TERRORVISION, Trucker Diablo @Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton 11/10/12

Trucker Diablo might be from Northern Ireland but their hearts, you suspect, are in America.

Songs like “Voodoo” and set closer “When’s It Gonna Rain” are the sort of rock n roll that would make the Georgia Satellites proud. That they follow their cover of CCR’s “Proud Mary” with a song called “Drink Beer, Destroy” tells you all you need to know about them. This is southern fried music to have fun with – and they do it very well.

When a 20 year old RTM passed its driving test in March 1996 the first place we drove on our own was to the much missed Easy Listening in Shirley, Solihull to buy the “Perseverance” single. We were there a few years later when the bouncing of the crowd broke the floor a JB’s, and at the Civic Hall when Terrorvision sold it out at the height of “Tequila’s” fame and there again they came back a few years ago to put a big smile on the face of British Rock.

The reason for telling you all of this humdrum stuff is that Terrorvision want us to reminisce this evening. This, you see, is their 20^th anniversary. T-shirts are at 1992 prices and the set is going to be a career spanning one.

Interestingly, amongst the old lags with similar memories of the band to us, there are a lot of kids in the audience. People who weren’t born when Bradford’s finest unleashed their debut album.

The Slade Rooms had served up a blistering heat for proceedings and not long into opening number “Discothèque Wreck” sweat is dripping off frontman Tony Wright. Happily, neither the temperature nor the mists of time have done little to dent Wright’s enthusiasm, or indeed his cheeky-chappy persona and with a set list that is a veritable jukebox of Terrorvision’s career, this was an evening that was never going to fail.

“Middleman”, “My House” Alice What’s The Matter?” are all here, so are “Didn’t Bleed Red” and “American TV” and just about every song you could have wanted to hear from the band.

Of course, for a band that was popular at the zeitgeist of Cool Britannia, most of the songs here were written in the 1990s, but there is a smattering from last years excellent comeback record “Super Deluxe,” and indeed “Babylon” and “All The Girls Wanna Dance” wouldn’t have sounded out of place on “How To Make Friends And Influence People.”

After a main set that closes with “Pretend Best Friend” the band are back with “D’Ya Wanna Go Faster,” “Celebrity Hit List” and of course, the aforementioned “Perseverance,” surely the only song in history to have “whales and dolphins, whales and dolphins, yeah” as its key line.

It is easy to be cynical about reunions and anniversary tours, bands touring with just one original member and so forth, but not here. First three quarters of the original line up are on stage and even more than that tonight was a fabulous evening, full of great fun and great songs – and that is what Terrorvision have been doing for 20 years.