First up is Jon Jackson, he's a solo electric
act, and he has his back to half the crowd, but
he's interactive enough. All his songs are easily
strummed out on a strat. They just amble along
with his voice, he’s got a bit of a slow
pearl jam sound about him, but a bit mono tone.
His songs are downbeat along with his guitar tone,
but between songs he's chirpy and chatty and making
jokes. It doesn't make much sense. Odd set with
the songs sounding very familiar, when the crowd
claps along to his downbeat songs there's a real
juxta position in the mood of the two. It doesn't
work. He has no upbeat songs, I don't think the
crowd want a downer to start their night, he asks
if the crowd if they like Neil young, I'm guessing
most of this crowd have no clue as to who he is.
I don't think he manages to finish a song. Shoddy
start to the night.
Main support is Shuga they are a 3 piece melodic
rock/indie band. There sound is pretty laid back
with a bit of decent guitar playing at times,
they have a few fast songs and  some
laid back slower ones. The vocalists voice is
a bit deep like she has a slight cold but it's
easy on the ears. The set they play is pretty
short only being 5 or 6 songs long. The songs
are of decent length so nothing gets boring but
the songs themselves aren't really all that memorable,
but I do like the guitar playing of the guitarist,
a bit showy but it's what I enjoyed the most of
the set they played everything else is so so.
 Kate
Nash and her all female band come on after a rather
lengthy break of half an hour of pretty much nothing
going on. The crowd seem to be quite struck as
to what's going on as she comes on looking like
Josey from Josey and the pussycats, with the little
cat ears places on her head and she opens up All
talk, Death Proof, Part heart, early on it seems
more angry poet from the 80s than punk but the
punk takes over. I'm going on that the crowd is
made up of old fans, it's a different direction
for her, going for a more punk sound, it's different
from what I know but I think I prefer this to
stuff I've heard, it's more like the Donnas than
the dry poppy sound of old, there's more substance
to this music it's takes some balls to take this
direction with the very real chance of alienating
some of her fans, some just don't like change.
She thrashes on with he likes of Kiss that grrrl,
Conventional girl, Fri-end.
 Her
interaction with the crowd is pretty good, telling
a little short story here and there, and giving
a crowd member some pop corn as she came on, which
is nice. Are you there sweetheart takes things
down a few notches, more of a ballad, then a bit
of a melodic drone with Oh. She picks things up
with 3am, this is a rather lengthy set of around
22 songs, I'm not sure on the pacing as it’s
getting a tad boring in the mid set, I can feel
my attention wandering as the same pace and tone
of the songs makes things a bit droll.
 They
say too much of a good thing is a bad thing, with
The punk sound she's gone for, it's a bit too
much she seems to sing every song in the same
way, Do wah Doo got annoying fast, with the chorus
of just do wah noise. The acoustic song you're
so cool I'm so freaky takes things down again,
she taught the chorus to the crowd first, not
sure if the majority joined in. Before she played
Foundation, I observed that she lost some of the
crowd as they went home, she seemed to watch some
of them leave too. Foundation is more electric,
and it is also the best received by the crowd,
the guitar solo near the end is pretty good.
She Closes out the set with Oh My God, Grrrl Gang
and Underestimate the Girl, it’s a strong
finish to her set, disappointingly there are a
few people still trickling out. Her encore consists
of Lullaby for an Insomniac and Sister, both really
decent songs. Overall it’s a good set and
a really good performance, but the punk sound
is all a bit too much at times.
Jon Jackson 1/5
Shuga 3/5
Kate Nash 4/5
Review By Robert Lawrence
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