Further to the release of their live album Live At The Great Hall, Lancastrian legends Massive Wagons roll into Gloucester Guildhall for the final night of their ‘Everywhere We Go’ UK tour.
Hardworking and grounded, Massive Wagons continue to combine a no-nonsense, working-class ethos with a genuine connection to their audience. It’s underlined before they even begin, with Andy’s Man Club present throughout the tour to speak with fans and challenge the stigma surrounding men’s mental health. Ahead of the show, a representative unites the crowd around a simple but important message: “IT’S OKAY TO TALK.”
As Sex Pistols’ ‘Pretty Vacant’ blasts through the PA, the sold-out crowd is already bouncing. It’s a perfect walk-on choice – loud, scruffy, and dishing out just the right amount of attitude. Starting with last year’s high-energy single ‘Everywhere We Go’, there’s no feeling their way into the room; the Wagons arrive at full throttle for an all out end-of-tour celebration.
Baz Mills is a ball of energy, all over the stage: leaping, high-kicking, grinning and crowd-baiting, before effortlessly pulling everything back in with genuine warmth. There are frontmen who perform to a crowd, and those who make the crowd feel part of the show – Baz firmly belongs in the latter camp.
The momentum barely lets up during the early run of ‘Fun While It Lasted’, ‘Please Stay Calm’ and ‘Missing On TV’, before ‘Fuck The Haters’ lands with exactly the rowdy, defiant spirit it deserves, the crowd shouting every word back while gleefully throwing a sea of light-hearted middle fingers towards the stage. Subtle? Don’t be daft! Effective? Absolutely!
‘Germ’ and ‘Hero’ keep things charging forward before ‘Glorious’ adds another big, bright burst of melody. For all the humour and chaos surrounding Massive Wagons, it’s easy to overlook just how strong some of these songs are. They wrap grit, heart and frustration inside choruses that deserve to be echoing around much bigger venues after 17 years of graft.
Behind Baz’s whirlwind presence is a seriously tight live band, Adam Thistlethwaite and Stevie Holl locking together brilliantly, balancing weighty rhythm work, tasteful leads and natural groove, while Alex Thistlethwaite and Adam Bouskill provide the kind of rock-solid backbone that gives the songs a real live punch.
For me, Live At The Great Hall is the modern-day equivalent of Saxon’s The Eagle Has Landed, with a personal fave ‘The Good Die Young’ at its anthemic best. Tonight though, it raises the hairs on the back of the neck even higher. When Baz leads the crowd into the refrain, “We will die on this hill”, Gloucester needs no second invitation. It’s one of those moments where a song stops being just a song to become something shared.
‘Generation Prime’ has Baz showing appreciation for Benji Webbe and Skindred following their recent number one album success. It’s a small touch, but one that reflects the genuine camaraderie running through British rock right now.
Then, from House Of Noise, comes the title track followed by ‘Bangin In Your Stereo’, still one of the band’s most infectious foot-stompers that drags you along for the ride while simultaneously putting its Lego stop motion video straight back into your head.
By the time ‘China Plates’ closes the main set, the Guildhall feels like it has been properly wrung out. But there’s still time for an encore, and ‘Back To The Stack’, the band’s tribute to the “White Knight” Rick Parfitt, remains one of the finest things they’ve written. Everything about it works: the riff, the sentiment, the sheer Quo-loving joy of it, with Baz’s toast to Rick bringing a genuine lump to the throat for anyone raised on classic British rock.
If Massive Wagons have a defining message, then ‘In It Together’ might just be it, and there’s no better way to close the night than with a final singalong. Somewhere during the chaos, Baz takes to the crowd aboard a rubber dinghy, though his return journey proves slightly unstable, ending with him unceremoniously disappearing into the audience. Moments later, he’s back on stage smiling, charging around, and completely in control of the room right to the very end.
I first saw Massive Wagons at Hard Rock Hell in 2015, then again at Download in 2022, and they’ve never failed to deliver. Tonight though, they feel like a band fully in their stride – bigger, tighter, sharper and more assured than ever, without losing any of the personality that made people love them in the first place.
Massive Wagons epitomise everything great about British rock music: fun without being throwaway, heartfelt without becoming soft, and heavy enough to shake a sold-out Guildhall to its foundations. If you consider yourself a rock fan, do yourself a favour: go and see one of the very best bands this country has produced in a generation, while they’re still at the absolute top of their game.
Review & Photography: Steve Johnston
