Keen-eyed visitors to this site will already be familiar with the phenomenon known as Blackie Lawless - we reported on their last UK tour back in 2010, all of which sold out at the drop of a pair of leather trousers. It seems that W.A.S.P., despite being wonderfully outrageous and not the sort of chaps you'd run towards if you wanted directions to the nearest Waitrose, are big business again. Never in recent times have we all needed to escape the mundane and the maudlin, quite so much. Lawless is such a great surname for our times as well.

Formed some 30 years ago in the home of the most spat-out, sworn-at and often-derided rock outrages (Motley Crue, Guns 'N' Roses, Ratt etc), W.A.S.P. were destined to join the legions of hard-rockers, male and female, brought up on a stereotypical diet of bourbon, bandanas and brazen hussies, especially with subtlety NOT in the Lawless dictionary of taste. Hell, here we have songs like 'Animal (F**k Like A Beast)' and 'I Don't Need No Doctor' - who needs a shrinking violet singing that?

One of W.A.S.P.'s most successful albums is 1992's 'Crimson Idol', which just happens to be a part of the band's forthcoming and explosive new tour - and it's heading your way very soon. Strap yourself in because it's about that time for '30 Years of Thunder'!!

Thankfully not a euphemism for too many imbibed Jalfrezis or a paean to Brit-rock's perennially likeable under-achievers, '30 Years of Thunder' pretty much encapsulates what this band is all about - three decades of hard, fast and noisy metal, split into three bucket-sized portions of Southern Fried Rockin' ™. First set offers up songs from the first four albums, including 'The Last Command' and 'The Headless Children', the second sliver condenses 'Crimson Idol' into a 25-minute audio-visual blast of screenings and songs and the final chunk is new album tracks and a few familiar oldies. Add in enough pyrotechnics to scare Rammstein (possibly) and Lawless' 'Elvis' mobile microphone-stand (gulp!) and you have quite a show.

Calling points begin with the HMV Forum in Kentish Town on 21st September, followed by Edinburgh, Newcastle and many more (including a Dublin show which is on sale now) until Bristol on 4th October. We will have tickets on sale from Friday morning at 9am, priced at £19.50 (£22.50 for London).