Louise Makey 

Black Star Riders stormed into the 02 on Sunday night with the last gig of their March tour supporting the brilliant third Album Heavy Fire.

They were supported by the Rock Legends Gun and Swedish band Backyard Babies.

First up were the Awesome Gun on their second Dorset show in a month.

Dante Gizzi as usual was on fine form with great vocals and got the crowd up and moving on tracks including Word Up, the singalong Don’t Say its Over and Better Days. Backyard Babies were up next and had a great crowd reaction.

Frontman Nicke Borg has an incredible voice and the band are loud and full of energy. Their brand of punk rock and roll works really well.

Only a band like the mighty Black Star Riders could follow two bands as good as this and they didn’t disappoint. They grew from the final touring version of the legendary Thin Lizzy in order to release the new material they had written. What an entrance, the sirens and searchlights then they burst on stage with the incredible Heavy Fire.

Ricky Warwick is an outstanding frontman, he not only has a powerful voice, he is captivating and has the presence a lot of frontmen only dream of. He dominates the whole stage and the crowd were lapping it up.

Scott Gorham has found the perfect guitar partner in Damon Johnson, their trade mark guitar harmonies made your hair stand on end and made the sound come alive even more.

Black Star Riders are now three albums into their own material, the last album smashed into the UK album charts at number six and has just received album of the year from Total Rock.

The set was full of incredible songs, from the epic All Hell breaks loose and Hey Judas to Who Rides the Tiger. The new single Testify or Say Goodbye is a track and a half, proper rock at its finest. Kingdom of the Lost, Thinking About You Could Get Me Killed and Soldierstown also saw amazing reactions from the crowd.

As a nod to their heritage they played a rousing version of The Boys are back in Town which could only be described as perfect! Ricky Warwick can get a crowd to do exactly what he wants and it was obvious with the interaction he commanded.

Bound for Glory from their first Album All Hell breaks loose was another outstanding song that had everyone up. By the time they finished the set with the awesome Finest Hour it was unbelievable how quick the hour and a half had flown.

This is a band who have no fillers in the set, just strong material that works.