What can I say about Steel Panther that hasn’t already been said? A glam metal band formed in the 21st century, they revive the long-dead rock and roll traditions of sex, drugs and long, luscious hair. Well, mostly wigs anyway. Taking their inspiration from Motley Crue, Van Halen, Bon Jovi and others, they play over-the-top hair metal about – well, sex, drugs and… more sex.

I first heard Steel Panther in 2011, having been a fan of 80s hair metal since I was about 15 years old. I had a little MP3 player that I’d take everywhere with me, with Motley Crue’s 1989 album Dr. Feelgood loaded onto it, and from there I sought out as much glam metal as I could. When I discovered Steel Panther, they sounded so authentically ‘80s that it took me right back to those sweet teenage years.

So when I discovered that Steel Panther were touring and were going to be playing in London, I jumped at the chance! Even better, they were not only planning to play their own music, but also a selection of covers from other prominent glam metal bands, which ended up including not only Motley Crue (Shout At The Devil and Kickstart My Heart), but also Bon Jovi (Livin’ On A Prayer) and Def Leppard (Pour Some Sugar On Me). A week or two before this show, I’d also found out that Ozzy Osbourne had postponed his upcoming European tour due to illness, which was the day after Steel Panther. Coincidentally, lead singer Michael Starr does a fantastic impersonation of Ozzy, so despite not seeing the Prince of Darkness himself live, we were treated to a cover of Crazy Train with Michael doddering around the stage dressed as Ozzy, putting his mic on the stand and taking it off again and generally living his best life. It softened the pain somewhat.

The set was crammed with some of Steel Panther’s best tracks, kicking off with Eyes Of A Panther, and ending with Death To All But Metal (in my eyes, one of the finest tracks they’ve written so far), and an encore consisting of 17 Girls In A Row and Gloryhole. There are a few tracks I would have switched out, but that’s more personal preference than a critique on the quality of the set, which had the crowd yelling for more at the end.

Support for the night was in the form of a DJ, Matt Stocks, who got the crowd pumped by playing classic ’80s metal (of course) like Iron Maiden’s The Trooper and Ozzy’s Bark At The Moon, and Greek guitarist Gus G, who plays with his power metal band, the gloriously named Firewind. He’s also in the past played for Arch Enemy and Ozzy, but tonight was playing a selection of his own solo tracks, including Fearless and Force Majeure, with a couple of covers thrown in for good measure – a fantastic metal version of Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing and Thin Lizzy’s Cold Sweat.

In all, it was a fantastic night of loud heavy metal and certainly not the last time I’ll ever see Steel Panther live. Unless one of them dies of a drug overdose before then.