Back at KK’s Steel Mill on a warm July evening, Wolfsbane proved once again why they have never truly gone away and that they have just been waiting for the right moment to make things loud again. With MuddiBrooke kicking off the night and Hillbilly Vegas returning to the UK with their southern swagger as part of their Feels Good tour, the evening had all the makings of a good old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll blowout.
Wolfsbane
KK’s Steel Mill – 20 July 2025
Words And Photography: Sandis Luttropp
It was clear from the second Blaze Bayley stepped on stage with all the charisma in the world that this was Wolfsbane’s night. Bayley looked out across the crowd, grinned, and said it straight, “You’re gorgeous. You’re all gorgeous.”
No buildup, just a band welcoming their people.
The first real jolt came with Shakin’, which turned the room upside down. The Steel Mill crowd roared to life, arms swinging, heads banging, bodies moving like the floor had suddenly dropped out. Then came the guitar solo, bright, biting, and so perfectly ’89 it gave everyone a little bit of whiplash.
After a few classics back to back, Blaze made sure we knew that we were all part of the music, and that right then, it was All Or Nothing.
“Doesn’t matter how you sing,” he told us, “most howling mad shitheads are terrible singers. But sing anyway.”
We were loud, off-key, fearless and wild. Wolfsbane gigs are not about perfection. They are about heart, and they certainly live up to it. Guitarist Jase Edwards, bassist Jeff Hateley and drummer Steve Danger all have big hearts.
In between songs, Blaze takes a moment to tell us about the early days, how, back in the ’80s, they had to fight for their album artwork. “Even though the guy went to school with us, they thought they knew us better,” Blaze said. “But you’ve got to do what you think is best for you. You’ve got to be as tough as steel.”
The story led perfectly into the next track, Steel, reminding us that their Metal-melting fire never went out.
He gave the crowd another laugh during the lead-in to Smoke And Red Light, when Blaze recalled borrowing a smoke machine all those years ago and not knowing how to use it. “There was so much smoke, I couldn’t see what I was doing,” he said with a cheeky grin. That sense of chaotic humour is still very much alive.
Later in the set, Blaze looked out and asked if we would want another record, “If you’re into it?”
No big speech. Just a question. And the response from the crowd left no room for doubt. They were howling mad into it.
What is clear now more than ever is that Wolfsbane are not just reliving the past, they are here to give it teeth again. They have re-recorded their 1989 debut Live Fast, Die Fast as Live Faster not just for the nostalgia, but because, as Blaze put it in a recent interview with MetalTalk’s Paul Hutchings, “We wanted it to sound the way we always thought it sounded in our heads back then.”
It is a fierce, fresh take on a classic. Rawer in some places and heavier in others.
The band’s chemistry has not faded either. “There’s just something about these four guys, when we play together,” Blaze said, “It’s like coming home.”
And that showed. No awkward nostalgia, no forced callbacks. Just four musicians from the original lineup, Bayley, Edwards, Hateley and ‘Danger’ doing what true rockers from the ’80s do best.
Then came a line leading into the track Loco, a line that tied the whole night together. “It’s a good thing to be crazy,” Blaze said. “Rock crazy. Heavy Metal crazy. Wolfsbane, howling mad, crazy.”
It was not just a throwaway moment. It was the spirit of the night wrapped into a sentence that got the crowd going even louder and rowdier than before.
With the original lineup back together, Live Faster out in the world, and fans still screaming like it’s 1989, Wolfsbane are clearly not done being loud bastards yet.
They are totally unfiltered and still, absolutely, howling mad.
