I said let's all meet up in the year 2000/Won't it be strange when were all fully grown

Friday 19 June - and the start of a rather busy weekend. We started the evening at The Duchess but sadly the headline act, An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump and one of their supports, Not Cool, had pulled out of the gig. Undaunted, we hung around to see how the other two bands would turn out. First on were Screaming Banshee Aircrew, hailing from London/Leicester/Leeds, and consisting of Mister Ed (vocals and theatricals), Jo Violet (bass guitar, violin and vocals), Chris Banshee (guitar, drums and vocals), and Neal Unreal (guitar, synth, drums and vocals). I don't think these are their real names! SBA are a Goth rock band in the finest tradition of black outerwear.

Their set kicked off with Mr Ed quoting from Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 1 when the witches say "Double, double toil and trouble" and then we're away on a rollercoaster of intense guitar noise, and soaring violin as Mr Ed stalks the stage frowning at the audience like a demented child-catcher come to claim his prize. I think it was Chris who started on the drums, standing up and pounding away in a manner reminiscent of David Barbarossa (drummer with Adam and the Ants), but Chris and Neal took turns at drumming during the set. Lyrically, SBA reminded me of Bolan before he sold out commercially. Sonically, there was more than a touch of Billy Idol, but Jo's near operatic vocals save SBA from close comparison. I didn't catch the names of any of the songs but would definitely turn out to see them again. Excellent start.

Second and finally, came Glass a York-based four piece that I would place somewhere in New New Wave. Glass are; Alexander King (guitars, vocals used to be in AKP), Andy Curry (synths, vocals), Jim Stafford (bass), and Dan Whiting (drums). Dressed in suits they came with a whiff of ABC about them but when the chiming guitars and rumbling synth sounds kicked in it was clear that these were a new order of art rock, a Gothic Roxy Music, an avant grandeMagazine (is that possible!) Their Unique Selling Point was that every song ended in a shuddering wall of white noise which then segued into the next song. From an audience perspective it made it difficult to know when to applaud, and we really wanted too, honestly.

Both bands were completely different from our usual fare, and both were worthy of further listening. However, this left us with a goodly portion of the evening still left and so we trundled across town to The Roman Bath where covers band The Big Picture were playing. I'm not entire sure where they come from, certainly oop North in our neck of the woods. TBP comprises; Shawn McHugh (drums, vocals), Mike Parker (guitar, vocal), and Charly Peace (bass, vocals). We enjoyed a well delivered selection of covers, mostly from modern indie bands; Kaiser Chiefs Ruby, I Predict a Riot, Kings of Leon Sex on Fire, Kinks All Day and All of the Night, You really got me, Oasis What's the story?, Blur Song2, Pulp Disco 2000... you get the idea. A nice change from the usual covers we hear.