11/11/2010 The Heavy Metal Kids & Peckham Cowboys @ The Garage

Subject	The Heavy Metal Kids & Peckham Cowboys @ The Garage
PostedDate	11/11/2010
	It's the second gig of the week with an interesting lineup. It's also the second night of the week when members of the Quireboys are gracing the stages of London Town - there seems to be no escape from them at the moment! Due to my train being late I miss most of the set from Heartbreakers tribute band L.A.M.F.. God knows how many other bands have covered 'Chinese Rocks' over the years - I'm guilty of more than a couple of them! This lot do it better than most for sure. First Quireboy spotted tonight is Paul Guerin (on bass for a change) playing with this band. While watching L.A.M.F. I am aware of someone standing beside me - I look and see it's 'Nasty Nick' from Eastenders in a long black leather coat - more about him later... Next band is Peckham Cowboys. This is a fairly new London band featuring amongst other reprobates Marc Eden from Men & Gods and ex-Quireboy Guy Bailey - neither of whom are originally from Peckham! This band put on an entertaining show. Actually, it's a bit of a pose-a-thon with Slash's mate and nearly singer of Velvet Revolver Marc Eden sometimes being up-staged by his bass player! Regulars to the Camden and Soho club scenes will probably recognise Andi-M from gigs as well as Decadence although he's been more often seen on guitar instead of bass in other bands over the years. I'm not sure if the band's frontman is fully aware of how much shameless posing and outrageous shape throwing is going on next to or behind him - but it's fun to watch!  The Faces are possibly the most obvious influence - not surprising really as Marc has been known to sing in Faces tribute band 2Faced, and Guy is a founder member of a band that arguably based their entire career on the Faces songs 'Stay With Me' and 'Having A Real Good Time'. Or I could have been Misled.  As well as being interesting to watch, I think Peckham Cowboys are actually the best sounding band of the night. Tonight's headline band are an underground legend from the 1970's who were nearly massive, but their singer's self destructive streak snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The Heavy Metal Kidswere poised for success, supporting the likes of KISS on an American tour and teaming up with one of Britain's top record producers before it all came crashing down around them. I think it's fair to say this band were ahead of their time and were certainly an influence on what became the UK punk scene - although they may have looked a bit 'glam' the Heavy Metal Kids were a punk rock band before anybody had ever heard of punk. To say this band's original singer was a bit of a character would be a bit of an understatement! The late Gary Holton is better known to the general public for his acting role as cheeky cockney Wayne in a certain TV series about a bunch of British builders at large on the building sites of Dussledorf in the 1980's - had he lived long enough he would surely have landed a role in Eastenders and been up there with Dirty Den in the 'lovable rogues' stakes. Unfortunately, Gary lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle a little too hard and became one of it's tragic casualties... The Heavy Metal Kids went though a lot of lineup changes first time round - guitarists in particular flying through the revolving door. Things haven't changed much since they reformed several years ago and made another album - check out their MySpace if you want to find out more. After having a guitarist handle vocal duties after reforming, the revolving door has swung into action again and original guitarist Cosmo has returned to the fold - the band now featuring three original members. So how do you replace a character like Gary Holton? You can't really, but they have done the next best thing and replaced an actor/frontman with another actor/frontman - yes, it's John Altman AKA 'Nasty Nick' from Eastenders! This seems really natural and works very well. This is a guy who knows exactly what he's doing - not only does he fit the part really well, but he was actually a friend of the late Gary Holton and has a genuine insight into his personality. The band are pretty good musicians - well most of them ought to be by now! As well as starting to get out and play a few gigs, they are working on new material and already have a few songs in the can - including new single 'Uncontrollable'. To be honest, this sounds a lot like a re-write of their best known song 'Delirious', but it shows they are still heading in the same direction. All in all it's been an interesting and entertaining night at The Garage, although this is certainly a less rock 'n' roll and now far more 'corporate' venue than it used to be - which is reflected in the rip-off bar prices; £4.10 for a bottle of Newcastle Brown is as outrageous as the Underworld!