Doogie White from Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock at the o2 Academy, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

As the sweat of a many a Liverpool rock fan glistened in the neon lights of the Academy, as the thunder of the well timed clap echoed round the room and the hint of the monumental started to take place in the minds of those in attendance, the smile of a master beamed down across the floor of the venue and the guitar, slung low, howled with joy at the response; if 2016 has been a kick in the teeth for music so far, if the feeling of loss has been verging on the unbearable, then Michael Schenker’s Temple of Rock was the antidote for the evening and a more magnificent display of raw musical prestige could a crowd ask for in such mesmerising light.

This was a night specially built for Michael Schenker, the lyric may speak of many things, of rocking the audience out like a hurricane, however the storm that hit America’s Eastern seaboard last week had dared poke its nose in the same fashion over the Mersey, the poetic and the die-hard would not have been surprised if it capitulated in the face of such overwhelming and assured presence that graced the Academy stage as Doogie White’s vocals matched the intensity of Mr. Schenker’s prowling guitar hero stance.

With a healthy mixture of songs that framed Michael Schenker’s career across the board, from UFO classics to Scorpions immortality and through to songs that have confirmed Michael Schenker as a leading light in the world of Rock guitar, the hurricane, several storms converging from different angles, could not have produced more energy than that that made the hairs on the back of the hands stand up as if they had been placed too near an electrical substation.

The sweat bounced in time to howling heat provided by the band, each person in the academy seemed to glow as if having sat on the sandy shores of Comino for several hours in the lazy days of August sunshine and in songs such as Doctor Doctor, Lights Out, Where The Wild Wind Blows, the honourable Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, which was dedicated to the recently passed Jimmy Bain, the excellent Vigilante Man, Too Hot To Handle, the aforementioned Rock You Like A Hurricane and the awesome Rock Bottom were played with heat, passion and an abiding truth that spread through the discerning crowd with an enduring smile.

For music fans, January 2016 has been cruel, unkind and vindictive, in Michael Schenker the month took on a friendlier and more hard wearing benevolence, one that really rocked the Academy to its core; a night of high passions and one that will stand in the memory forever.

Ian D. Hall