INDIE

Never underestimate beery lads in big jackets. While it’s easy to believe that they’re all still swaggering to the sound of the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses et al, many are (if this sell out crowd was anything to go by at least) entirely susceptible to new sounds. Such as that of lairy Birmingham quintet The Twang - a band tipped for big things, albeit a band that have taken their lead straight from Madchester.

Their musical coup d’état has been to unite that movement’s jangly guitars and baggy beats with the mockney urban poet thing that Mike Skinner does so well. At times it works - ‘Either Way’ is a heartfelt number (‘for the ladeez’), on which duel frontmen Phil Etheridge and Martin Saunders toss the lyrical baton manfully. The like of brash, druggy stomp ‘Cloudy Room’ makes up the mainstay of their sound, though, the tune sounding much like the vast lager tossing frenzy it prompts: entertaining enough from a distance, but ultimately a bit stupid.