So there I was drinking with this polar bear. The polar bear was speaking. He said “The true meaning of life is…?” I waited a minute for him to continue then I enquired, “Why the big pause?” “I just farted” was his reply. If you’ve ever been in the same room as a polar bear with intestinal distress then you know that this is the signal to leave and so round the corner to King Tuts it was. The Amorettes, Manta and The Bawlers were already there.
Manta were making some convincing noise with a solid, by the numbers, approach to performance easily establishing their credentials as a rock band. Drummer Stuart Muir and bassist Mark Quinn provided a concrete foundation for the songs and you can’t reasonably ask for anything more than that.
There are those who subscribe to the theory that you can’t have a proper rock band without a good guitarist and, if you are one of those people, then Paul Cant’s musical skill makes The Bawlers a proper rock band. Even if you don’t, his spirited and often flashy style would still impress even a casual listener and, accordingly, provided the icing on their rock cake.
Even taking into account the Spinal Tap style guitar swaps that came after every song, The Amorettes demonstrated more than enough ability to avoid any accusations of being mere gimmick girls in a man’s world and, with a drummer commendably lacking the patience to allow their rock train to stay in the station for any length of time, their set was distinguished by a remarkable consistency of pace. That very consistency of pace is proof enough that The Amorettes will not need a sat-nav to stay on the road to success and, if there were ever an award for being the new princesses of rock, these three ladies would be wearing crowns.
Back now to the polar bear. After all, it is his round.