Ian Astbury is annoyed. There are hurt feelings, perhaps the makings of a fight, among some fans at the lip of the stage and the Cult’s frontman isn’t having it. “This is a celebration,” he sneers. “If you can’t handle that, go sit in the OAP section, and I fuckin’ mean that.”
There is no suggestion, during the second show of a tour marking 40 years since the release of the hard rock survivors’ debut LP Dreamtime, that he and his bandmates will be joining them there any time soon. Doing without the usual trappings of such a victory lap – there are no speeches, no video montages, not even a backdrop with their name on it – they rip through a set that suggests they’d prefer to be viewed not as old stagers but as a lean, mean rock band capable of mixing it with artists half their age.
