Friday 30th April 2004, Samuel Whitbread School Shefford Road Clifton.
LE FROGS: I don’t know quite what the French Connection here is, as I’m not familiar with this band. Is the lead singer French? Some of the song titles were French and got an English translation for the crowd included with the welcome stage banter throughout. One of the songs – dedicated to Monsieur Petit (Mr. Little) the main music teacher who I know gets a lot of respect from the pupils of the school and I since found out also from pupils of his previous school before promotion (salute you sir!).
There was quite a shaky start to this opening act and it was amazing to see how much their confidence grew as the set progressed. They demonstrated good vocal and guitar work, especially through some of the closing songs and out of all the bands that played, they had the best and most definite ending to the gig, with a loud crash of drums while standing up to hit them; They certainly just didn’t peter out…. Strange then that later, they were back for more!
REGAL PILOT: Don’t know much about these either, they had a stripy shirted singer with quite a young sounding voice and rather a little drummer dwarfed on the mighty drum-kit, he seemed to play exceptionally well without hitting too hard – despite missing a symbol at one point.
The songs didn’t seem to differ much, except for the System Of A Down edged song which was good to hear but they didn’t seem to hold the crowds interest for long.
KILL THE SILENCE: I heard my mate Owen was in a band and when its style was described, I was looking forward to hearing it; he’s certainly a hyper-active drummer who swapped with an equally good drummer during the set to dance on the stage and then into the crowd – never seen anything like it. The energetic Welshman being I thought, like the human counterpart of Animal – the drummer on the Muppets. - Nice one Owen, speaking of sheep – their woolly haired blond singer put in some vocals that when I first heard, said to myself – “yea this is more like it” having much more vitality than the first couple of bands and that deep grungy crunchy guitar sound was awesome. Very Rage Against and a great watch able performance. Later on there was the first invited stage invasion of the night. Ha! - crowd participation or what?
Speaking of stage invasions didn’t LE FROG make an unexplained re – appearance? They came back with some really good blues like guitar-work making me think they were perhaps a bit more diverse than I had first thought and wouldn’t mind hearing more.
WEIGHTLOSS: Now your talking, I’m on familiar territory here, seen them many times and know every man jack of em – all top guys as well.
Ska at its very very best. They have one of the best drummers and bassists around with (Lil) Phil, knocking out a speedy rhythm and the be-hatted, bearded Ant employing various bass techniques throughout the songs, one of my favourite being ‘Make Friends With All Your Enemies’ with its gangster like brassy tones. They have a great union of trumpet and sax, with varied tunes that allow different band-members to shine with their playing and nothing intricate but some capable guitar-work from my good mate Goody who introduced me to these fests in the first place. They all go to form a rather ‘class act’ which ran throughout, making up for the ending which just seemed to have petered out to nothing at the end.
COUNTERFIET: Not a very good start and had to go for a ‘take two’ from the beginning, definitely good when they got going though and I could see a bit of potential here. Iv never heard ‘Teenage Kicks’ covered before and this was a rather inspired and good rendition.
There were some good guitar licks throughout and some effort put into the singing, he would probably be fuhrer …ious if I said that with his black quiff, looked a bit like a younger Mr. Hitler. – Hope they keep this band going though.
THE WANNS: ‘The Return Of’ with no progression to their sound but just as enjoyable. I don’t think I ever missed any of their gigs; it hadn’t changed either, every ingredient you could think of was there, with bits from their bands history – Ciaran on traffic-cone (well he played the climbing frame last year with Manboob), Owen guest dancing, also ‘No Woman No Cry’, and ‘Ya Mums Ya Dad’, making up some of the tuneful songs, the Metallica riff, the old shoe throwing routine and of course what you cant possibly have a Wanns gig without, which was that they even went to the trouble of including the obligatory ‘technical difficulties’- there’s authentic historic detail for you! Karl even shared his bass playing with someone else during the set.
Apart from a bit of dressing up, everything was thrown into the set (and at it!!) including a Weightloss riff, shoes, paper, bog-rolls, you name it. The band members were ducking and Ciaran threatening to throw the traffic-cone at the crowd. Everyone’s favourite stage member – Fester – Mr. Wann himself finding trouble at one point finding a working mic. Ha – it was just an on stage party, if you don’t like them then your taking music a bit too seriously. The return of the Wanns – a one off only and a historic event in its own right!
BORDERLINE: Played to their loyal home-base who have all grown up with this band, they have played loads of gigs and I felt they respectfully compromised their set to allow other bands to get more time to play, there was also some dedications to the people putting on the gig and the other bands, which was a cool gesture and incidentally were the only band to put in a few words at a Tribute gig they performed last year for one of the people instrumental in starting them off in Bedford, (Sid Worth).
Along with Weightloss they have one of the best drummers and I thought with this band some guitar-work that was heavier than the early days – ‘keep that up’!
What with loads of stage banter and some great new songs including a great new one called ‘Stargazer’ soon to come out on their new C.D. They have loads of material now and are always keeping their set fresh with newer songs and could have kept the crowd going for ages.
ALFIE: The first thing I noticed was how much they had progressed since last time I had seen them, with Rich – the singer not knowing whether to wear a woolly hat or a cap…. So he wore both and put in a good vocal edge with a lot less mucking about than previous gigs and I swear Jo’s much improved drumming never used to be that good (well it didn’t) good job probably that he drummed in this gig after and not before singing for Borderline, as he would have been fair knackered. Despite a song called ‘Shoes’- there was no shoe throwing – just a huge stage invasion. I was up there myself, making sure at the same time that a guitar on the floor didn’t get trodden on. At one point there was a tall guy standing upright, supported on peoples shoulders before collapsing in to a caught crowd surf. – What a life!
Also in the crowd not actually playing I noticed members of Copyright, Scullka, CATCF, Summerfall, Insomnia, Inertia, Sphere and Iron Maiden – (no not really , I just made that one up!).
Well done and credit to all the teachers who put the gig on and the two men of the match Joe Henley and Matt (Goody) Gooderson for putting on the gig and both performing in more than one band each.
Review by Keith - Bedford Metal - www.bedfordmetal.tk.