Like countless teen wannabes before them, guitarist Mickey Thin and his mate Daisy Lai formed a band at youth club. They were even lucky enough to get the chance to record an EP. Once inside the studio, Mickey and Daisy ,the band’s drummer, soon dumped their mates to join forces with the producer’s own band instead. Alternative metal band, Never A Hero was born.
Six years on and tonight this five-piece from Suffolk are at The Black Heart in Camden Town on the final night of their current tour. It’s a Sunday night. The venue is hardly packed and, thankfully, numbers are boosted by members of the other two bands on the tour sticking around for the final set. But the energy of the gig is incredible and the enthusiasm of the crowd is so infectious, at times it gets hard to believe they are not actually performing to a much larger audience in a much bigger venue.
The band (Phrixus – Lead Vocals, Mickey – Vocals/Guitars, Kaji – Lead Guitar, KB – Vocals/Bass and Daisy – Drums/Samples) bring together a range of musical influences. “Throw keyboards, heavy metal and pop into a tumble drier and this is what comes out,” claimed Thin recently. You get plenty of good, hard, aggressive, grungy guitar riffing, of course, but that’s combined with melodic vocals, catchy harmonised choruses and some real nice guitar solos. Now on to their second (just released) album they have a good selection of strong material available, like the excellent Nightboy which had everyone bouncing around and joining in the chorus.
Kiss’s Gene Simmons recently pronounced that rock as an art form is dying. What he probably meant is that rock may not be churning out a succession of future multi-billionaires anymore. But who really cares about that? Bands like Never A Hero prove that rock is far from dead.
Darren's music blog 