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Retro rockers Silveroller wrap up their UK headline run in London this weekend. Here’s what we gleaned from the At Dawn tour.

Retro never sounded more right

Looking for a band to fill that Temperance Movement void in your life? Find yourself reminiscing about Paul Rodgers at his peak? Or imagining The Answer with a smiling Scouse frontman? Silveroller fit the bill as the fashionably retro five-piece continue to forge a reputation as the most exciting classic rock newcomers on the planet. Charismatic, impossibly cool and with the songwriting craft to match, it’s impossible to predict just how far this eye-catching band could go. But we’re booking a front row seat for the journey.

Another string to their bow

Losing Aaron Keylock could have been a critical blow for Silveroller, given the hotshot guitarist’s peerless talent. And following the band’s previous run of UK shows — in support of De Wolff — it was difficult to imagine how Jonnie Hodson and co. would cope without captain Keylock. The answer? Newbie Joey Smith. Comfortably stepping into Keylock’s shoes, the hirsute axe slinger cruised through a series of fan favourites and even brought his own songs to the table. Triumph in adversity? It sounds like it.

Jonnie be good

If 70s-fuelled swagger, flared jeans and flowery shirts are your style and meaty blues rock anthems deliver the substance, then your frontman needs something about him. It’s not easy to pull off Silveroller’s heady brand of back to the future bombast but Jonnie Hodson carries it off with aplomb. Easy on the eye and happy to chat, he’s the perfect all-round package. As Whitesnake’s founder skips through YouTube videos in front of the fire at his Lake Placid lodge, he’ll no doubt recognise plenty of early Coverdale in the stagecraft of Silveroller’s flamboyant frontman.

Dawn of a new era

With Smith on guitar, Dylan Evans on bass and the boy from Brazil on keys, Silveroller can approach the future with confidence. The At Dawn headline tour featured the brilliant Black Crow, sparkling Turn To Gold and the quite wonderful Ways Of Saying — all staples of a truly spectacular live set. But the new music suggests this is the end of the beginning, rather than the beginning of the end, for post-Keylock Silveroller. It’s not been an easy transition but it would be foolish to bet against the new saviours of classic rock.