CRASHDIET, Jettblack, Sleekstain, Hell In The Club @Birmingham Academy 2 25/4/13

The spectre of a tragic death of Crashdiet’s manager Michael Sunden looms large over this gig. He passed away just a few days before, after falling at a Saxon gig at Rock City. Credit to them for carrying on with the tour, no one could have criticised them if they had cancelled.

The other bands on the packed bill are no doubt grateful they adopted such a stoic attitude, not least of which is Italy’s Hell In The Club, who are making their first visit to these parts. Heavily influenced by the nothin’ but a good time attitude of the 80s, their song titles give the game away, amongst others there are “Another Saturday Night” and “Raise Your Drinking Glass” and they sound exactly as you would expect. Never going to change the world, but good fun all the same.

Next up on this veritable United Nations bill are French glam mob Sleekstain. We were familiar with the previous band, but not these boys, slightly harder edged, they almost echo Skid Row, while singer Ryff has a bit of a Dio thing going on. Their song titles too come straight out of glam rock 101, called “Hard Rain” and “Shoot” but like …Club they are derivative and unashamedly so.

The main UK interest on the bill come from Buckinghamshire triers Jettblack. We have a lot of time for them at RTM towers, and have seen them before, both under their current guise and when some of the group were in Skintruck opening for Airbourne at the old Academy3 years ago.

They stride out with the confidence of a band who, in “Raining Rock” has a good album number two out, and play “Two Hot Girls” by way of an opener, they also play the title track of debut effort “Get Your Hands Dirty.”

The power ballad “Prisoner of Love” sees them lose a little momentum, while there is a stab at “Paint It Black” before the epic and slightly silly (in a good way) “Raining Rock” bids us farewell. Job done again.

After what seems an inordinate time Crashdiet eventually begin their set 20 minutes late, but do so with “Change The World” the excellent lead track of new album, “The Savage Playground” which is superb, however, unfortunately it is downhill from there. Some of it is beyond their control – the bass sound is awful for example – but some of it is not. Last song in the set “Liquid Jesus” goes on and on, which in a 45 minute gig from a band of this type is pretty unnecessary. The encore of “Cocaine Cowboys” (which wins the award for song title of the night) is far better and revives the whole sunset strip feel of the evening.

Bands like this could be excused for feeling a little bitter. Twenty years ago they might have been stars, but these days, the best they can perhaps achieve is touring the world on package deals like this, and everyone tonight has a smile on their face – which really is all this music has ever been about.

It was a fitting tribute to Michael Sunden, and you cannot say fairer than that.