On July 23, 2019, at the Schlachthof club in Hesse, Germany, for the very first time Mike Kerr stepped onto a stage as an abstinent man. The decision to quit drinking, and to forego drugs, had been taken during a break in the recording of Royal Blood’s third album, Typhoons. After boarding a flight from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, in a bar in Sin City the singer, bassist and keyboardist with one the century’s great British breakout bands arrived at the decision that it was time to stop bending the elbow. He’d always imagined that one day he’d stop, just not as early as this. Forty – that would be the age at which he’d step away from the kinds of liquids that fuel the music industry. That was his dream. But in a hostelry in Nevada, aged 28, a voice in his head warned him that if he ...
