There are probably a lot of people out there who are unaware of who the Stone Gods are and so, to set the scene, let me tell you that the band is made up of three former members of The Darkness in the shape of Dan Hawkins, Richie Edwards and Ed Graham alongside new bassist Toby Macfarlane. The strange scenario surrounding this, the band's debut UK headline tour, is that they currently have no product out to tour behind,  the only tangible evidence of the bands existence being three pieces of music posted on their website and MySpace page, two of which being only short samples.  To make matters worse advertising in the media has been very low key and, given all of this there had to be question marks as to whether anyone would anybody actually turn up.

Well word of mouth and the internet are still a very powerful tool and, as a result, Newcastle's Carling Academy was pleasingly full before Stone Gods took to the stage and support band Serpico kicked off the evening's entertainment. A young band hailing from Edinburgh Serpico serve up a brand of what could be described as punk metal which delivered with enthusiasm ,every member putting in an energetic performance. At times however things sounded a little bit too frantic but that could be down to the obvious adrenalin rush of the live stage and the decision to try out some new songs. In saying that you had to give the band ten out ten for sheer work rate but, at the end of the set, the applause was more polite recognition than appreciation.

And so to the evening’s main event, the first live show in Newcastle by the Stone Gods. Even before the band took to the stage there was a tangible sense of expectation in the venue as those people who had made the effort to come along were very much taking a leap of faith in a band who at this point are an unknown quantity. Within the first few minutes of this show that all changed when the quartet opened up with “Burn The Witch”. Up until this tour only a clip of the song has been available on the bands website and, if you’ve already heard that and been impressed, wait until you hear the full version. Following up with “You Brought A Knife To A Gun Fight” within two songs Stone Gods had literally stormed the Academy and yet things were only just getting started.

It's obvious that these guys are pretty seasoned professionals and even with a new band, unknown songs and a small venue they know how to entertain. Indeed Richie Edwards already has the frontman role down to a fine art. Handing a fiver over to a member of the audience and asking for someone to go buy a Jack & Coke from the bar was a stroke of genius, as was wandering out onto the balcony and "borrowing" someone's camera to take shots from the stage. If nothing else it engenders a sense of bonding between band and audience and this bond only grew as the set progressed. As for the music well it's harder and heavier than anything The Darkness released. Living Dead for instance has a main guitar riff that Metallica would be proud of, mixed with the gusto of the main riff from Blue Oyster Cults “Godzilla”. That will possibly have many rock fans salivating at the mouth and to be honest until you hear this song words can’t really do it justice. The song even has a tempo change that would make Motorhead smile with approval.  Elsewhere “Don’t Drink The Water” contained some gorgeous harmony guitar phrases reminiscent of The Allman Brothers whilst “Lazy Bones” is rock song writing of the highest order,  a great mixture of acoustic and electric guitars allowing the band to build the song up to a dramatic conclusion and, judging by all the lighters in the air, everyone identified with the sentiment of this song.

Perhaps the highlight of the night was “Starting Something” which, arguably, should be the lead off single when the debut album is finally released. It has commercial worldwide smash written all over it, it's that good. The final song of the main set, “Defend Or Die”, which again featured more dual harmony guitar work brought to mind prime time Thin Lizzy,  before morphing into basically a thrash metal workout. An encore was never in any doubt and the band returned to delivery “Magdalene Street” before the evening drew to a close with “Beero” - an anthem in every sense with a rhythm that throbbed and pulsed.

On this evidence, and based on the fact the audience reaction was as loud as anything I've heard in the Academy 2, the Stone Gods have a bright future ahead of them. Richie Edwards possesses a voice that, at times sounds like Bryan Adams or Steven Tyler and he proved to be a performer in every sense of the word, interacting with the crowd at every available opportunity and throwing his heart and soul into his vocals. The other, and perhaps most important, thing is that the Stone Gods appear to have the material that is going to surprise a lot of people. Following the implosion that was the end of The Darkness it would have been easy for these guys to sit back and lick their wounds. Instead what they've come up with potentially has far more appeal to the core rock crowd in the UK than just about anything their former outfit released. If they're given a fighting chance, and past associations are not held against them, then they may just surprise a whole lot of people.

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