STAY SICK: Launch party for Sick Note single

Okey dokey… this was a bit special. A ten-hour party to celebrate the launch of Sick Note’s new single ‘Phone in Sick’. It was a bit of a mini festival thing, but indoors. Now it is hard work to try to create a festival vibe in doors, I know, cos I have tried. At the end of the day, the promoter cannot create it, the crowd have top make it. And tonight it was like a gathering of everyone in Cardiff that had ever been to a festival, the whole place just felt, sounded, looked and smelled like a festival.

Missed Kilnaboy, so here is a photo of them at a proper festival

With a 4pm kick off, we were never going to catch the first few bands, which unfortunately meant we missed Kilnaboy. Although we did not see them, we are confident they would have been good.

The Physicists demonstrate sonic chemistry

We arrived just as Jesus Was A Gent were going off stage, so we had time to get to the bar and find our spot to catch the Physicists. What a glorious racket they make, good old-fashioned garage (that’s the Stooges type garage, not the more recent disco type garage… or indeed the place where you put your car). Rock’ n roll stripped to the bones, all excess baggage discarded to aid maximising the velocity, which is then used to pump as much noise as possible out of the amps and send it crashing around the historic venue. The vocals are then sent out chasing after the music, like an angry neighbour chasing kids out of the street. Only January, but these are certainly contenders for the 2007 end of year Peppermint Iguana New Discoveries chart.

Dr Les ties to heal Spooky John's inflated ball

As the Physicists departed, the Earth Doctor neatly slid Iggy Pop into the start of his ‘set’, if you can call 15 minutes a set, before funking us up with some dubby beats. All over before it started though, sadly.

Presley thankfully dont shut thier Cakehold for half an hour

Then came the much talked about Cakehole Presley who manage to defy even us to pigeon hole them and wander seamlessly from genre to genre mixing blues, country, folk and dub to eventually win over everyone in the room.

Cosmo shows off his new designer hoody

Then Cosmo brought his Cakehole on stage to sooth our savage breasts with some bed sit blues, plucking at our heartstrings and tickling our funny bones at the same time. Bless him.

Apologies, but the cider was starting to kick in now and I could not work out what moniker these boffins with laptops go by, but they did start to push the night towards the techno to come, some nice beats loosened up the groovin’ muscles.

"We're gonna be this big!"

And then, it was time for The Note. Somehow they manage to be funk, punk, dub, techno, blues and rock all at the same time, without really being any of them. You don’t know whether you should be pogoing or waving your hands in the air. They have a tribal feel to them that just grabs something primitive inside you and makes you just wanna shake your head and scream BLUUUUAAARRRGHHH!

The organic bass and drums, combined with the digital laptop beats and the crazed Beefheart style vocals make for a truly original sound that deserves to take the world by storm. Many bands deserve to be big but never make it, this lot however just fill you with the confidence to say that they are so good, they cant possibly not make it. (Help make that happen by going to here and downloading the new single)

Things calm down a bit then before Altern 8 take to the stage, bringing us some wicked phat old skool 808 style acid beats to get the dance floor shaking. Its back to my old gripe though, two dudes twiddling knobs is not a spectator sport. Who cares though, never mid the stage, just dance!

Eat Static look like they ought to Phone In Sick

To close the night the mighty Eat Static have been drafted in. They are one of the few bands I know that can actually make two dudes twiddling knobs worth watching. Their secret of longevity of course rests in the fact that they do not stick to one style, disappearing through loop holes in the space time continuum to travel from trance space to planet drum ‘n bass, then off to the moons around big beat world and eventually getting caught in area 51.

I LOVE Eat Static, I can think of no other dance outfit that could keep me entertained through a 3 hour set. Yet tonight, something is not quite right. Slowly it has to be admitted, no matter who hits the stage, if you follow Sick Note, you are going to look tame… even the mighty Static.

SICK NOTE PERFORMING GIMMIE DAT HARP (Live at the walkabout Cardiff)