The George Lite Zone

The last time I was in a mosh pit was at Motorheads 25th anniversary concert in Brixton, the birthplace of punk, it's ironic then that the band to drag me back into the pogoing fray were the godfathers of grunge, Mudhoney, returning to Berlin after a 15 year absence. Tracks from their new album, The Lucky Ones , meshed seamlessly with their old classics, as body surfers cascaded onto the stage in a blitzkrieg of the flesh. On that stage lead singer Mark Arm threw himself around like a man possessed, running at the crowd one minute and jerking around in demonic puppet fashion the next. A punk master in all his pomp. "You may have noticed we had Kurt Cobain on stage with us earlier", he quipped. "He was a bit smaller than I remembered him". Touch me I'm sick in particular brought the house down, with the German audience freaking out en masse. Two encores rounded off proceedings, with the crowd still baying for more. All in all a fantastic nights entertainment...

In search of Mudhoney Berlin gig tickets, I stumbled across this cover of one of my all time favourite Hawkwind tracks, Urban Guerilla. http://www.last.fm/music/Mudhoney/_/Urban+Guerilla Mudhoney's version was recorded for a John Peel session in 2002, and released on a 2003 Mojo Magazine freebie, it was also included on the compilation album Up Yours! Punk's Not Dead . Cargo Records also did a limited edition 7 inch run in a series of Hawkwind covers. Hawkwind's original dates back to '73 and was banned by the BBC due to its release coinciding with a series of IRA bombings at the time. Mudhoney have captured the punk sensibilities of the original, while incorporating guitar riffs reminiscent of early Hawkwind. All in all a bloody good cover. I think they did Bob Calvert proud here. Speaking of which...