Venue:
Colchester Castle Park
Date: 21/08/2026
I hadn’t intended to go to this gig, even though the main entrance is less than 5 minutes walk from my house. I wasn’t bothered enough about The Damned or the bunch of old rock stars (plus one actor) who make up the Hollywood Vampires to pay £75 for the privilege. It was a lovely evening though, and that and some cheap tickets floating around on the local Facebook ‘things for sale’ page made me think it was 20 quid for a night out.
I’d never seen The Damned before, and as I understand they’re doing their pension-filling lap of honour shows so I probably never will again. They were decent if workmanlike (“How many people haven’t seen us before and are surprised how good we are?”) Their support slot was a generous hour long, so as well as Eloise, Neat Neat Neat and New Rose we got plenty of others less familiar to me. The sound wasn’t great all night, and David Vanian’s vocals disappeared in the mix, and problem which persisted into the headliner’s set.
As for Hollywood Vampires, they are essentially a bar covers band which includes 3 very famous people and which plays some of their own very famous songs in addition to the covers. Everyone gets their slot, so there is a bass solo and a drum solo, we find out why Joe Perry is known as a guitarist and not a singer, and Alice Cooper is a backing guitarist or harmonica player on several songs. It might be incongruous to see 78 year old Alice Cooper singing I’m 18, or Johnny Depp wheezing his way through Shiny Boots of Leather, or thousands of Essex men and women of my age celebrating School’s Out, but a huge stage set, huge volume a closing run of Highway to Hell, Walk This away and School’s Out is always going to be fun. The theatrics delivered more than the music did, but at an open air gig for ten thousand or so spectators the spectacle may be more important than crystal clear sound anyway.
If there was a consistent theme to the songs it’s was commemoration of the dead. My Dead Drunk Friends seems to be a HV original, People Who Died is a Jim Carroll song (thanks, Setlist FM), and others were dedicated to their deceased writers and performers – Beck’s Bolero for Jeff Beck, Baba O’Reilly for Keith Moon, Heroes to Bowie. You get the idea. School’s Out was the predictable set closer, so before the encore’s climax of a singalong Hi Ho Silver Lining I made my way from my space near the front to a spot next to the exit. Curfew was 10:30 and I was home with my feet up and a glass of wine less than 10 minutes later.
The audience:
The presence of Mr Depp may have accounted for more women than usual, the average age was 50+ and just about everyone was white. Plenty of chatting and phones, but that’s to be expected in an outdoor gathering for a rock show.
It made me think..
I got my 20 quid’s worth.
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