Face Of Cheam

The support for this show came from Pat McManus once of the Mamas Boys. He was good, a bit over indulgent at times with the highlights being tributes to Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore, the latter relying on the riff from Over The Hills And Far Away. Having seen them many times previously you know what to expect from the Quireboys and that is a rocking good show. A few country esque numbers added to the set such as Roses and Rings and Mother Mary whilst new song Too Much Of A Good Thing was straight AC/DC mode. Top show despite Sex Party still being absent from the set, they ended with Dirty Town instead.

What happens when you leave your mate to get tickets. You end up with level 3 tickets up in the gods. We did slightly better by getting to level two via the bar area but not great. Still it looked packed on the floor and we may have been better off. The Tribes album Baby is the best release of 2012 so far and this short set, padded out by a few b-sides which were the low lights, showcased this. Sing along chorus's and loud guitars, this was entertaining. Shame when they played Kingston a couple of months earlier we hadn't heard of them. Also very scary as per one of their songs they were children in the mid nineties! Set - Whenever / Girlfriend / Sappho/ Corner of An English Field / Himalaya / Nightdriving / Walking In The Street / Face To Face / Not So Pretty / Halfway Home / Bad Apple / Alone With Friends / When My Day Comes / We Were Children /// Coming Of Age

A sold out show and I arrive five minutes before they band come on. However, I get straight to the bar and served immediately. The majority of the crowd are in their late teens and either too young or too poor to drink in the venue, especially at £4.20 a pint. Another US band sounding like Paramore a cynic might say. However We Are The In Crowd are slighly different with the guitarist sharing vocals with the female lead singer on many of the songs. They opened with Rumour Mill from their latest album Best Intentions. This was the basis of their set with great singalong rock songs such as Kiss Me Again and This Isn't Goodbye It's BRB being highlights. A short set and no covers alas but as new bands go I can see them playing much bigger venues than this in the near future.

Last year Luke Haines released a concept album about 70s and 80s British wrestling. Here he was in London to perform this. No band, just him an acoustic guitar, a casio VL-tone and a roadie dressed up as Kendo Nagasaki giving out liver sausage sandwiches to the audience during 'Saturday Afternoon'. The wrestling songs are played very well with good interaction between Haines and the crowd, with the artist explaining why you should never unmask a masked man. After the wrestling songs had finished, Luke Haines then read pieces about his pop strike from his last book, Post Everything. Very funny he was too especially the piece when he was on the radio four today programme. After the reading he played a few songs from his last couple of albums including the great song about Peter Sutcliffe Leeds United and the autobiographal 21st Century Man. A surprising lack of songs he performed with his 90s group The Autuers, he did end with Showgirl the oldest song in the set. A great evening. Set :- Inside The Restless Mind Of Rollaball Rocco / Gorgeous George / Linda's Head / Saturday Afternoon / Big Daddy Got A Casio VL Tone / Haystacks In Heaven // Reading from Post Everything / Leeds United / Walton Hop / Death Of Sarah Lucas / English Southern Man / 21st Century Man //// Alan Vega Said / Child Brides / Baader Meinhoff / Showgirl

The Dirty Youth are in London to promote their new single Rise Up which opened the set. A Welsh rock band with a purple haired femaile singer they are a less melodic Paramore type band. Fight is a splendid song and surprisingly played relatively early in the short 50 minute set. The show ended with a cover of Rage Against The Machine In the Name Of seguing into Jazzy Jeffs Boom Boom Shake The Room, a mesh that was as strange as it sounds but led to a lot of headbanging!