Cosmic Rough Riders

You know, it's nice that bands like the Cosmic Rough Riders still exist. In a world where Oxide And Neutrino can get to Number One and The Super Furries Animals can get to number 14, it's relieving to see that bands that rely entirely on melody, as opposed to any kind of electronic enhancement, can still release records. And if they make them as good as this, well Monsieur Indie, your really spoiling us.

The Cosmics (as the fans dub them! Arf!! Arf!!) take their inspiration, and sometimes their manifesto, from The Byrds and The Beach Boys, and sometimes The Beatles. They play simple, uncomplicated songs about falling in love, taking drugs and........Kate Adie. Basically your Dad will like them. Mine does.

They are here, and here is the rather large HMV in Oxford Street, to promote their "Revolution In The Summertime" single, which they are desperate to go Top Forty, so much so that lead singer Daniel Wylie mentions that you can buy it "now" about 10 times during tonight’s half an hour gig. Alright, Dan. Of course it enters the chart at Number 35, so we can assume that a few bevvies were consumed once the words had past Mark Goodier's lips. Methinks they weren't TOO fussed about Atomic Kitten that afternoon.

To celebrate this momentous event, they play the best songs from their debut album, "Enjoy The Melodic Sunshine" with about as much gusto as the can muster. Because tonight, the songs on the album receive a much needed kick up the arse, increasing the tempo at times, or just giving it their all, and providing the songs with slightly more passion than the occasionally safe recorded versions sometimes lack.

Almost all the songs they play tonight have melodies fallen from Heaven, melodies that really should be getting airplay, melodies that milkmen across the land should be whistling every morning. But, alas, the Cosmics seem destined to remain a cult act. Perhaps it's the clichés that Wylie pulls tonight that annoys me the most. When singing about daggers through the heart, he..... mimics a dagger going through his heart by pounding his chest with his fist. When he sings of guns he..... Makes a gun shape with his hand and puts it to his head. These things really shouldn't matter. But I find I have to close my eyes sometimes, to enjoy tonight's gig.

The Japanese in the crowd love them, the Poptones employees in the crowd tonight are paid to love them. The forty year olds who fool themselves into thinking their "down wit the kids" love them. The rest of us smile, tap our feet, but ultimately shrug our shoulders. Like your school report, here is a band that really "could do better".