DORO, NO SLEEP FOR LUCY London:Camden Underworld – 13 March 2019

Rumours about the supposed “unsuitability” of the support band No Sleep For Lucy for a Doro show had already reached the London crowd before they hit the stage. Looking a bit like the boy band Bros they sound a little bit Eclipse or Vega at best and obviously have ambitions for success like U2 as the cover of  ‘Pride (In the Name of Love)’ showed, but this is a hard bitten metal crowd and they look a little disinterested in this young pop rock outfit sporting a boy band look which frankly did not have sufficient grit or balls to hold a candle to the main act. The lacklustre applause was not a reflection on their performance per se, but really on the fact that they were aimed at the completely wrong audience.

Everyone was here to see Doro and in this packed sold out show it was very hard to take photos or even to see if you were not lucky enough to be in the front rows or on the balcony/backstage. She came on to a roar with ‘Raise Your Fist In The Air’ a suitable rabble rouser and just what the crowd had been waiting for. At least half of the songs of the night were Warlock songs as befits someone who definitely remembers where she comes from and an early launch into ‘I Rule the Ruins’ set the tone. There’s a definitely emphasis on kick ass songs with tempo as ‘Bastardos’ one of the hardest songs on the new record ‘Forever Warriors, Forever United’ is the next up, closely followed by ‘Burning The Witches’, ‘Fight For Rock’, ‘Blood, Sweat and Rock n Roll’ and ‘Soldier of Metal’. This was topped off by an appearance from a large old man in a hooded robe with a stick during ‘Night of The Warlock’ in a slightly ‘Eddie’ moment.

Doro is famous for the attention and time she devotes to fans, but this tour the rumour was that she was sick and was saving her voice and so had not been so visible.  Regardless the devotion from the crowd was palpable. One fan who goes to all her shows handed her a soft toy ‘Henry’ (the red and black vacuum cleaner cartoon character) as he works in the factory and as she graciously accepted this we managed to catch the moment on film, see accompanying pic right. It was not at all obvious that she was sick (apart from her use of tissues for her nose) and whatever she was doing to save her voice appears to have been working, so her voice sounded strong and sweet even when the tempo changed and her voice became more exposed in ‘Fur Immer’ as Nick Douglas took to the keyboards to accompany her.

It was not long before we hurtled fast and furious to the end with ‘Out of Control’ and ‘Metal Racer’ stopping only for Johnny Dee’s thanks to the crowd for their support in an interlude that was as much a crowd pumper as a drum solo before the metal anthem from the new album ‘All For Metal’ and Hellbound. The encore was the mandatory iconic Warlock song ‘All We Are’ before crowd requests ‘Wacken Hymne (We Are the Metalheads)’ the Skyline cover and ‘East Meets West’.

Doro has such a big back catalogue that not everybody’s favourites can be played in one show and I would love to have heard ‘Celebrate’, but in my judgement she chose exactly the kind of old Skool metal numbers and iconic anthems that her tribal fans demand and revere. She was sure to give them the attention she is famous for and to tell the crowd that she loved them and they were her life. No doubt Doro could have played a larger venue tonight but she chose the Underworld to get that heaving sweaty packed crowd feel so suited to an aggressive metal show. Doro clearly loves metal as much as her fans and makes them feel welcome and loved in a world that does not typically accept them. No wonder they can’t get enough.

Dawn Osborne