A great night out at the Brudenell with Sledge, John and Steve in the company of 3 punky bands, sporting many tattoos, who knew how to rip it up.

First up were The Franceens from York who stole the show for me. A great set of high energy guitar backed with melodic bass and thumping drums. The lead guitarist/singer Dan, leaped off stage at one point and kissed the guy in front of me…..before getting back on stage to announce it was his (cooler) brother and it was his birthday…..then jumped down again to hug him and play in front of him one more time, before giving his guitar away and walking off to the back of the venue! They were worth the entrance fee alone. Looking forward to playing their N/A EP (recorded live at the Woolpack pub).

Next up were ‘In Evil Hour‘ – great punk sound with a charismatic lead singer Al, who was obviously enjoying herself. there was one guy determined to dance at the front and we all gave him a wide berth in which to do it. Some great bass playing.

Headliners ‘The Creepshow‘ are from Canada and were like a slicker version of their fellow countrymen ‘The Brains‘. They were having fun and got the crowd going in a North American style “Let’s see those hands…” Lead singer Kenda “Twisted” Legaspi came into the crowd on a couple of occasions getting the crowd involved.

Someone in the crowd shouted that the keyboard player (Kristian “The Reverend” Rowles) looked like Boy George, after which he kept trying to work out the chords for ‘Karma Chameleon’ on the keys. For the encore, he and  Kenda were supposed to do a sensitive version of Crazy but it ended up as a mash-up with Karma Chameleon – very funny. What a great Thursday night!

Bob the Chiropodist

Jah Wobble has been at the centre of a lot of the music I have loved, for a long time. I remember buying Metal Box (in a Metal Box) along with ‘London Calling’ Xmas 79 with money my Grandad gave me. My crappy stereo at the time couldn’t cope with Wobbles gigantic basslines until a couple of 2p’s were blu-tacked to the end of the arm – gouging even deeper cuts into the vinyl. It felt like music from another planet…..and tonight, he started with a Drum and Bass version of ‘Socialist’, which set the standard for the night.

During the 2 hour set he played jazz covers of film tunes (being a geezer I guess he had to do ‘The Sweeney’ – and to hear the bass of ‘Get Carter’ get wobble-ised was a treat), old Ska standards (This clip gives captures the atmosphere but not the bass pummeling your chest) Invaders of the Heart beauties (‘Visions of You’ ‘Becoming More Like God’) and PiL tunes (‘Public Image’ ‘Poptones’).

I can’t tell you how much I loved this show – He was funny with his intro’s, played great percussion and was obviously having fun. He was the band leader getting the most out of very talented musicians who could play anything he threw at them, getting them to shine….but the bass was the star of the show.

If you get the chance, go and see him – you won’t be disappointed

Bob the Chiropodist