The Powerpop Weekender is a two day event organised by the guys from the excellent Some Weird Sin Club who put on bands at their regular club nights. Formerly at Buffalo Bar on Highbury Corner and then The Finsbury at Manor House but more recently at a variety of other venues. For the time being they seem to have settled at The Lexington (formerly Clockwork) on Pentonville Road.
I'm writing this over two years after the event and to be honest although I saw a load of bands who I thought were really good most of them were new to me and I can't remember them. Alcohol was possibly involved as well, but probably not very much of it at The Lexington's prices...
The show was an 'all-dayer' and for reasons lost in the mists of time I arrived late and missed opening act Randy Savages, as well as Thee Dagger Debs who I wanted to see and was told I would have liked. I did catch part of the set from Rich Ragany & The Digressions. I've seen Rich a few times with his band The Role Models and liked them as they are more of a rock 'n' roll band, but The Digressions although obviously good with well written songs are far more of a pop group rather than rock and I'm afraid I couldn't really get into them.
The first band I arrived in time to see were Fast Cars. Fitting in with the theme of the event they are a punk/new wave influenced powerpop band. With loud guitar and catchy pop tunes they are very good, but like many of the bands at this event they seem to have passed me by back in the day and I don't remember ever hearing of them until now.
They are one of countless bands who formed back in the late 1970's and 1980's and were good but never 'made it' for a variety of reasons. Some of those bands have reformed in more recent times just for fun and their own personal nostalgia. I think some of the bands at this weekend's mini-festival have reformed just for this event. I'm glad they did as there don't seem to be any duff acts from all the bands I witness over the weekend.
The evening's fun does involve a couple of really good bands who I already knew - the first being
Last Great Dreamers. They are another band who somehow slipped under my radar when they first appeared back in the early 1990's and have only come to my attention in the last couple of years or so - largely thanks to hearing some of their songs on Dave Renegade's excellent weekly 'Dark Heart of Camden' radio show on
Hard Rock Hell Radio. I have since managed to see them a few times and found that as well as having some really great songs they are also a particularly good live band.
Last Great Dreamers have a sound based in the 1970's and 1980's and are sometimes compared with the Quireboys, although possibly more because of their image than their music. But one thing both bands have in common is great songs. With really catchy tuneful pop/rock songs like 'Oblivion Kids', 'White Light Black Heart', 'Ashtray Eyes', 'Dope School', 'New Situation', and '13th Floor Renegades' from their albums past and present they have plenty of great material to choose from.
Then there was
Duncan Reid and The Big Heads. This is very much a band of today, although with roots in the past.
Duncan Reid was the original bass player in 1970's London punk band
The Boys. Not for nothing were they known as 'the Beatles of punk' with their catchy well written pop tunes powered by loud and distorted guitars. Since leaving The Boys Duncan has forged a solo career based on his own songwriting, but with a nod to his old band as at least a couple of their songs such as 'Soda Pressing', and the singalong classic 'First Time', usually find their way into his current band's live set - along with the
Hollywood Brats earlier proto-punk 'Sick On You' later covered by The Boys on their first album in 1977.
However, Duncan is a pretty good songwriter in his own right, and quite prolific as he has four albums under his belt with his current band The Big Heads. On record his songs have a more polished poppy and commercial sound, but when this band plays live they take no prisoners! Nick Hughes is on lead guitar these days, with Duncan on bass/vocals, with the dynamic powerhouse that is Sophie K. Powers also on guitar and Karen Jones pounding the drums at the back and driving everything along.
Self proclaimed as "
The World's Best Looking Heavy Melody Power Pop Punk Band" you'll have to make your own mind up, but as well as having a load of cracking songs they are a very good live act - the amount of energy they put out is phenomenal!Last band on the Saturday were The Number Ones and sadly I can't remember them and can't find any pictures to jog my memory. I'm sure they were good though. So, back on Sunday for more of the same...
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