It was as if we were all his mates
The Brakes are an excellent live band, and so it figured that one bit of them on his own would be well worth a look. Eamon Hamilton is the one who was once part of British Sea power, and treated the Underworld crowd to a one man version of the best the Brakes have to offer.
The advantage of Hamilton being on at 10.30 was that a number of much bigger bands were either on at the same time, or in order to get into see the star attractions you had to have join one of the many massive queues that dominated the Camden pavements on Friday night. This meant that the Underworld wasn't packed and those who were there were in because they love the Brakes and that resulted in one of the best atmospheres of the whole event. Plenty of friendly heckling from in front of the stage and rather than the performer talking at the audience as is the case with larger crowds, you felt as if you were round Hamilton's house with him standing on a table playing a few songs for the fun of it.
To say the Brakes are varied is an understatement. Full on punk rock in it's rawest form will give way to country and folk influenced acoustic numbers before you've had time to get used to the heavy stuff. This particular set was very much dominated by the heavier side of Brakes however.
Tracks such as 'N Y Pie', 'Ring A Ding Ding' (which never fails to remind me of the brilliant Roxy Music classic 'Virginia Plane) and 'All Night Disco Party' were predictable high points, but as with any Brakes gig it's the explosive songs that clock in under ten seconds that are met with the biggest cheers.
The night was rounded off with a number of the crowd jumping up on stage to join Hamilton, yet another example of the bloke playing for his mates air of this show, something that wouldn't have happened in a bigger venue or had the Underworld been rammed.