It’s Saturday night in London Town and the band The Cult have slipped in an intimate gig at the Subterania prior to their Hammersmith show on their 30th anniversary tour of the ‘Sonic Temple’ album.

The soon sweaty and 600 strong-crowd were jumping at the front on the Cult’s arrival to stage, taking us back in time. A few numbers outside the ‘Sonic Temple’ list were introduced as a break from their current routine, while the main songs such as ‘Fire Woman’, ’Edie’ and ‘New York City’ were included. A short speech by Ian Astbury at reaching his lowest ebb after being hospitalised in New York back in 2009, gave credit to his long-time music partner Billy Duffy as one of those who pulled him through and to the crowd he never expected to be playing to at this time, on a good as sold out UK tour.

No doubting the outfit now working with Astbury and Duffy, with Aussie Grant Fitzpatrick on bass, Americans John Tempesta on drums and Damon Fox on keyboards providing a solid platform for The Cult’s live operation.

No personnal fave in the form of ‘Little Devil’ for moi, but they did close with ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ when some of the 40-50 year old audience were crowd surfing. Shall we say “Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll” and beer!

Geoff C.