Reviews

At first thought the night of two England international matches, one in football and one in rugby, didn't strike me as the best time to hold a successful charity gig and, at least at the beginning of the evening, the number of people in the Fermain Tavern showed this too.

So Clarence Cleanwater and the Hand to Gland Band started out playing to a small crowd who made the room look even emptier by sticking firmly to the shadows around the edge of the dance floor.

Clarence Cleanwater.

Taking a poppier direction than when I last saw them, Clarence proved their versatility at playing very differently styled shows.

The real highlights of their set tonight came in the form of their covers of Cream's 'Sunshine of Your Love' and Jimi Hendrix's 'Spanish Castle Music'. The rest of the set though was also top notch as the band really made the pop rock with covers of songs like 'Stuck in the Middle' and 'Rebel Rebel'.

By the end of the band's set the room had begun to fill up a bit and the crowd encouraged Clarence and the boys to rock their way through a terrific version of Deep Purple's 'Space Truckin' to end their set on a real high note.

With even more people filing their way into the venue The Swallows took the stage and presented me with quite a surprise. In the past the band have come across as somewhat post punk art-rockers and while they have always put on a good show it has always seemed somewhat detached from the audience.

Lisa and Sister Ray of The Swallows.

Tonight though, this was not the case as from the off The Swallows were in a much rockier mode than I have ever seen and this served them well as they got a fair number of the crowd dancing to their rhythms.

I think a lot of the bands new sound maybe down to their new guitarist and her rockier style which, when mixed with the post punk sound of The Swallows’ other guitarist and bass player really gives them their own sound which stands out from the crowd and grabs the audience while clearly still being The Swallows.

Finally tonight Thee Jenerators unleashed their power-pop assault on the now large and up for it audience. Though the band may have taken a few songs to hit their stride and weren’t the tightest I have seen them, their ever present energy carried them through tonight with great style.

Garrick of Thee Jenerators.

Making up their set list as they went along we were treated to most of the songs from their new album, 'The Kids Are… Not Alright', as well as a number of classics and some even newer material.

Seemingly Thee Jenerators are expanding their sound even further with new material ranging from the punk feel of their early songs, to ska and even old school rock 'n' roll numbers.

The new songs fitted seamlessly with the bands more well known tunes and kept the crowd dancing through a number of encores including old classics 'French Disco' and the rarely heard 'Fight The Power' before the band finally ended on storming new number 'Sold My Soul To Rock 'N' Roll' which looks set to become a classic of future Jenerators shows.