Because I have been so busy just lately I haven’t been to a gig for ages. I realise that I am not practicing what I preach about the people who champion music not going out and seeing it for themselves, but I am at least in credit and doubt that those I have criticised will have caught up with me. Tonight I was on writing duties for the Nottingham Evening Post (as I still call it) at the Rescue Rooms where legendary punk band The Dickies were playing. At my last check the support band were TBC, who must be brilliant as they seem to get a lot of bookings based on how often I see their name on posters and fliers. Sadly TBC had to pull out (as they do quite a bit) and were replaced with Asbo Peepshow who gave a great performance despite the shaky sound. I hadn’t seen them play live before although I have played them on the radio so was well aware of them.

The poor sound quality was also an issue during the first few songs by the headliners, something that Rescue Rooms and its big brother venue Rock City tend to have occasional problems with despite the fact that the sound check took three hours. Not to worry, the band played through and overcame this with more energy than many bands a quarter of their age.

Starting at 9pm sharp (DHP are quite hot on start and finish times) they blasted through their set without stopping to draw breath, in fact it was half past nine before Leonard Graves Phillips uttered a single word. When you have a body of work like theirs, it’s best to let the music do the talking and remind Nottingham how they managed to blow The Damned off the stage at Rock City two years ago. The crowd wasn’t as big as it should have been, but The Dickies are one of those bands that have a loyal but not enormous fan base in this country; in fact they are probably best known over here for their cover version of the theme song to The Banana Splits. Every Dickies song you could name was performed with gusto and they surprised everyone by coming out for a second encore after people had already started leaving. Those of us who weren’t in a rush to get home were treated to their version of ‘Eve of Destruction’ before the lights came on for the final time.

The reason I didn’t leave straight away is because I was angling for backstage access to meet the band. After all, I was reviewing the gig for the paper so I always try and make a little courtesy visit. It hasn’t been possible just lately as most reviews have been at the Theatre Royal or Rock City, who both pride themselves on unhelpfulness. No such problems arose tonight though, and the guys were friendly hosts.

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