“Lancaster, rock’n’roll has come back,” screams Baz Mills at one point here, and whether he means the town specifically or the music in general hardly matters. With Massive Wagons, both things feel true.
Recorded in their home city last year, “Live At The Great Hall” captures a band who have long since graduated from being merely a good night out. Massive Wagons are one of the very best live bands Britain has, and this set is proof of that. More than that, actually: it sounds like a homecoming, a celebration, and a statement all at once.
Right from the off, “Back To The Stack” is everything you’d want it to be. All the Quo-isms are there, all the boogie, all the grin, all the swagger, and yes, you can absolutely raise a glass to Rick while it’s playing. Then “Pressure” tears off at a ridiculous pace, the kind of song that sounds like it’s got no time for nonsense, either in the music business or anywhere else.
“Tokyo” still has that underdog spirit coursing through it, and the melody remains one of their secret weapons. After that, “A.S.S.H.O.L.E” turns the whole room into one huge singalong, because that’s one of Massive Wagons’ great gifts: they understand exactly how to make songs that connect instantly.
It’s that ebullience that really defines them. I don’t want to call songs like “Missing On TV” simple, because that sounds dismissive when it absolutely shouldn’t. Accessible is a better word. There’s an everyman quality to what they do, a sense that these are songs built to be belted out with your mates, pint aloft, arm around someone’s shoulder, shouting every last word back at the band.
But they’ve always had more going on than just a massive chorus and a good time. Mental health, particularly men’s mental health, is never far from their thoughts, and “Please Stay Calm” comes from exactly that place. It gives the record a bit of depth in the middle of all the chaos, and shows why the connection between Massive Wagons and their crowd runs deeper than simple Friday-night escapism.
There’s a definite late-90s streak running through parts of this set too, and “Fun While It Lasted” especially has that feel. You can easily imagine it rising high in the days when Terrorvision and their peers were making mischief all over the charts. “The Good Die Young,” meanwhile, feels like their anthem now, and their congregation is only too happy to join in.
By the time “House Of Noise” arrives, the ambition in the room is impossible to miss. This is a song that wants to take over the world and, on this evidence, fancies its chances. “Bangin In Your Stereo” follows as the sound of a band that simply was not going to take no for an answer and, truth be told, was always too good to stay underground forever.
“In It Together” is dedicated here to Ginger Wildheart, and it’s not hard to hear the lineage. Nor, I suspect, would either side be remotely upset by the comparison. Massive Wagons have that same mix of heart, hooks, humour and defiance.
And because this is their big night, they allow themselves an encore. Baz says they’re “going off the deep end,” and “Nails” duly arrives like a wrecking ball. If there was anything left of Lancaster University’s Great Hall after that, it would be a minor miracle.
I’ve been thinking while listening to this about all the times I’ve seen Massive Wagons over the years. The first couple were when they were opening for Ginger first and then The Wildhearts, and to see them rise from there to this has been a genuine joy. When they opened in arenas for Lynyrd Skynyrd and Status Quo, you got there early because it felt like one of ours had made it. This, though, was their night. Their hometown. Their moment.
And my God, they deserved it.
RATING 9/10
