Britrock Must Be Destroyed, Digbeth Arena, Birmingham - review

The three bands that make up Britrock Must Be Destroyed headline on a rotating basis and it was Reef's turn in the second city and they delivered a brilliant varied set that thrilled the thousands of fans that turned out in perfect weather conditions.

Digbeth Arena proved a great quirky venue for the tour, which also features Terrorvision and The Wildhearts, on Saturday in the shadow of railway arches and surrounded by graffiti art.

The event was excellently run and the rock fans that gathered from all over the Midlands were in great humour and fine voice joining in on favourite songs throughout the afternoon and evening.

Bromsgrove's Dodgy as special guests got the live music underway delivering a bright and breezy half-hour set with Staying out for the Summer setting the right tone.

The band, led by Nigel Clark, finished with Never Stop and their biggest hit Good Enough.

The first hour-long set was from Bradford's Terrorvision who stormed through a selection of their best songs - even drowning out the sound of the passing trains behind the stage.

They took to the stage dressed in black and white outfits and quickly got fans singing along with Alice What's The Matter and a well received performance of My House.

Tequila, American TV and Josephine were among the other highlights and Terrovision romped through an ecstatic Oblivion to finish and take huge applause from their fans.

Next up were The Wildhearts and they did not disappoint with a thunderous, powerful and energetic set.

Leader Ginger was delighted with the reaction and said it was the best audience so far in the tour.

"I could play all night," he told fans, who were headbanging and fist pumping along through the performance, but sadly for them they had only an hour to enjoy with I Wanna Go Where The People Go, Suckerpunch and Weekend just some of the hard rocking highlight.

The 13-song set finished with Love U 'Til I Don't and The Wildhearts took their leave with the audience still baying for more.

Reef opened with Higher Vibration and then launched into their most famous track Place Your Hands with singer Gary Stringer, who twice left the stage to sing in the midst of the fans during the show, in superb vocal form.

The concert was the first chance many fans had had to hear songs from Reeef's first album in 18 years - Revelation.

Reef have never been a band that have been afraid to try new things and some of the soul-tinged new material fitted in perfectly with their more hard rocking older songs. New single My Sweet Love in particular stood out along with the album's title track Revelation.

Guitarist Jesse Wood, son of Rolling Stone Ronnie, is now a perfect fit for the band and his riffing along with the bass work of bearded wonder Jack Bessant and drumming of Dominic Greensmith was exemplary.

The addition of keyboard player Andrew Wallace and backing singers on many of the songs helped give Reef a fresh new sound.

There were plenty of old favourties to sing along with including Yer Old in the encore and Reef departed to huge cheers.