Spear Of Destiny - The Charlotte, Leicester, 25 May 2005

Spear have been performing on and off since the mid to late Eighties, before this they also went under the name of Theatre of Hate (reformed during the early nineties) and their lead singer/guitarist has released an album under his own name, Kirk Brandon.

During their heydays of the late eighties they had a large following and managed a top 40 single (Never take me alive 1989??) after which, in my eyes at least, they seemed to loose some of their rawness and appeal. The subsequent album was lukewarm and the band seemed to fade away for a while. However with the launching of Religion and Volunteers over the last few years and their latest release, Loadestone, they seem to be back to their usual breed of music.

If you do not like guitars and drums then I wouldn’t really recommend reading any further, let alone going to one of their gigs. However if this is your thing then Spear is well worth going to see. Lyrics are pretty good (when you can hear them) but what does stand out above all is the guitar work. Kirk can and does make his guitars work hard and seeing the enthusiasm he has for this is great. The band are very flexible one minute, a quiet ballad like track the next, an out and out pure rock track with wailing guitars and a drum beat.

It was great to see Spear again, last time I saw them was 17 years ago, but it is a shame that more people weren’t there to experience it as I am sure that if more people sampled Spear and their music then the Charlotte would have been full to bursting point.

We would also like to thank The Charlotte for allowing us to review Spear Of Destiny