Gig Reviews

Pikey & The Gutter Rats

It's a balmy Wednesday evening at the Thomas Tripp in Christchurch and it's punk night with one of Bournemouth's finer punk bands making their debut at the venue. The audience seems sparse, made up mostly of friends and girlfriends of the band, but that doesn't put them off. All the usual influences are there, and 'Hamster' (bass/vox) sports the obligatory mohawk, army trousers and boots. These guys can both sing and play; Jason's (guitar) vocal is confident throughout, as is his playing. Hamster can also 'sing' while his bass skills are protean for much of their set. They open with one of their own compositions before attempting an elongated version of The Faces 'Whatcha Gonna Do Bout It'. They very cleverly avoid a Pistols take of this song and make it more their own. Jason laments the band's 'theft' of riffs which is rife in most of their own songs but this doesn't detract from their musicianship. I swear I just heard a Damned rip-off somewhere there! More covers come in the shape of the Pistols' 'Problems' and a classic take on 'I Wanna Be Your Dog', but they excel with a blast at the Anti Nowhere League's 'I Hate People'. With the Rats though there is nothing to hate, it's just good old fashioned, no-nonsense punk rock. They end their first set on an interesting 'tune' titled 'Don't Ever Throw Up On Me' -one wonders if this is an autobiographical song.

During the second set more 'borrowed' riffs come in the shape of Blondie's 'One Way or Another' before another little ditty of their own - 'Frosty Jacks'. Despite the sparsity of audience (Hamster has counted seven) they keep up the intensity before closing proceedings with some classic covers in the shape of 'Bodies' (Pistols) and 'Janie Jones' (Clash) before encoring with 'She's Lost Control'. To sum up, Pikey & The Gutter Rats are a decent covers/originals band that deserve to be heard by a wider and larger audience. One can only hope they earn a decent support slot to a 'bigger' name sometime soon, but for this reviewer they certainly hit the spot.

Big Ross