| Another Hotter Than Hell night at the Purple Turtle, with excellent value for money at four bands for £5. First up were The Blaggers. This was the first time I've seen them, although I'd already heard they were really good. If you like your punk rock like it used to be in the mid to late 70's before it became a cliched spiked and Mohicaned Kings Road parody then you should like this bunch of chancers.
Their singer says they are "The best shit band you've ever seen" - I think that sums it up pretty well. They are fronted by infamous 'Billy Idol lookalike' Ribsy - a character well known in underground circles and often seen helping out at Towers Of London or Suffrajets (and related bands) shows. This band don't have a stereotyped 'punk' image - in fact I was slightly alarmed when the guitarist first plugged in that this could be yet another crap Libertines sound-a-like band. I needn't have worried - this was the most out and out punk rock and 'in your face' band I've seen in ages! This was dirty and raw - and sounded far better live than the stuff on their MySpace page.
Ribsy is possibly the most outrageous and offensive frontman I've ever seen - but also highly entertaining! The first thing he did was to remove the mic from it's stand and hurl the stand into where the crowd would have been if anyone dared come that close - saying "Well I won't be needing that!" At some point he probably managed to offend most people in the room - especially any Americans - they came in for a lot of stick!
Think Johnny Rotten mixed with Iggy Pop - only with more 'attitude'. Donny Tourette seems quite tame in comparison. And they even have some decent tunes - such as their anthem 'You've Been Blagged' and the catchy singalong number '123Cunt'. Yes really. I saw the Sex Pistols last week - The Blaggers wipe the floor with them! 
Next up were Bloodline. They didn't look like G'N'R, but they sounded exactly like them - only without Slash. Or any decent songs. Excellent musicians, as all the (many) bands doing this generic 80's glam/sleaze thing are - but totally forgettable without any half decent material. The rosy cheeked singer spent the entire set doing the best Axl impression I've ever heard, but didn't make any attempt to look like him.
In fact he looked more like a refugee from an indie band - that hairstyle - what was he thinking? 
Bloodline were followed by the always entertaining Kitty Hudson - a band with a whole bunch of catchy tunes.
This lot understand what so many other bands seem to be missing - without memorable tunes you are nothing.
All the glam/sleaze clones pay so much attention to their 'attitude' and image and the music seems to come a poor second.
All these bands look and sound the same, but you remember Kitty Hudson because they have good songs. 
The 'headline' band tonight are Kid Ego. I think the picture says it all really - you can tell exactly what they sound like just from looking at it.
Just read what I said about Bloodline but imagine them with a singer who looks like this one instead. I'm bored of all this - I can't be arsed to write any more...  |
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