Yungblud cowboys up in America

THE BRITISH ROCKER IS ON A MISSION TO UNITE MUSIC LOVERS OF ALL AGES AND CONQUER THE COUNTRY HE'S ALWAYS LOOKED UP TO AS A HARD-ROCK LODESTAR

- MIKAEL WOOD

HON WING CHIU For The Times

FOUR HOURS OR SO before he's due onstage at the Hollywood Palladium, Yungblud is bouncing around one of the venue's dressing rooms with live-wire intensity to spare. Tonight is the first date of a North American tour behind the British rock singer's latest album, "Idols" - outside on Sunset Boulevard, a couple hundred fans are already lined up in the broiling late-August heat - and to mark the occasion someone has bestowed him with an overstuffed basket of treats from back home. "Spotted dick - you know what that is?" he asks me as he rummages through the goodies. "Oh, and here's a Curly Wurly." Down the hall, the members of Yungblud's band are in a separate dressing room, chilling as an episode of "Top Gear" plays on a TV. Yet in here the singer is "buzzing," as he puts it too amped to relax even after having just flown in from a fairly sleepless stint in Japan. "I'm just excited to get onstage and kick ass," he says, which is pretty much what he goes on to do: Shirtless over a pair of black leather chaps, Yungblud gets the place roaring with a tuneful and proudly dramatic hard-rock sound that openly evokes the likes of Queen and Guns N' Roses.

Not long into the show, he unfurls a homemade banner that reads "CONQUER AMERICA"; not long after that, he gives a little speech about the power of music, then belts a cover of "Changes" by Black Sabbath.

"I want you to f-look at the person next to you right now, and I want you to tell them that you f-love them," he instructs the crowd, which happily obeys his order. " 'Cause this is rock 'n' roll, and it's all about love."

With a number of rock-world celebs in the house, including Glenn Danzig and the former GNR drummer Matt Sorum, Yungblud's sold-out Palladium gig was something like the opening salvo of an aggressive stateside push by the 28-year-old Doncaster native, whose real name is Dominic Harrison.