Vanlustbader, Longshot, Citizen Keyne, THe Cadelles.

Lev 2 Esquires Bedford. 4th November 2005.

Reviewed by Martin Stapleton / Pictures by Suzy Cook

We were certainly treated to an eclectic mix of bands tonight, courtesy of The Hairgel Boys.

Fast becoming popular visitors to our stage are Biggleswade's finest THE CADELLES. Opening with a fine instrumental time (aptly named 'Intro') and finishing with another instrumental entitled 'Outroduction', it made for an edifyingly enjoyable set. They had sixties Byrds feel to their sound, reminiscent of The Stone Roses but also displaying a Strokes kinda feel to their playing.

As you might be aware, Bedford's premier punk band THE TENDONS are huge favourites of mine and tonight we had their doppelgangers. Hailing from Milton Keynes and making their debut here were Citizen Keyne. This was old school punk wih a vocalist named John who had a salvo of attitude and chat between songs (sound familiar?). The song 'US/UK' had a strong anti-Iraq war message whilst the track 'Chavs' was about Burberry caped 'erberts and Hoodie gangs. Their songs were both amusing and cutting and with a sprinkling of classic punk covers thrown in they were almost as good as The Tendons (Alan, don't worry though- the drummers name was Kevin!)

LONGSHOT are a London based band offering a no-nonsense rock set. The lead singer and guitarist engaged in some good natured banter and their set was very tight.

The only slight problem for me was that their vocalist sang with a very mid-seventies 'Crocodile Rock' Elton John twang to his voice which was very off-putting and a bit annoying!

Headliners were the wonderfully named VANLUSTBADER. No, not a new premier strength German lager but a rag-tag bunch of sleaze rockers from Brisbane, Australia.





The Aussie boys certainly kicked some ass tonight! The current single 'Here We Go Again' chain-sawed it's way through the venue before Vanlustbader pole axed us with 'Let's Roll 'Em'. The boys kept things moving fast a furiously and took me back to seeing a great Australian punk band in the late seventies called The Saints. Great memories and a pleasure to see these latter days exponents of modern Australian music (and, for the record, the Ashes were mentioned only once!).