With a huge glut of bands sprouting from the soils of every dingy venue in the UK, it is starting to become a lottery which bands make the step up to selling out venues. As much as you cringe at the desperate wannabes cluttering up our Saturday night TV schedule, you get the feeling there are as many, if not more, terrible musicians trying to earn a fast buck with their monotonous bands.
Then there are genuine, hard-working bands such as The Harrisons, who graft and graft, with unquestionable ability, and never really get the recognition they deserve.
The songs themselves are arranged nicely, not entirely dissimilar to the Jam at their most vibrant and energetic. ‘Dear Constable’ is a perfectly paced piece of punk pizzazz that is as good as anything around at the moment, but the problem therein lies in the lack of deviation throughout the rest of the material. The set rolls on, is musically adept, and thoroughly listenable, just not encapsulating as a spectacle. And of course it is the quirks that stand a band out from the crowd, and no matter how the Harrisons were to attempt to blend new ideas and invention into their sound, they will always lack that certain eccentricity that inferior bands may purport to have in their locker.
The set ends well, with a tribute song to one of their comrades who had been shipped off to Iraq.
“This is our anti-war song, although not the same kind of song that Bono or Bob Geldof do” states frontman Adam Taylor.
They’re right – this protest song is actually pretty good.
The Harrisons are a solid outfit, but whether they have the verve about them to take their act to the next level remains to be seen.