24 THE SMITHS, JAMES, Chippenham Golddiggers, Wednesday 27 February 1985

Travelled down with a few friends to see how now-NME darlings The Smiths had progressed since their promising early gigs last year. 

Support band James played a fascinating set of unusual and quirky pop with lots of galloping, Woodentops-like rhythm, opening with a number which started, "an earwig crawled into my ear...". A band to investigate! As for The Smiths, they seemed a little complacent and wooden, maybe suffering from first night nerves, but either way delivering a sub-par set of their undulating jangle pop well below their potential. Well, they were number one in the LP charts at this point with the equally disappointing "Meat Is Murder", after all...