Nobody is drinking alone at indigo at The O2 tonight. Rock ‘n’ roll legends George Thorogood & The Destroyers are in London for their final Baddest Show On Earth Tour, supported by the hot-shot guitarist, Jared James Nichols and his band.
George Thorogood & The Destroyers – Jared James Nichols
indigo at The O2 – 30 June 2026
Words: Sean Titley
Photography: Manuela Langotsch
This is a super modern venue, with air-con, excellent lighting and speaker systems. It has a semi-circular ground floor and a large seated balcony area that tapers like a steep-sided ice cream cone.
It is a visually impressive sight, but at times it can compromise sightlines, and the stairs are steep for those with accessibility issues or for those with vertigo. For the seen-it-all, done-it-all rock fans, they do not care.
This was their last chance to see a band some had followed since its inception in 1973.
George Thorogood & The Destroyers
One of the stranger moments of the night for me was that as a precursor to the show, the fantastic anti-war protest song Eve Of Destruction was played, its most famous version sung by Barry McGuire.
Bizarrely, I had reviewed Kreator, a fast Thrash Metal band, earlier in the year, who had also opened their show with this song. The read-across is worrying. It is an emotionally powerful song dealing with the current threats and realities of war, escalation and nuclear weapons. A total contrast to the rock ‘n’ roll fiesta to come.
The bass drum has the word ‘Destroyers’ and a wizard throwing stars in the air on it. All is dark with just the word and the picture back-lit in red, as to delighted whoops and cheers on comes the bandanna’d George Thorogood, all in black with a black guitar and his band behind him.
Running to the front of the stage, he mimes “I can’t hear you” to the crowd, eliciting a greater roar.
From Rock Party, to Who Do You Love?, and I Drink Alone, this is absolutely banging bar room rock ‘n’ roll which does not let up for the whole night.
We get the singalong classic One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer which those who have followed the instruction punch along to with extra exuberance. With Get A Haircut and the song he is probably best known for, Bad To The Bone, the fans upstairs and downstairs groove, rock, cheer and hold their arms aloft to every get down and boogie tune.
The Destroyers look very cool. Sunglasses on one, leopard skin print on the shirt of another, backwards cap on the saxophonist who blasts at least one mean solo.
The Destroyers are Jeff Simon (drums) and long-term band members but later joiners Billy Blough (bass guitar), Jim Suhler (guitar) and Buddy Leach (Saxophone, keyboard and maracas!).
All are superb, but rather like the teams around Kane, Messi or Mbappe, they are supporting George Thorogood, one of rock’s great front men, as well as an outstanding guitarist, singer and songwriter.
The whole show is about non-stop fun. Musically, Thorogood is all about rhythm-heavy blues and rock ‘n’ roll, creating a driving beat that keeps the bodies in the club moving, and slide guitar with his cuffed finger glinting down the strings.
His solos are on point, and the longest of them is kicking. No one wants him to stop. He cannot stop playing with the crowd musically or with on-stage banter, mucking around with his wah-wah pedal, teasing riffs when they are not expected and when he takes off his bandana, combing not only his hair but his shirt, producing weird comb feedback.
Also, Thorogood can really sing, belting out Bbbbbad To The Bone with some real menace but always with a wink in the eye. The man is an energy ball. At seventy-six years young, it is impressive.
Even drinking whiskey on stage during the show, which he throws to the ground, saying it’s tea. With a hell raiser like this, it is probably whiskey.
Having seen Ian Gillan (80) of Deep Purple and Alice Cooper (78) a week ago, headlining the stage at Hellfest, in France, it really does prove rock and Metal are wonderful for maintaining the thrill of life.
There are so many in-jokes bantered on stage that it is hard to keep up. At one moment talking about the orange whip (a reference to the Blues Brothers), at another pretending to want to recreate a great moment from Elvis’s career by wiping a flannel (believe it was a towel in Elvis’s case) and then picking through the crowd to offer it to a pretty lady “fulfilling one of my rock ‘n’ roll fantasies.”
Then, at the end, he puts on his rock star cape to go off stage and falls around, parodying James Brown, before coming back to the front to take the appreciation from the aficionados.
This is vaudevillian showmanship but also emphasises the life he has led, meeting most of the greats, including Johnny Cash and touring with The Stones.
Thorogood eulogises the UK. Wearing a Union Jack wristband, he talks of “deep appreciation for the loyal support of our English fans”. He honours Jagger, Richards, and Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones with great respect.
A lot of Thorogood’s stage mannerisms are Jaggeresque. Maybe not surprising, as he toured with them in the early ’80s. He also talks of loving the good women of England, but particularly the bad women of London, which gets shrieks from the female fans.
Jared James Nichols came on for the finale Born To Be Bad. A natural Destroyer himself, he adds more good nature and first-rate guitar playing to the song.
George Thorogood said on stage that “It took me fifty years to get up here, I’m going to enjoy every minute of it”. It is clear he and everybody have.
Nobody wants to leave with repeated bows, roars and applause, but finally, with a mock tear and a big thumbs up, he surreally leaves to the tune of the British National Anthem.
Jared James Nichols
Jared James Nichols, one of the leading younger figures in blues and hard rock guitar and his band, Brian Weaver on bass and Ryan Rice on drums, bounced onto the stage to a rapidly filling crowd.
Dressed in rock ‘n’ roll denim, long hair and a gentle giant smile, Jared delivered a set of two halves,
The crowd took some time to pick up Jared’s initially more measured pace on Let’s Go, Ghost and Way Back, to the extent that Jared goaded the gathering, saying, “You’re so quiet, it’s cute. Guess that’s London”.
Jared’s guitar style is not flashy, although a few cheeky rock god arm raises were in evidence. This is more spare and elegant solos with unusual twists that catch the brain and insist on notice.
Famously playing without a pick, which he said causes him “to break a string every single day,” he generated a fuller sound which his gritty, vocal style matched. The band and he were fluent together, matching each other with flow and poise.
Jared enjoys banter with the audience, including discussions about getting his hair cut, but maybe not like the person who had shouted at him that he should do this (probably a joke reference to the George Thorogood & The Destroyers song about hair cutting) and how crazy their recent Midlands (Wolverhampton) gig was.
“Maybe Londoners don’t know how to chug a beer,” egged on the Capital’s rock ‘n’ roll barflies to oil up in time for George Thorogood.
Once the music picked up pace at the back end of the set with Killing Time, Baby Can You Feel It, and Running Hot, the atmosphere changed, and rock fever bounced back at the stage with roars and appreciative head nodding.
This was equal measure blues and hard rock, with the final song, Keep Your Light On Mama, towards the end delivering something that could even set a Metaller’s head nodding.
The set was relatively short, but it was punchy and enjoyable and left the gig-goers keen for more.
