Back to the '90s

Travelled up to Amsterdam for the latest instalment of London Calling. The Paradiso's showcase of new British indie talent has been held at least once every year since 1992, with alumni including Blur, Travis, Bob Sinclair, The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs.
Me and Victor S were chiefly interested in seeing Jamie T, but, thanks to some last minute re-scheduling on the part of the organizers, instead of playing at 23.40 in the small hall, he was on in the main hall at 20.00. Upon discovering this fact when we strolled into the venue at 20.29, we raced into the main room just in time to see T's Goonies t-shirt and hear him saying thank you and goodnight (!)
Heading upstairs for the Pigeon Detectives, the small hall was so rammed we had to make do with standing by the door, unable to see the band properly. The songs were catchy enough, but the group were too much the Arctic Monkeys wannabees for my liking.
Back in the main hall, all the detail and subtlety of the Guillemots was lost thanks to an appallingly muddy sound. Pretty soon they were losing the audience too. A shame.
During the Maccabees' set, I leaned over and said to Victor S, "It's like London cold calling". He concurred, berating the group for being copyists of copyists (e.g. the singer's 'Ian Curtis dance', cribbed from The Rakes). The Maccabees had no stage presence and no songs to remember: the room was packed. Go figure.
Back in the main hall, Bromheads Jacket restored a little of our faith in proceedings. A charismatic frontman and good tunes, albeit coming from a seam that plenty of indie groups have already succesfully mined over the last couple of years.
I knew nothing about the band The 1990s (not even their name when they started playing). Nor did many other people, judging by the moderate crowd in the small hall. By the time they finished their set, I (and many others) wanted to know a whole lot more. This three-piece from Glasgow (guitar, bass, drums and harmonies) were simply excellent. It turns out that two of the band were in The Yummy Fur with Alex from Franz Ferdinand. There was a touch of FF's angular funk in the '90s sound, but names that sprang to mind more readily included The Modern Lovers, BMX Bandits, Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Forrest ("See you at the lights" is strangely reminiscent of the verses of "Rock the boat").
The Automatic come from Cowbridge, just five miles from my home town. To give you an idea of what kind of place it is, consider this fact: The Daily Mail voted Cowbridge the second most fashionable place in the UK for the over-50s to spend a Saturday afternoon (Bath was no. 1). The Automatic thankfully sound nothing like Daniel O'Donnell. In fact, they are an excellent, hard rocking live act (better than on record). A fierce mosh pit and loads of stage diving and crowd surfing were testament to the band's appeal. A wicked cover of Kanye West's "Gold Digger" (complete with funky flute) showed that there is plenty more to come from these four lads.
Back up in the small hall, Mumm-Ra took to the stage with cockiness aplenty. When your lead singer looks like Gareth Southgate's love child, you need a lot of front. This six-piece from Bexhill-on-Sea has plenty of great tunes too, many in the vein of Ash or Feeder. If "Out of the question" isn't a huge hit on its re-release (it got to number 45 last month), something is seriously wrong in the world.