Kid British / The Anomalies / Tempting Rosie @ The Rainbow, Monday 20th July 2009

40 years ago today man first walked on the moon (or did he…). I achieved a similar feat by getting to the gig on time, which, after last week’s bus journey from hell, is every bit as miraculous. That’s one small step for me, one giant leap for West Midlands Travel (or whatever they’re called now).

First up the 7 headed ska machine, Tempting Rosie. With a strong brass section firmly in place this lot can’t go wrong as a live act and, like the last time I saw them back in May, they went down a storm with the audience. As with the headliners Kid British they unashamedly take their influences from previous ska classics, ‘Fear’ for example I’m pretty sure takes its lead from The Beat’s Mirror in the Bathroom, but it’s all done with so much energy and passion that they neatly avoid sounding anything but fresh. A stonking cover of ‘A Message to You Rudy’ really proved the point.

Next The Anomalies, a band I’ve been banging on about for some time now. There’s little I’ve not said about them before, once again tonight they fused rap, rock, humour and social commentary together with a bucketload of poptastic tunes. Another great set but I get the feeling that the audience wasn’t quite right for them tonight – they kind of stood out as being the only non ska band on the bill and, whilst the applause was there, the crowd didn’t go as mental as I’ve seen them go before. It was nice to hear the BBC using some of their stuff a while back (advertising some programme about breakdancing crabs or hip hop antelope…something like that) and, were Top Of The Pops still around they’d be regulars. Speaking of which there’s a growing call to bring back TOTP, with Auntie Neil from the Pet Shop Boys accusing the BBC of failing to have the balls to bring it back. Quite right too. It may have turned into a shadow of its former self, and sure, it was as naff as hell half the time, but that was part of the fun. You only have to see what happens to bands who appear on Later…to realise that, even in this Twitter infested world, the telly can still have a pretty big impact on sales and careers.

Finally headliners Kid British, who, in a curious marketing tactic, released HALF their debut album today. I blame the credit crunch. Whatever next? Half a film? Half a Big Mac? Half a sixpence (one for the Tommy Steele fans out there…)? You could look at Kid British as a kind of 21^st century Specials, in other words a socially aware, multi-cultural band that takes its musical influences from 60’s ska, although in the case of Kid British there’s much more of a highly polished pop sensibility going on. A kind of boy band Specials then. They’re currently making a pretty big dent on the minds and ears of the yoot thanks to their sampling of the Madness classic ‘Our House’, in their 21^st century version ‘Our House is Dadless’, which predictably got the biggest cheer of the night. They’re far from one tune ponies though. The set was sprinkled with party ska a plenty leading to a mass skank and good natured stage invasion at the end that swamped the entire band, who, as far as I know could still be there beneath a sweaty pile of bodies…