the beat

Party for Public Services/ Love Music Hate Racism.
Magnet, Liverpool, 31st Jan 2008.

As line ups go this is about as eclectic as its going to get. Four bands and a couple of DJ’s line up for a cracking night of music playing under the Love Music banner and supported by the PCS Trade Union. Pete Bentham and The Dinner Ladies are fantastic, fast and hard punk rock the perfect start to a night out even though the band upset local residents with their sound check. Sense of Sound are an accapella group. Tonight 10 of the choir, a fraction of their full quota of 40 singers delight the packed out crowd with classic soul tracks including brilliant reworking of Stevie Wonder and Bill Withers tunes. Holding everything together in between the bands are the simply delightful KingBats and Tommy Def. Reggae, Dubstep and Bashment is the order of the day and the dance floor is kept full and grooving until DJ Lukman takes over until the early hours. Hot Club De Paris are not your run of the mill Liverpool band. This 3 piece are tight and clear. Run of the mill indie this is not, hard and funky beats melt into samba rock, brilliant and has to be seen again. The Beat, ska legends have never disappointed in the 20 years I have been watching them live, tonight is no different. The 50 minute set flies by, Mirror in the Bathroom is about the only tune I can remember in a haze of pogo dancing and smiling. A whole bunch of speakers from the trade unions and Love Music get the message across about talking fascism and inequality. Check out the LMHR festival to take place in April in London, big acts celebrating 30 years of Rock against Racism.

www.myspace.com/kingbats
www.pcs.org.uk
www.lovemusichateracism.com