Alphabeat at Shepherds Bush

Chris treated me to an evening with the 'saviours of pop music', those smiley, colourful Danes, Alphabeat. Now, try as I might, I've never really 'got' Alphabeat and thought the best thing about their first album is that at least John Lydon gets some royalties from their atrocious - but brave - cover of 'Public Image' (they whistle in it, *shudders*). Thankfully, they didn't play it.

First up was Pandering & The Golddiggers (yes, double-d), a sort of sparkley, dancey, disco-y type of act, two girls/one boy singers, a drummer and keyboardist (I suspect backing tapes as well). They're being tarted as the next thing with free badges on offer for joining their email list. They were entertaining enough and made a lot of noise. The lad should lose the haircut though, it just looked retro-daft.

Then we were treated to something a bit more polished in the form of Das Pop from Belgium who are probably more used to headlining on the Continent. They bounced on one at a time, three skinny lads and one more hefty beardy guitar player in dungarees (they need style advice badly). They produced some nice punky-pop sounds and the lead singer got the audience singing along to a couple of set pieces that worked well. They were quite fun with some good bouncey songs but, unfortunately, their mates or record company people (or whoever) were standing behind our seats and yakked throughout their set and went on talking throughout the main set as well (I think one of them was trying to chat up a 'bird' or summat - didn't look like the lanky streak of wotsit was having much success when we left). The beardy dungareed guitar lad had a drink with them later so that marks them as Das Pop people. Negative mark for that, lads.


And then on bounced Alphabeat. All colour and smiles, well practiced songs, moving non-stop across the stage, singing their little hearts out and giving their fans a great time. I only recognised one song towards the end ('Touch Me Touching You') so spent most of the gig observing and looking around at the audience which was a very mixed bag, from youngish kids there with parents to oldsters like me and everything inbetween. The band stormed round the stage putting on the show and, even though I'm not a fan, felt they'd earned their pay and adulation that night with their boundless energy and sheer giving of themselves. That was nice.

I worried about the bass player who did the traditional bass-stomp on a platform and every time he stomped backwards I worried he'd go flying off the platform. The girl singer's mic was too low and should've been turned up - I could hardly hear her singing. The lightshow was excellent, bathing the stage in every colour imaginable to match their colourful backdrop and it was great fun at the encore when the glitter-cannon erupted and flooded the place with sparkley stuff. I had to cheer and clap with everyone else by that time, as a thank you for all their hard work and fan-pleasing over the previous hour or so.

Since I was slightly disengaged from the whole affair it left me time to think while Chris was grinning and singing and clapping away to his heart's content (see his review here). I wondered what the younger contingent in the audience felt and thought. For some of them that will be their first ever gig. I still remember my first time in 1973, seeing my gods bestride the stage. For some kids in the audience that night will, possibly, be something they remember forever. I think they'll have good memories - a full bill with three bands, great lights ending with the glitter downpour, loud music and their heroes on stage. Maybe it will inspire some of them to start their own bands or at least start going to more live gigs. I hope so, and then Alphabeat's job will be done.