Lubby Nugget. supported by Sprokit.
Saturday 23rd Nov 2002, Bedford Esquires.

This particular Scratch the surface night was advertised on posters as being '4 bands for 4 pounds'. The line up for the night, started out as Lubby Nugget, Howard's Alias, Manboob, and AKA Charlie Brown.
After various cancelations, a fight, (courtesy of Peanukle) and a car crash (hope the Charlie Brown guys are alright). The eventual line up was Ampthill pop punks Sprokit and ska outfit Lubby Nugget.

Sprokit, despite having to fill up more set space than anyone had really intended, really pulled out the stops at this, their third time playing upstairs at Esquires. They deliver to the audience a mix of old school punk like 'Rancid' and 'No FX' with more melodic pop bands like 'The Ataris'. Their set was mostly their own material with a couple of super cool covers, including 'Bad Religion' - You, and 'Abba's' smash hit - Mamma Mia. Their set also included a suprise appearance of the guitarist from an up and coming band called 'First Words'. The band worked well in this format with their usual lead guitarist as a lead singer/front man. Their tuneful pop punk stylings really got the whole crowd going and created a brilliant atmosphere which continued into the set of the headliners Lubby Nugget.

Lubby Nugget are a ska band. They play ska music and they do it very well. They have a horn section and they incorporate punk rock with reggae and other types of Jamaican music like mento. They sounded very professional as a unit and they delivered the songs that they played, confidently which is essential for a band hoping to 'Scratch the Surface' as the phrase goes. They got a good reaction from most of the crowd, who enjoyed their style of music, but that didn't apply to everyone. Maybe it's because there are so many ska bands around at the moment, maybe it's because most of the people knew the band members of Sprokit and only really came to see them. Either way Lubby Nugget failed to impress the whole of Esquires as convincingly as their predecessors on the bill:- Sprokit!

Dominic Critchley