Aw, Bless 'Em

This lot might be good when they leave school...

To be fair to them, I've seen some seriously dreadful support acts, but this lot, faced with the rather daunting task of supporting the Pogues (in my view one of the most stunning and insummountable groups that ever walked these fair shores, to be sure), were not one of them. Get past the grating Mockney (Lily, eat yer heart out) and the fact that they look like they're skiving Double Geography and the King Blues are actually rather good. Their music - touchingly optimistic but lyrically oddly beautiful, alongside tunes that make you want to jump up and down while pretending you're not - is desperately trying to get the balance between edgy political and well pretty, innit? but they're not far off. At some times encouragingly if jarringly Clash-inspired, these guys are not only not bad, they're actually good. They're on Twitter (so I'm told), Myspace and Facebook. If you're on Spotify it's worth checking out I Got Love (aahhhh) and Save the World, Get the Girl (oh where did my optimism go?) They may sound sickeningly positive, but cynics like us could do worse than to let a bit of this into our acerbic little hearts once in a while...