12/8/2006 Dead Monroe, Red Star Rebels & The Glitterati @ the Purple Turtle

Subject	Dead Monroe, Red Star Rebels & The Glitterati @ the Purple Turtle
PostedDate	8/12/2006
	I seem to be in Camden so much these days I might as well move there and be done with it - if only I could afford it...  Tonight I find myself back at the Purple Turtle yet again - one of my most regular haunts this year. This time I'm there mainly to see to see Dead Monroe. The band get to play to a larger crowd than when they last played here a few weeks ago. They start late due to the Red Star Rebels crew taking ages to gaffertape their band's banner up at the back of the stage. Drummer Ben Monroe cynically remarks "It'll probably fall on my head halfway through the first song". He could be right - a few weeks ago at the same venue I saw guitarist Stubio from Vamps 'N' Gypsies laboriously taping up their own banner that he had proudly made that afternoon before their show. It fell down thirty seconds into the first song!  Dead Monroe play well tonight as usual, and their songs seem to go down well with the slowly growing crowd.  They play some good new songs that they will soon be going into the studio to record with renowned producer Terry Thomas - who also produced their 'turntable hit' single 'Beep Beep' from their days under their previous identity of The Bookoo Movement. Unfortunately they don't play this song tonight, but they still have more than enough strong songs to fill the thirty minutes they are allowed on stage. The place is starting to fill up nicely by the time they finish their set - and the Red Star Rebels banner hasn't (quite) fallen down. Next band on are Wry. After a few minutes I have had enough of their sub-grunge racket - it almost makes Sonic Youth seen tuneful.  I wasn't planning on staying to watch the second band anyway and it's a relief to know that I won't be missing anything decent as I head out the door. My plan is to jump on the tube and head three stops north to Tufnel Park where I'll catch northern punk 'n' roll oiks The Coyote Men at the Dirty Water Club - then get the tube back in time to catch the headline act at the Purple Turtle. I arrive at Mornington Crescent station to discover that the dreaded Northern Line isn't running between Camden Town and Finchley - these days they seem to shut about half the tube network at weekends - as if the service wasn't already shoddy enough the rest of the time.  I abandon my plan to attend two gigs in one night - I probably wouldn't make it in time on the bus, and it's starting to rain and I don't fancy a soaking as I'm in just jeans and a T-shirt.  It's not long before I'm back in the Purple Turtle and Wry are once again assailing my ears. Towards the end of their set the singer singles out someone standing near the back and says "Yes you - the tall guy!" I realise he is talking to me. "What do you think of it so far?" he unwisely asks. I make a vague 'so-so' hand gesture - not really wanting to slag them off or humiliate them. "Oh no!" the singer goes in mock horror "He says...!" and he mimicks my hand gesture. "Shall we go on?" he risks asking. I nod a 'yes' - well I expect some people were enjoying their set even if I wasn't and I thought they should go on wether I liked it or not - I would have in their place. Not that they'd have taken any notice if I'd told them to stop anyway. Fortunately, they only had a couple of songs left. Next on were Red Star Rebels - minus their banner which had now been taken down as it was obviously going to fall down anyway. I've seen this band quite a few times even though I think their 80's style cheese is mouldy and well past it's sell-by date. There seems no escaping them though as they always seem to be on the same bill with other bands I DO want to see - even as far out of town as Hertford. I have to admit that they are very good at what they do and they make an  effort to put on a big ROCK show - even if they do seem to try far to hard to be G'N'R (or more worringly - Bon Jovi) instead of themselves. One redeeming feature tonight though was that the singer had lost that awful hippy hat! I've heard that he knew everybody hated it and he only wore it to piss people off. Hopefully, we've seen the last of it now... I was actually quite surprised when they played a new song that I actually liked - something about 'Hollywood'.  However, they then took two steps back by playing the truly frightful piece of mouldy old corn that is 'In It For The Kicks'.  I'd been looking forward to seeing headliners The Glitterati as I'd seen them once or twice before and quite enjoyed their slightly glammed-up take on G'N'R and thought they had a handful of good songs. I don't know what had gone wrong between then and now, but tonight they just seemed a mess. Unlike before, no songs stood out as being particularly good and they really didn't seem to deserve the headline slot tonight. I may not like Red Star Rebels much, but on this occasion I have to admit they were a far better act than the headliners. Judging by the noticably thinning crowd during the Glitterati's set I don't think I am alone in that opinion, although to be fair some of the people leaving probably had last trains to catch. I almost wished I had too.