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Bulletboys, Pretty Boy Floyd, Fatal Smile & Britny Fox @ The Underworld, Camden, London

 
Editor rating
 
6.5
Putting a touring lineup together which features three bands that are well known within the glam circles of the 80's is of course nostalgic, and nothing wrong with that at all. Bringing along an apparent young an up and coming band from Sweden to add a bit of youth to the bill might just seem sensible. But that's where things start getting confusing.Pretty Boy Floyd are touring with a near original lineup for the first time in years while Britny Fox have only one original member left in Billy Childs (the rest of the band are actually all new this year), and then Marq Torien and his Bulletboys flesh out a bill concluded by Swedish rockers Fatal Smile.

Now given the task of putting the running order together you might be forgiven to think we'd see Fatal Smile open, with them billed as the minor act on all publicity, then a toss up between the Bulletboys and Britny Fox, with Pretty Boy Floyd headlining. Well it would apear that perhaps the lineup was drawn out of a hat tonight, with all four bands playing 30 minute sets, and Britny Fox opening.

Everyone's confused, half the crowd had thought Britny Fox were headlining, everybody thought Fatal Smile were opening, and nobody expected the bass amp to die halfway through Fatal Smiles set, after they had certainly made the crowd buck up their ideas and pay attention.

Pretty Boy Floyd rock onto the stage, and the Underworld feels completed rammed, and alive to what Steve Summers is bringing to the altar. People have been perhaps waiting years to see Kristy Majors, Summers and Kari Kane (the whereabouts of original bassist Vinnie Chas seems mysteriously unknown) hit the stage together once more to play a set unsurprisingly strongly drawing from the bands debut release. JK Famous oozes rockstar attitude on stage, despite all the problems with the bass, he brings an edge to the band that might have fallen a little flat without him, giving them a young dangerous streak, to back up the well travelled but still popular war heroes.

It's by far the highlight of the night, and by the time they've whistle stopped through their thirty minute set, not only do the fans want more (which they don't get) but the band look like they want to give more (which of course they can't).

Bring on the Bulletboys then, and while they might be, music wise, the highlight of the evening, even before they hit the stage the crowd is dispersing, dwindling to the bars, and even out of the venue. The 'boys rock through a set, special mention going to Rob Lane who yet again is back on bass duties, but it's all to a crowd that feel that mostly their night is done.

So I leave with the same question I was asking myself all night. Who deciding the running order, and why, despite being top billed on all the promotional material where Pretty Boy Floyd (original lineup almost remember) not headlining?

Editor review

-
Overall rating:
 
6.5
Performance:
 
7.0
Sound:
 
6.0
Crowd Response:
 
7.0
Overall:
 
6.0
Reviewed by Mike Elliott
October 08, 2008
 
 
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