We would like to thank Andy Bartlett for his live review of CRADLE OF FILTH at the Portsmouth Pyramids. ———- Seeing so many proper dressed up Goths in one place will be sight to remember for ages and ages, that was the scene at Portsmouth Pyramids Centre as Cradle of Filth were to show themselves for the first time in the city of Portsmouth. Dedication of these hardcore Cradle fans was shown when the queue grew to great lengths half an hour before the doors were due to open. It was almost like a carnival atmosphere as the majority of the crowd was all gothed up, face paint, make up, new rocks, this was obviously a highly anticipated show. To many of the Portsmouth alternate scene, the announcement of The Pyramids being a venue for this short tour was a big shock. The support band for the evening was Scottish band ‘Mendeed’. This young band provided a great warm up for Cradle. Cradle came on shortly after and played a strong, lengthy set, with impressive stage props and dancing gargoyles, any fan of heavy metal would have enjoyed this. The room went pitch black as Filth were to enter on stage, a thunderous Cradle chant started and the band got to work explosively. I have only really got into Cradle through their recent release ‘Nymphetamine’, from which they played three songs : ‘Gilded C*nt’, ‘Nemesis’ and title track ‘Nymphetamine’, the band ended very strongly with the legendary ‘From The Cradle To Enslave’. Nearer to the end of the set, Cradle took a page from Iron Maidens book when a giant monster, almost like Iron Maidens ‘Eddie’ came on the stage, this was topped of with fireworks from the gargoyle dancers for the finale. For a very high profile event in a small venue like this, Cradle put on a very entertaining show, they had one of the best crowd reactions I have ever seen at a Portsmouth gig ever. The crowd clearly put all their effort into showing their passion for Cradle, as for most of them, this would probably have been the first time they have seen them and the likeliness of Cradle returning to this rocking city would be remote. REMEMBER: CRADLE OF FILTH – NYMPHETAMINE SPECIAL EDITION – OUT NOW