Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons – Celebrating 50 Years Of Motorhead // Strangers With Guns // Live Review // The Limelight // Belfast
So this is finally happening, Phil Campbell is finally on Irish soil playing Irish dates! For the life of me I don’t know why it has taken so long for PC&TBS to get their asses across the Irish Sea.
I caught the guys a few years back at Bloodstock Open Air when they headlined the Sophie Lancaster stage and enjoyed their vibe. For the next few years, as UK tours were announced, there was always a gaping void with no Irish dates, but here we are in 2025 and Phil and the Lands have done a world tour of Ireland playing Cork, Dublin and tonight, finally, Belfast!
In recognition, we have come out in force, selling out the Limelight II for tonight, which will be a rollercoaster ride for so many as we celebrate 50 years of Motörhead!!! What a way for Phil and the lads to announce their arrival in Belfast, playing all the classic numbers for an old-school Northern Irish crowd who were raised on the classics. My brother often tells me of the time he saw Motörhead play The Ulster Hall and how deafening it was, his hearings fucked now so I have to believe him!
Before we get to the Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons goodness, we have Irish trio Strangers with Guns opening up on the Irish dates. As early as baby Jesus’ alternative birthday, the lads hit the stage at 7:30 and do their thing! A chaotic blend of old school punk, rock, indie and post-modern jazz with heavy neo-classical influences, the Belfast audience is engrossed from the off! As a three-piece, you gotta love ’em! Raw as fuck they just rip the faces off everyone in the front row with their gnarly uncompromising brand of rock. The drums pummelling through the floor, the melodic choruses and signature time changes keeping everyone on their toes as they blast their way through an energetic and fun, passionate set.
https://www.facebook.com/strangerswithguns
A blast of Thin Lizzy “The Boys Are Back in Town” and I’m thinking well played, lads, get the locals on your side, but when they play Status Quo “Rocking All Over The World” I know it’s stage time! Rightly so, the lads make their way into the venue by the back door and are standing stage left before they get stuck right in with “Iron Fist”, and Belfast goes wild!
They play right through to “Damage Case” before Phil says hello to the Belfast crowd, apologising for taking so long to get here, and then they get stuck right into a set that has the Belfast Crowd eating out of the palm of their hand with a setlist curated to keep everyone happy. The smiles on the faces of the crowd far and wide across the venue speak volumes to what this show means to so many, You can see it as the room is packed to the rafters with blood-thirsty Motörhead fans! Everyone is singing along with every track, fists pumping in the air, and heads banging along as the band slays their set. The band starts and stops on a dime, the set burned into their brains, like “Born To Raise Hell”, the band stopping mid-track to get the fans whipped up into a frenzy and without much help required! It’s a bank holiday weekend after all, the baby Jesus died so we could party in this very Sunday night and no doubt there will be plenty of sore heads in Belfast tomorrow morning!
As the band lash their way through a huge set it is like travelling back through time, across the anals of rock and metal history as we hear savage tracks written five decades ago, it’s crazy as you hear Phil introduce songs written back then against the sonic background of todays rock and roll and you can hear the foundations for what we know today. The setlist is packed with fan favourites from start to finish, and every track will mean something different to everyone in the room, but when Phil and Ty grab their acoustics for “Whorehouse Blues” and treat us to a 6 minute jam the place goes wild. For me personally, hearing “Ace Of Spades” made my night, but for so many others, this was a religious experience all in itself. The opportunity to catch rock royalty live in a small, intimate venue is pure magic, and what this rock and metal community is built on. This is life.
As we make our way out onto the streets afterwards, you can see the smiles, hear the laughter and see the old men doing their best air guitars as they head and stagger for the taxis home, and I think to myself, more Easter Sundays like this please!
https://www.facebook.com/PhilCampbellATBS
Photography: Mark McGrogan
