Plan A supported by Bowfinger and The Old Bastard
Saturday 14th April 2001, Bedford Esquires.

The gig began with a set by The Old Bastard, a truly original band that challenged the audience. The band plays a mesmerising mixture of musical styles interspersed with spoken word narratives, which was a true alter native to the standard Esquires fodder of punk and grunge bands on alternative nights. Most of the people present did not understand the band at all, while those that did watched appreciatively and applauded the band after each song. The most impr essive part of the perfomance was the bands stage presence, and their total non-adherence to musical trends (a true alternative band) that did not pander to any musical genre but combined every thing into their own soundscape.

By contrast Bowfinger pl ayed a totally standard ska-punk-by-numbers, including ALL of the cliched riffs, onstage jokes and vocal pattern. Some of the younger members of the audience did jump around and mosh during their set, but most people just found it boring and cliched, as w ell as sickly sweet.

And now onto the headliners.. Plan A are a band mostly famous for being fronted by Jeff Wildheart, and they delivered exactly what would be expected from a former Wildhearts member . The songwriting may not have matched that of his former band, but the raw and infectious energy of the songs came across very well live, the whole band oozing stage presence and confidence. They were a worthy headlinig band, and rounded off the gig very well, even coming back for a furious encore.