Gig Review : The Almighty + Head Inc - Leeds Rio's 26/01/08***** 20 years on, and we're back in the crowd for another 'back from the dead tour'. Look what happened, most of us got short almost sensible haircuts, some of us have no hair, quite a few of us are carrying a few extra pounds, and it's the same for The Almighty, except Ricky Warwick who still looks like a mean fucker. Support act Head Inc., come on stage to a crowd of about two dozen, this doesn't bother frontman Gary Buckley though who proceeds to mug it up, throw shapes and pose like he's in front of an adoring crowd of thousands. It's a good attitude to have, you can easily lose the plot in front of a small audience. Head Inc., work hard though and are warmly received by the few people that have turned up early. I've met Gary before, he used to front a band called Horse London, and way back when I was writing for bits of the metal press, he and his guitarist once threw me out of an interview, literally chucked me out of the door onto the street. No hard feelings though mate, I enjoyed Head Inc's hardworking, no nonsense, proper metal set. They don't come much more proper metal than The Almighty, they've rumbled on for 20 years or so (with a hiatus for five years or so at the end of the last century), and they've produced some fine songs along the way. The Almighty play a tight set, and they work hard, they were onstage for a little under 2 hours and despite a slightly shambolic end to the show it was a really good gig. Warwick and Co crank out the big riffs,'Adiction', 'Over The Edge', 'Wild & Wonderful', 'Crucify', 'Full Force Loving Machine', 'Devil's Toy', I'd almost forgotten just how good this band really are. Warwick dedicates 'Jesus Loves You But I Don't' to George Bush and then has a little rant about the state of modern metal. "You need bands like us and The Wildhearts (too right !), otherwise you'll be stuck listening to all that 'feel my pain' shit," he says. He's right, we need bands that can rock like a bastard and write decent songs. The thing is, we might be a generation older than the current metal sceners, we might be balder and fatter than we were in in our first flush of youth, but we were the generation that grew up with The Almighty and The Wildhearts, we had Iron Maiden and AC/DC in their prime, Metallica and Megadeth when they were setting the world on fire. You can keep your Paramore and your Madina Lake and your Good Charlotte because they wouldn't know real rock if they saw it. God bless The Almighty, for the generation that really rocked.