James Arden checks out the garage rockers latest album.
The Christian rock band from Brighton bring religion to the masses.
Recipe for modern R'n'B album: liberal helpings of guest rappers and an overdose of sexual euphemisms.
Although Kid Gloves took a little while to warm up, after a couple of songs their anthemic take on mid-to-late 90s indie (think a more singalong Seahorses) eventually begins to make an impact. Lead singer Ollie Regan's Lancashire tones and stylish tambourine tapping cut through great guitar work, especially on the third track of the night She Ain't My Girl, where the solo was huge. Eventually not even a broken string could hamper a jubilant cover of Brown Sugar, and the final tune Revolution burst out like Zepplin at their rhythmic best. The judges rather harshly picked on stylistic issues, but the lad rock of this group certainly seemed to draw a crowd.
Second was the prog-folk twiddlings of Magic P and the Innuendoes, who proved why they are BOB '08 favorites by taking us on a tour of world celebrations. One moment it seemed like Penguin Cafe Orchestra were playing at your uncle's ceilidh, then a DnB act performing Fiddler on the Roof at a Bar Mitzvah, and eventually like a children's band from the Ukraine in a packed town hall. A world tour, then, from the instrumental band. As far as thanks and band introductions went, the question could be posed: who speaks for the voiceless? The answer last night was, as it should always be, a be-caped Will Seaward. Likeable college sport guru and bona-fide campus celebrity Jack Kennedy hit the nail on the head, describing the band's chemistry as "very good", although he did suggest that he had seen similar bands in the past.
Next, Juliet Bravo upped their game from a laclustre heat where they had experienced problem with their sound to deliver an accomplished and confident set of accessible post-rock. Introducing each song as Smells Like Teen Spirit brought a comical twist to the heady mixture of Rage and Cooper Temple Clause that their tunes bettered. The only bum-note here was the final tune, a sub-Killing In The Name Of chugger that lacked the liveliness of the rest of the set. Otherwise, the Bravo boys presented one of the most original sets of the night, and were surprisingly edged out of the top two spots.
Hero Status, the penultimate act of the night, took to the stage in capes to the strains of the Star Wars theme, with lead-singer Jonathan Sims boasting a colander as headwear. Describing his band's music as "barely a Jammy Dodger... like the little plastic toy at the bottom of the cereal", the singer summed up the cheap, plastic but hugely sentimental and fun nature of his band's songs. With a set that included the Pokemon theme, as well as the Pop Culture song that went down just as well as it did in the heats and secured a surprising amount of accolades from the judges.
Final act Magician's Ghetto pushed the envelope of originality to new limits. With riffs as funky as The Specials, funky basslines and an overall rap-reggae sound. Add to that instrumentation that included a saw, Early Learning Centre-esque apparatus and a drainpipe didgeridoo and there was a band that had the crowd hypnotised. Unfortunately it seemed that the mellow grooves were just a little too chilled out for the BOB audience and judges.
1. Magic P
2. Hero Status
3. Juliet Bravo
Juliet Bravo unfortunately didn't receive enough votes to knock the number three listing from Monday's heat out of their tentatively-held finals spot. This means that Friday's final consists of the talents of Half a Dog, Low Flying Flag, Magic P and Girl of Prey. As always, The Yorker will be on hand to give you the full report on the night in a competition so exciting that it caused outgoing Music Soc chair, Woodstock head-honcho and all round nice guy Billy Goldring, to say: "I wouldn't want to speculate about the winners of Battle of the Bands... but they're a band I'd be happy to have headline Woodstock."
The Kid Gloves songs are 'She ain't my girl' and 'Revolution,' not 'She ain't no girl' and 'Revolver.'
Sorry, but the vote isn't split between the audience and Bandsoc judges, the judges are all professionals in the music industry - two are sound engineers and one is a vocal coach and professional musician who also won battle of the bands a few years back with a band named Lowground. If you ask us when you get your press passes on saturday, we'll give you a run-down of who's there then. Please get your facts sorted out - you'll never be seen as reputable if you don't get hold of these simple details before "going to press".
Thanks to both of you for pointing these out, inaccuracies do slip through the nets and we're more than happy to set them right - although the feedback system is much more efficient as we get notified of it by email and therefore can react faster.
We try our best to be reputable and I don't think a minor error takes away from this - obviously, if the author of the article had complained about the judges and used the fact he thought they were BandSoc members to argue his case then you'd have a point, but this wasn't the case.
Despite best efforts all publications contain errors, especially when articles are published within hours of the events being reported. We welcome feedback, corrections and comments and when warranted, we are able to correct any inaccuracies as soon as we're aware of them.
Sorry anonymous Kid Gloves representative, all changed now. You could just have asked Ollie to txt me though! (unless you are Ollie, in which case, see you on Sunday to discuss whether "She ain't no girl" is actually about a surprising end to a second date).
Not a rep- just a fan! And I hope I didn't come across as arsey as #2!
You'd be going some to be as arsey as #2!
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