Caffeine supported by 4ft Fingers and New Road
Saturday 13 April 2002, Bedford Esquires.

New Road played a lot better than the last time I caught them, perhaps it had something to do with the good turn out which was certainly healthier than ‘Kilkus’ the week before. You can always tell when New Road are on because of their cool trademark ‘stolen street sign’ above them, which they remembered to take down after their set this time. There was a lively response from a particularly good crowd who appeared quite entertained by the on stage shenanigans, including bike pump water pistols being fired at the audience. The instrument playing was faultless, and the sound was especially good from these’ battle of the band’ winning rebel rousers.

This must be one of the best middle bands I’ve seen in ages – 4 FT. FINGERS, I thought this was the best band of the night; they had the crowd going straight away. With a lively opening song, it would have been tempting for them to have kept up the momentum but they suddenly stopped and started chatting to the crowd before carrying on. The band had an able front man who had the balance of having a great stage confidence but not coming over as being big headed, showing a natural stage presence, and an aptitude in the art of getting the most out of the crowd. The punk style ‘brush’ headed drummer played particularly well, the guitar playing was so good it was almost a metal band (I even noticed a Motley Crue patch on his jacket!) - disproving the legend that Punk is just heavy metal played badly. 4 Ft. Fingers have all the ability to cheer you up while playing with all the energy of a triple espresso laced with sparkly Cola!

It would have been a tough job for CAFFEINE to keep up the momentum but they carried it off well all the same, they seem to have a lot of experience, and created a really good sound. The band had the inclusion of a sax but unfortunately it wasn’t easily heard, it could have been louder, surprising this was not picked up in the sound check. - The tunes were really good though, and more than made up the bands Ska sound, with each member enjoying what they were doing, and also enjoying the positive feedback, and had a good merchandise area set up also. Towards the end of the gig people seemed to disappear fast, with quite a few people putting on their coats and going.

All the bands were good, and respect must also go to the people in the lively crowd, which made this one of the better nights to differ from the ones described in the ‘Our Sad Scene’ section of the message board. Everyone appeared suitably happy (apart from the bouncer of course).

Keith Pickering