Death Row
After a few impressive singles Liverpool's Dead 60s released their debut album and it was something of a disappointment, certainly a case of too many fillers. Fans have stuck with them though and they justify the faith today with a solid performance on the main stage.
There's an early reminder of why we sat up and took notice in the first place with the still impressive 'Loaded Gun', which receives a good reaction from a crowd still half asleep. When they move away from the standard song structures they venture into dub reggae Clash style and pull it off with aplomb but I'm not sure it's what a midday crowd on the main stage want to hear. The highlight of the set is the upbeat and catchy 'Riot Radio' (so good they released it twice!), this really does represent everything that is good about the Dead 60s and if they had a set of songs of similar calibre they would be a real force.
A couple of songs from the forthcoming album get aired, 'Beat Generation' sounds similar in style to earlier material and it's decent enough but there just seems to be something missing from the Dead 60s that stops them from being a great band. As I muse on this point it suddenly becomes apparent that none of their songs have a real chorus and it's probably that which prevents them from being truly memorable. As the set goes on they don't get much of a reaction from anyone further back than the mixing desk and you do feel they are better suited to one of the smaller stages.
They finish with the new single 'Stand Up', which is a little lighter with more of a mainstream feel and is catchy enough but as with their earlier offerings I'd be surprised if it managed more than a brief flirtation with the charts