27/9/00 - indierama

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Animalhouse, The Bluetones, Shed 7 and SpaceSkyscape (Millennium Dome)

'Look there's someone in a Kula Shaker T-shirt'

Its like 1995 never went away. We quickly find out that this special one off Britpop spectacular is being filmed for Japanese TV - those good old Japanese - they still like Britpop even if the British don't.

First band on stage are Animalhouse. If Straw were the new wave of Britpop then Animalhouse are the nu-wave of new wave Britpop. They play proper tunes on guitars, most of them wear flares, two of them used to be in Ride and they have a kooky female bassist. So full marks for fulfilling the conventions of your genre. In Animalhouse there are two lead singers and both their voices are exactly the same, note for note, you can interchange them very easily. Unfortunately for Animalhouse this is the most remarkable thing about them. It's not that they're incompetent or anything (although it did take three attempts for them to get 'Ready to Receive' correct) they're just not particularly good.

Then The Bluetones. They should get their hits out, but they don't. They play loads of new stuff from their album that no one can remember the name of. They play a couple of older songs which are nice, they play a couple of recent singles, which are also nice, then they leave and it was, well, nice. Nothing too offensive to slag off, but then I'm not about to rush off and buy their back catalogue. If anything it was a bit boring but actually it was just nice.

Shed 7 are introduced as a 'national institution', and they are you know. They have had more top 40 hits than Oasis, but then they have had less top ten hits then The Bluetones, so it's all swings and roundabouts. Shed 7 are the only band here that actually have a fan base, this fan base sings along with every word, meaning that Shed 7 were the only band to actually get a passionate response from the crowd. This heated passion which lead to TWO that's right TWO crowd surfers meant that the band were pulled off stage a song early, meaning they didn't get to play Disco Down, this in turn leads to loads of booing, and then loads of people leave. This all bodes well for...

...Space who take the stage to absolutely no applause whatsoever. They decide to play mostly new stuff which I have to say is pure pants. Its quite a shame really because it lets the side down as although I've heard a lot of boring things tonight, I haven't heard anything that's actually bad (even Autophillia by the Bluetones sounded quite cute) but this is bad. For one song guitarist Jamie takes the lead vocals. This is not a good idea as Jamie wants to be in Oasis - what we get from him is a bad Oasis song - never a good thing. However they manage to finish with 'You and Me Versus the World' and 'Avenging Angels', these two songs win the crowd over in some style, so overall I suppose it was a mini triumph for Space considering the reaction to which they took the stage.

We were also supposed to have a 'very special guest' to finish off the evening. And rumour was that it was Supergrass. Supergrass! Oh no if that happens, then this event might actually gain some musical credibility.' But wait the special guests have cancelled so instead we get a few words for the guy who does the drumming for Simply Red. "Simply Red, phew that's much better".

Olly Parker