Had I known Andy Stock was opening up I’d have arrived twenty minutes earlier. If anyone deserves support at the moment, it’s him. Not only that, but the man has the most glorious, soulful voice which I was gutted to only hear three minutes of. Clearly, the vast majority of the one hundred or more (a fantastic turnout for a cold, wintry Monday) were here to see the debut performance from The Neon Tigers – headed by Ex-Clam Rich Peacock – but to see Andy on stage, albeit only briefly, pouring out his soul was a wonderful sight and sound.

Preceding the Neon Tigers in front of an overly excited, highly expectant crowd was not an easy task, though one that Phil King coped with excellently. Playing four songs – including a decent cover of ‘Come Together’ – he played and sung with bucketfuls of emotion, for the most part keeping the audience’s attention which itself was no mean feat. Maybe the reason no one was leaving their front of stage position was in preparation for what was to follow. Reading that sentence back it sounds a little harsh; his performance was indeed a good one, though I’ll keep the sentence in.

I make no excuses for focusing this review on the Neon Tigers. Rarely does a debut gig carry such a weight of expectancy, but rightly so, before their ‘split’ Clams were probably the biggest crowd puller playing locally. Seemingly, Rich Peacock has been working with this new band, made up from ex-members of Uncle Pablos Magic Potion (Jon – guitar), Shattered Glass Cougars (Gary – bass) and Grifter (Jon – drums) for several months, with little fuss, apparently only making the group public knowledge a month or so ago. A demo handed to me a few weeks ago with advice to expect “something different” was received both unexpectedly and excitedly, and whilst it took a few listens to get the Clams out of my head, once I had it was clear that these Neon Tigers had something special going on.

Thirty seconds (too late) into the opening song, Out Of Control, and Rich’s vocals appeared, backed by a kind of bar room bluesy Faces riff. The sound was full, energetic, driven by keys, and very, very impressive. From The Faces, stabs of Ben Folds appeared on the mellower second tune, and then the set came alive on the third, ‘The Boy Needs Help’. After an opening minute sat behind his keys, playing what sounded like the opening to a generic Meat Loaf tune, Rich got to his feet, decorated with Stipe-style eyeliner, threw his shirt to the floor and strapped on his double-necked axe. Cheers, wolf-whistles, and the sound of baited breath as he launched Clams-style (sorry… easy reference) into four minutes of classic heavy rock. See, those last three words have huge mainstream overtones, and so many bands look and sound so goddam boring when the set-up is so straightforward. But, when it’s done this well it’s quite magnificent.

For a debut gig the performance was almost impeccable. One or two minor malfunctions, but the band were tight and the set seamless, Jon’s drumming was unspectacular but solid, backed by Gary’s equally solid but more adventurous bass. Swathes of Billy Joel (no, not fucking ‘Uptown Girl’) and Queen in equal measures dominated the next thirty minutes, with the obvious difference from Clams (apart from the use of keys) being the focus on the lyrics and melody. These songs were less riff orientated, more structured with choruses and verses opposed to heavy jams, which may not appeal to all Clam fans but hey… so what? With the focus on a heavy groove or riff, live music is more instantly accessible; there was far more subtlety here, but the changes in tempo and melody meant the tunes were more dynamic, more anthemic. The inevitable encore produced possibly the best song of the entire set, and the fact that it appeared a last minute decision to play it sums up the quality on offer here. Any hype leading up to their next gig – Sat 23 Jan at Champions – you may just want to believe.

The Skinny Skulls were clearly on a hiding to nothing. To maintain the high created by The Neon Tigers was pretty much an impossibility. They tried, they really tried, and whilst at times their prog-punk-rock was both watchable and well received, it was inevitable that by the time they’d played their first three songs half of the audience had left the building. That said, it was only about three of their songs that I actually enjoyed; not for the first time I found their set too long and drawn out (a bit like their actual songs in fact). The band played with a large amount of spirit and ability, and indeed there were several moments to admire, but the fact that their set was also hindered slightly by technical difficulties doesn’t make up for the fact that after twenty minutes I was bored.

AFF probably wished they’d played two hours earlier – to one hundred instead of sixteen. Their fairly generic uptempo indie-rock had much to admire, though whilst their songs never outstayed their welcome there was little to set them apart from their peers. If the band are as young as they look their playing was excellent, and I’d certainly be keen to give them another couple of listens to see if there was more in these songs than initially apparent. I think the band announced a name change at the end of their set – the announcement was muffled slightly awkwardly so I didn’t catch it – though I remember thinking it was an even worse name than AFF. Ones to watch. Possibly.

For a look at a couple of Neon Tigers videos from the gig, as well as an album of photos, take a look at our audio/visual page…

For an alternate view on this gig, take a look at Dorset Rock Online – a spanking new rock music website formed recently by Dan Renton – the better looking half of the recently disbanded In Rock We Trust.

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