Britrock Must Be Destroyed, Hammersmith Apollo, London

I was only really fussed about catching The Wildhearts and Reef, therefore I didn’t bother with either Terrorvision or Dodgy, instead and due to the really early start I opted to watch Chelsea v Liverpool, The Mighty Reds lost 1-0 as they were still hung over from making it to the Champions League final.

This was the first time I’d ever seen The Wildhearts from memory, having caught a number of Ginger Wildheart shows in the past I was expecting good things, and to be honest I saw enough to make the entrance fee and travel to Hammersmith worth it.

Next up were Reef, I was looking forward to seeing them again as I’d seen 3 of the StringerBessant gigs a few years back and they were fantastic.

I’d moved to the front row for them and was a little shocked to see 2 additional microphones. These turned out to be for backing singers, who thankfully seem to dance more than they sang, as I thought they were pretty terrible and added nothing to the experience.

Reef started with Higher Vibrations, it didn’t sound good at all. Gary didn’t seem to have his normal vocal range. They then tore into Place Your Hands which was totally unexpected at this time of the evening. Again It was really poor attempt compared to the previous times I’ve seen Reef over the years. Something didn’t seem right. I header further back in the venue in case it was the position I was. Pretty sure it wasn’t as the sound seemed OK, the vocals just didn’t seem right to me.

I stayed for the 3rd song and then decided that if Place Your Hands was that bad it was never going to improve, enough was enough and I left, it was far from a walk out but I wasn’t the only one.