Silence’.  A track that shows the band have a real heavy side to their sound as well as their sleaze/punk side.

The band did give another plug before the next track ‘Don’t Know How To Break It Too You’, this time for Pedigree Music who she dedicated the song to, which in turn got a small cheer from said members who then induced a small mosh pit of their own, such was their excitement at being mentioned by the band.  As this was going on the band went on to show they can really rip things up with a touch of glamour.

Next it was time to really get things going with the anger filled ‘Neurotic’, before finishing off the set with another fiery track this time ‘Bitch’.  Again we saw Leah get a little up close and personal with the crowd as she mixed it up with the first few rows of the audience, very much to their delight. 

The band didn’t quite manage to leave the stage before there were cheers for more, so they turned around and came back on and after a quick on stage band meeting, they ripped into their final number ‘Life Support ICU’, which rounded off another sterling performance by the band who hopefully will be back with us soon.

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