Ricky Warwick and the Fighting Hearts – Islington 2022

First support tonight are The Howling Tides. Singer Rob Baynes is sporting a new shorter haircut giving him a younger more alternative look and, maybe its my imagination but there seems to be more stomping on the spot that the last time I saw them and less cock rock posturing. The music, however, is the same, catchy classic rock with big riffs.

The Virgin Mary’s are a testament for the brute force approach to making music. They make a lot of noise for one man shouting with one guitar and another standing up to hit the drums so hard his fingers are a mass of tape. From start to finish it’s definitely a post Nirvana affair, intense and home grown. Their new material including their new single goes down well, but classic ‘Bang, Bang, Bang’ unsurprisingly gets the best reaction. As drummer Danny Dolan rings his bell at the end it’s definitely in celebration of having gone down well, as singer Ally Dickaty says after two years at home they are very glad to be back.

Ricky Warwick has a rich menu of material to offer bearing in mind his background with The Almighty, Thin Lizzy and Black Star Riders and they are definitely represented, although unsurprisingly his solo work forms the majority of the set, given the monicker under which he is billed tonight.

Kicking off with Mink DeVille cover ‘Gunslinger’, The Almighty’s ‘Over The Edge’ is up second. The Almighty was a much loved band and the crowd are clearly glad they are being remembered in the set. It’s five tracks into the set before a Lizzy song ‘Jailbreak’ gets a roar of recognition and it’s the only Lizzy song of the night.

Ricky’s voice is still distinctively his, despite a diagnosis of bronchitis and it being towards the end of the tour. Ben Christo from Sisters of Mercy looks happy to be recruited to fly all the respective flags tonight, smiley, hitting all the Classic Rock poses and providing guitar hero solos he adds a casual charisma to the band. Jack Taylor from Tax The Heat is still in place on drums and shares the same easy going vibe. One gets the impression that their tour bus is a pretty chilled place. Ricky tells a few stories about the history of songs as he goes along and is characteristically honest when he tells a story about stagefright when his third ever solo gig was support to an audience of 16K Def Leppard fans and how Vivian Campbell came on stage to make sure the fans paid attention. No doubt he appreciates a nice friendly calm environment on tour for inner personal peace. He’s never one to believe his own hype, always remembering who he is and where he’s from. He does not miss the chance to tell the crowd that we’re all in the Pandemic together and their support is always appreciated and never taken for granted.

In case you thought they were going soft with the more folk like ‘When Patsy Cline was Crazy’ they follow up with punky hard and fast ‘Never Corner a Rat’ and an anecdote about the Almighty doing drugs and one of the resultant jams giving birth to ‘Wrench’ as an intro to that song.

There’s a bit of an Irish flavour reintroduced with a central core of solo songs including ‘Celebrating Sinking’ written with one of Therapy. The set’s also a reminder that as a solo artist Ricky has put out a lot of memorable and catchy songs like ‘Fighting Heart’ and ‘You’re My Rock N Roll’ which are straight down the line rock, direct continuity from The Almighty period.

In the home stretch the set is finished by the Black Star Riders Song ‘Finest Hour’, Motorhead cover ‘Iron Fist’ and two Almighty songs as the sandwich around those ‘All Sussed Out’ and ‘Free and Easy’ to finish.

It’s clear that while Ricky wants to honour and respect his heritage his solo gigs are not a free ride on that heritage and the focus is deservedly on the body of his solo work. Tonight is a tasty salad with diverse fare on offer while honestly representing his career and the importance of his solo work to him which he has always fostered no matter which band he was in. Once a troubadour, always a troubadour. Ricky cannot choose but to perform these songs and in doing so he is being true to his self and it is clearly a natural place for him to be. Singing with Thin Lizzy is nice, but singing his own songs to a crowd that has chosen to see him is self actualisation at its best.

Dawn Osborne