Having sold out the much smaller Academy 3 venue upstairs, the gig has been upgraded to Academy 2 and instead of attending my third sold-out gig in less than a week and running the risk of severe heat exhaustion, I get some much-appreciated room to move. That being said, the upgraded venue is far from empty and it’s great to see Gotthard playing to bigger audiences over here and hopefully this will encourage other promoters to bring them over more often and for a more extensive UK tour next time. It’s also a fantastic statement to the UK’s mainstream media that even though they continually ignore Gotthard and give them and many other rock bands no help or exposure, the band can draw in a big crowd without their assistance, especially during a recession.

Gotthard take the stage just after 9pm and treat us to a near 2-hour set filled with a mixture of fist-pumping AOR anthems and moving, soulful ballads. The band are often referred to as Switzerland’s answer to Whitesnake and in Steve Lee they have a man who has clearly studied David Coverdale very closely. Lee matches the Whitesnake frontman in voice and stage moves and like the Redcar native, has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand from start to finish. 

Gotthard have been doing this for a long time (longer than you may think – their first album came out in 1992) and they are a well-travelled, well-oiled machine and the whole performance 

is pulled off with a slickness and professionalism that only bands like this can provide. Anthems like ‘All We Are’ and ‘Lift U Up’ get the place jumping and singing along and set-closer ‘Anytime, Anywhere’ brings the evening to a triumphant close with the crowd begging for more – I’m sure if the band decided to play 3 hours tonight nobody in here would mind – such is the adulation the band have received throughout their entire performance. 

When the band rock, they get heads banging and asses shaking and give the crowd one hell of a good time and when they slow it down, the crowd lights up with the sight of hundreds of lighters and erupts with one huge sing-along after another, particularly when the band decide to take requests from the audience for a spontaneous, acoustic set. This is a particularly nice touch and makes the evening extra special as it’s not something that many bands would choose to do and it shows Gotthard’s commitment to their long-standing fans, many of whom have waited a long time to see the band live as it’s not often they get to make it over to the UK. Hopefully this wrong will be righted by the next time Gotthard 

are due to grace our shores again and for everyone here, that clearly can’t come soon enough.