327 JOYRIDER, Supp. Blameless, The Nicotines, Gloucester Guildhall Arts Centre, Thursday 6 June 1996

Scorchio! All in shorts for the hottest day of the year so far (touching 80 degrees!), we bopped over to the splendid Arts Centre for their Thursday "Spacehopper Club" band night in time for first band, The Nicotines, at 8.45. They received a rapturous welcome from the very young crowd, and despite playing no more than a passable set of 70's powerpop updated with a few baggy type musical swirls, they had a large moshpit throughout. The joint was jumping; quite literally, as the moshpit propelled the wooden floorboards up and down most vigorously!

I joined in with the youngsters during Joyrider's set. The spiky young Irish foursome played a stormer, with strobe-lit, dynamic, fast-paced spunky punk rock, similar to Compulsion and Therapy? having a bloody good argument. Choice cuts from their storming "Be Special" album were joined by a totally unexpected bludgeoning of the Jane Weidlin pop classic "Rush Hour". Little wonder that the floor, scene of a ferocious water fight during the Nicotines set, was bone dry when the Joyrider mosh subsided - it had evaporated due to the moshpit heat!

Blameless came on to another rapturous reception at 10.15, and kicked off with their best number, the noisefest of "Town Clowns". Clive, rocking beside me tonight, is a big fan but they've passed me by somewhat; still, tonight I enjoyed their dynamic if basic poppy rock set. They're at their best when noisier and moodier, and like Eat (who they remind me of, a lot), I'll probably warm to them in the end.

Overall a sweaty and enjoyable one, culminating in late chip shop chip suppers all round!

334 JOYRIDER, THE SLINGBACKS, Reading Alleycat Live, Wednesday 25 September 1996

Had a quick jaunt down the M4 in a jam-packed car, hitting the venue at 8.15. We were anticipating a big early-doors crowd for this one, but got it woefully wrong, so ended up hanging around for 1 1/4 hours for some rock, as the venue oh-so slowly filled up! D'oh!

First band on, The Slingbacks; led by cerise-haired and vivacious vocalist Shireen, they kick-started their set with a vengeance, with effervescent, rip-roaringly stonking new single "No Way Down". I became a one-man moshpit for that one, no mistake! Despite fears to the contrary after such a terrific start, quality control was maintained with a thrilling but all-too-short 7 song set, full of chunky riffs, harmony and fizzing pop tunes. The Ramones-esque surf pop of The Muffs, and the Blondie-esque melody of Eve's Plum were obvious reference points from this rather stupendous set, so no surprise to find out, during a post-set discussion with Shireen, that Eve's Plum and The Muffs are high on the list of The Slingbacks' faves!

After that start, Joyrider were on a bit of a sticky wicket, but put together a rather storming set of compulsive guitar rock themselves, during which I piled into the mosh on occasions. I really enjoyed their set, actually, particularly the vicious "Said She To me", with shades of Therapy?, Husker Du and even Thin Lizzy in their guitar-driven hard rock. However, I felt that their "hit" single, their nevertheless brilliant cover of Jane Wiedlin's "Rush Hour" (which was delivered with some power and pace tonight) is already proving a bit of a millstone around their necks. "Some people think (it) was our first single," lamented their vocalist.

It'll be interesting to see how Joyrider follow this up. In the meantime, The Slingbacks shaded this nevertheless superb double-header for me tonight!