Venue: 2 Pigs Cheltenham

Date: March 2005

Bands: Imperial Vipers, Sahara Boat Club, Twisted Wings

It’s about 8 o’clock now in this small, ugly pub, in the beautiful Cotswolds and one of the UK’s finest, prodigal bands are playing imminently… and only about 40 people have turned up. The band that these people have turned up to see is the hotly tipped Imperial Vipers, recent winners of The Sun’s “Best” Band Poll (which they seem pretty happy about). They have an album out soon and their debut single is bound for a Top 40 spot - the progress of this band is phenomenal. But, why the hell is nobody queuing to see such a spectacle of brilliant and talented British music? Does anybody actually care? Well, yes otherwise these forty people wouldn’t be here but it does make you think whether the work that people put into make these things happen is worth while. I hope that this isn’t around the country otherwise we are destined to be listening to X-Factor fall-outs and plastic pop stars.

Now, let’s put the rant aside and get back to the music. The first support are the Two Pigs veterans as it were who seem to have a spot there fortnightly but each time they perform they exude a certain charisma and sound makes them stand out from the rest locals bands. As many of the bands hunting for a spot there are pretty young and relatively inexperienced it was surprising to see an older and far more well refined band, Sahara Boat Club. The lead-singer donned in a sparkly scarf and sailor’s hat and even more worryingly the bassist in full cowboy attire knocked down the ageist stereotype wall that encompassed them to begin with and played a dazzling set of classic rock and roll.

This is the twenty-something-th stop on the forty-date tour so one would expect them to be more than a little tired but that couldn’t be further from the truth. All came on to the miniscule stage, fresh and ready to play a set of their dazzling classic rock songs laced with wild bursts of punk insanity and dripping with sweat and pure masculinity. This band has such a stage presence – masquerading in cowboy hats and spurting ale all over the walls, like real rockstars. Great songs, great set, great band.

Oscar