Hallamshire Hotel, Sheffield
Friday April 10th, 2026
Review By Smudge Smith
It’s been a minute since I last saw Doomsday Outlaw, and it’s been about 5 months since they last played live. After a quick catch-up with the band in a local pub, bass player Indy told me that the Hallamshire Hotel is a special venue for him, having played there in the early 90s supporting Pulp, of all people, which he believes was only his third ever gig. Apparently the Hallamshire Hotel has held several guises in the past and recently reopened as a live venue.
On arrival I was surprised to see an acoustic duo doing their thing. I was then told that the duo were actually Maria and Dragos from Luna Marble. Maria mentioned that they don’t usually do this type of thing, and she has never played acoustic guitar live before. I am totally unfamiliar with their tunes, but a couple really stood out, such as ‘Begging For Mercy’ and ‘All Of My Love’, which showed the vocal talents of Maria, who went from angsty to sultry and sexy. Dragos made playing his guitar look easy, and he provided some superb harmonies for Maria. On the strength of this intimate show, I am now interested to see the full band live.
Fall? Never heard of Eddie and the Wolves, who are described as ‘future blues’. They’re an interesting line-up of a power trio along with a female singer who batters a tom-tom in between. Again, I am unfamiliar with their songs, which have a whole load of heavy blues/stoner riffage with some powerful, soulful dual vocals.
The interplay between singer/guitarist Eddie and singer/tom-tom drummer/mother of wolves Char reminded me of Meat Loaf and Carla De Vito in the way they interact, especially on ‘Vindictive’, described as a heartbreak song by Char. The intro lulls you into a false sense of a heartfelt torch song, but they soon kick up some dust with a proper heavy banger, especially on the breakdown. They finished on a new song, ‘See Me Fall’, which was awesome. These guys left it all out there and played a blinder. I will be catching them again at the earliest opportunity.
Doomsday Outlaw was welcomed like old friends, which I suppose they are now. They were one of the first bands I ever reviewed, and I became an immediate fan of their big, riffing, groove-based rock ‘n’ roll. They kicked off with a raucous and rapid ‘Bring You Pain’, which saw drummer Nic Rudd give us flailing arms and flailing hair as he battered the living daylights out of his kit. New song ‘Show Me Love’ before a deeper cut from the ‘Suffer More’ album ‘I’ve Been Found’. We got the ‘Suffer More’, which highlighted singer Phil Poole’s power, range and soul before ‘Bring It On Home’, where guitarist Alez gave us some serious shapes and some fine lead breaks. ‘Turn Me Loose’ got everybody moving before one of Phil’s songs about his divorce, ‘Tale Of A Broken Man’, where he gave us an a cappella intro that was stunning and left the crowd literally open-mouthed.
They took a chance and gave us their rendition of Duran Duran’s ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’, which Phil admitted he didn’t know the words to, but he did know the words to the tribute to his deceased father, ‘If This Is The End’, where Alez became Slash for five minutes. They finished with the rapid ‘Runaway’ and a huge ovation.
An intimate venue and three bands who all offered something different but essentially a wonderful advert for UK rock all in one room. All three bands have gained new fans on the strength of their performances tonight, and they should all be proud of their hard work.
9/10
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