Back in 1989 Vain were supporting Skid Row and getting a cover story in Kerrang! magazine. Their album 'No Respect' was a hit due to the single 'Beat The Bullet'. 2 years ago Vain decided to do a 20 year anniversary tour of 'No Respect' with all the original members. Then they played to a packed Camden Underworld. This time they were playing a smaller venue. Sadly without all original members and also without the number of fans. Oh dear not a good start. The first thing that was noticeable when the band walked on stage was that Vain's guitarists were from Deathstars, the instantly recognisable Skinny and the ladies favourite, Cat Casino! Oh dear again! However despite the initial shock both of them fitted in perfectly and played exactly the songs on the records. I later discovered that Skinny was a big Vain fan 20 years ago! For the next 80 minutes they played an entertaining 10 song set, 6 of which were from 'No Respect' the first being 'Who's Watching You'. As usual Davy Vain looked every inch the leader/singer and was on great form despite claiming he was recovering from being unwell. As usual he was telling anecdotes that went on longer than some of his songs! Enjoyable but I'd rather hear more songs. We had 'Love Drug', 'Push', 'Smoke & Mirrors' and 'Whisper'. Davy was proud to say that his band would not take requests as his band is not a requests band. However most of us wanted to hear the songs from 'No Respect' which he duly obliged. We got 'No Respect', 'Secrets' and the aforementioned single, 'Bite the Bullet'. 1 encore of 'Icy' and the gig was over. What a thoroughly enjoyable Monday night's entertainment. Sadly they were never up there with all the other 80's Hair Metal Bands at the time but 'No Respect' is a great album. If you've got it dig it out and give it another listen, if not get it, you'll not be disappointed.
