Post by neilcrud on Sept 13, 2007 22:10:38 GMT
FAILSAFE
Bar Blu, Rhyl 12.09.07
MYLK
Billys, Rhyl 12.09.07
Bar Blu, Rhyl 12.09.07
MYLK
Billys, Rhyl 12.09.07
review n pix by neil crud
If a TV documentary crew were in Rhyl tonight they would've been foolish not to pick up on graffiti artists in the town - because the writing was on the wall. The end of the road for Billys Bandnights - the arguments, the reasons why and so on can be found on the General Section of this websites' Forum.
altbrit.proboards92.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1189676923
For ourselves - well we were on a three man stag night, where the unfortunate Fairziff will soon be my brother-in-law. Gone are the tar and feather days of tearing up O'Connell street in Dublin, this is the second sedate stag night I've been on this year; the first involved a round of golf...!
We walked into the vast open space of Billy's to see more barstaff than punters; it wasn't detriment to the bands, and we stayed to watch Henllan's Mylk. Imagine a composite of The Beach Boys, Dodgy and Stone Roses minus the killer hooks played by what oddly seemed like three Fabio Aurelio (Liverpool left back) lookalikes and another bloke on drums, and you're near enough where Mylk are at.
They do a suave line in retro-folked up ditties in glorious technicolour and you get the feeling they should be on a sunset beach sporting straw hats and acoustic guitars. Shame they landed themselves in the wrong corner of Rhyl's venue war and a void audience that would have given them the appreciation they so abviously deserved.
The exit beckoned and we ventured to the refurbed Blu corner of this venue title fight. Signed Preston band Failsafe were just about to make their noise. We entered to a fusillade of ear-piercing too-toppy vocals - no fault of the band, but if half a million was spent tarting the place up; it would've been nice to have splashed a bit of cash on a PA system in the first place! But what's Blu without the crap sound..!
Failsafe annoyingly churned out the variety of punk rock which patently isn't the new rock'n'roll, but rather a formula of earfriendly 3 chords which countless bands have now perfected.
Lots of air-punching and rucking from the sweaty throngs in front of them ensured a great night.
I say annoyingly as there is a fear within me that this is what we may be facing from now on - its what the kids are into - its what draws the crowds - and I guess I'm too fucking old...! Or perhaps not - this music is just too... well... safe!
Failsafe were cleverly confident and probably couldn't believe their luck having undoubtedly thought that Wednesday nights in Rhyl is not a light-hearted experience, but to find themselves swamped with black t-shirts and black eyeliner must've been a double bonus.
The singer sang like he'd lived through a million hells (or was that just the sound?!!) and the place nodded in approval and tried to stamp their way through the floorboards. A banging night.
www.myspace.com/failsafemusic
Not content with two gigs, and completely sozzled, we headed for a midnight curry. I don't recall what I ordered (although my body did the next day!) but the menu said 'extremely hot' - fuck me, it was so hot there were tears running down my face... or was it because Rhyl has lost a venue that had the potential to put the town on the live map...