Now onto the fifth frontman in their stop-start, 30-odd-year history, South Wales’ foremost keepers of the hair-metal flame have endured through death, legal disputes, ever-changing line-ups and, most recently, being refused consideration for the UK Eurovision entry.
But on this first new set of tunes since they reunited in 2005 after a decade’s hiatus, they sound rejuvenated, chiefly thanks to the songwriting of guitarist-turned-bassist-turned-vocalist Rob Wylde and founding guitarist Jay Pepper.
You probably know roughly what All The Girls In The World sounds like from the title, but it’s still the kind of crowd-pleasing stomper that could have fronted up any commercial rock album since 1982. The Eurovision-offending Pipped It Popped It is top-notch pop metal with agreeably daft lyrics (’She went to see a doctor, he said that I had rocked her’), Bop Bop You is a single-entendre-filled sleaze-rock stomp and Bloodsuckers turns up the heavy, like Queen gone postal on a ‘roid rage.
On the four-way fold-out CD case they look utterly bonkers, like The Sweet gone sour but immune to ridicule. Here’s to the next three decades, chaps.
