Simon Rushworth
@ The Trojan Rooms, Whitley Bay, April 9 2009
There are quieter ways to start your Easter weekend but there are many less entertaining.
Add two of the North East’s fastest-rising rock bands to one of the nation’s biggest-selling tribute acts and you get a recipe for unbridled mayhem and an ear-blasting noise the like of which you may never have experienced before.
Dirty Rock And Roll continue to set the standard for raw rock in the region and this uber confident set in front of a potentially hostile crowd proved their punk rock credentials. How ironic, then, that this could be the last time Adam and the boys trade on their three-chord standards with rumours of a return to the trio’s classic rock roots sometime soon.
Judging by the emotive version of Fight which, even in the face of shaven headed punks, promised to bring the house down, that move can’t come soon enough.
And so to Columbia. Right from the off this feisty four-piece – featuring the most laid back bass player in rock history – took their brazen set to the masses and triumphed in spectacular style. Fusing traditional punk with some surprisingly metal guitar solos, the local favourites proved to be the perfect warm-up to the main event.
And if you were wondering where former Everton and Bradford City winger Peter Beagrie had been hiding all these years – he sits behind Columbia’s kit in a rather natty 80s polo shirt, calling the shots and sticking religiously to the rhythm.
The Sex Pistols Experience must be seen to be believed. As tribute bands go they’re the dog’s b******s and as soon as they fired out the opening chords to Pretty Vacant, an ecstatic crowd knew this would be some night. Uncanny is not the word. That could be Johnny Rotten up there and for the punters who’d already sunk several pints of lager it may as well have been.
A triumph for the Trojan Rooms and, hopefully, the sign of things to come.