After the controversial release of ‘Temper Temper’, Bullet For My Valentine returned to UK stages with the “Rule Britannia” arena tour, with Asking Alexandria and Young Guns as the support acts. While lining up, the security were on high alert and warning everyone to look after each other and keep close attention to our belongings as at a previous gig that week, many people had been pickpocketed.
Young Guns (5) kicked off the night; even with their decent amount of energy, catchy riffs and recent popularity, it took them a while to get the crowd moving. ‘Winter Kiss’ got things going after ‘Towers’ woke people up. It was a solid effort from the band, personally I believe it was a risky choice for an opening band but it paid off well, although by the time of hearing ‘Bones’ the crowd were in desperate need to get heavier.
This was proven when the main support act Asking Alexandria (7) came to the stage with ‘Don’t Prey For Me’ immediately kicking off a decent size mosh-pit. Their new material is so much better live than anticipated and they have dramatically improved their stage presence now they have got their famous personal issues resolved. They also had a decent mix of songs in the set-list including ‘The Final Episode’, ‘To The Stage’ and ‘Breathless’. One thing that the performance could have done without is Asking Alexandria doing their best Slipknot impersonation by getting everyone to get down on the floor to jump up as it was valuable time that could have had another song included (especially in a support slot’s shorter set time). Other than that their set was a complete smash.
Bullet For My Valentine (9) started ‘Raising Hell’ straight away beginning the set in a spectacular fashion with a huge glitter ball and awesome pyrotechnics! ‘Scream Aim Fire’ carried on the high paced adrenaline rush with multiple mosh-pits that sometimes collided making one huge pit. Throughout the set they let the audience rest with a guitar solo and an acoustic rendition of ‘The Last Fight’ before playing the full band version.
Matt Tuck explains how it is difficult to choose songs as they have so many we all want to hear, so they performed a medley giving the audience the chance to hear more Which included ‘Hand Of Blood’, ‘Room 409’, ‘Hearts Burst Into Fire’, ‘Begging For Mercy’ and ‘Riot’. They later did a cover of ‘Ace Of Spades’ by Motörhead in support of British Rock and Metal before closing the set with their anthem ‘Tears Don’t Fall’ exploding a load of confetti into the crowd which helped pull out all the remaining energy from this fantastic night before walking off to ‘We Are The Champions’ by Queen. Even with around seventeen songs performed it still didn’t feel enough and finished so quickly which proves it was a brilliant event.
