Frankly, it’s bloody terrible. Pretty much as soon as singer Jay opens his mouth on the first track, my ears hurt. Was he ill when he recorded that vocal? And I don’t know whether it’s the production values of the demo, but the guitar and drum sound on this are quite incredibly generic, and ultimately fade to background noise.

Sadly, the songs don’t save them either. With titles like Rock Star and What A Bitch, Jezebel were surely at home to Mr Tired Fucking Cliché during the writing sessions for this one. I’ll give them credit for writing a song about pay-to-play (Pay To Play), but I don’t think a five minute screechy ballad about it is what the world really needs right now.

I really don’t understand how the same band have managed to be uninspiring, good and awful (in that order) over the course of just three demos. I can only imagine that there are two different bands conspiring to confuse people.

Tracklisting:

1. Rock Star
2. Pay To Play
3. Meanwhile
4. What A Bitch

www.myspace.com/jezebelrockuk

Pure Rawk plays the very best in brand new rock, glam, punk, sleaze and metal. Hosted by Pure Rawk editor and ‘on hiatus’ Total Rock DJ, Nix prepare to get yourself well and truly shaked into a lethal cocktail of awesome music. This podcast features entertainment from Jukebox Junkies, The Black Lights, Illuminatus, Disarm, Sworn To Oath, Lionsex, The Mercy House, Ferocity Lights and The Glass Gods!

Compromising of all those demos properly recorded with Pat Collier (Hundred Reasons, Jesus and Mary Chain, Maximo Park), this is a remarkably sweet 10 tracks of punky rock n roll mayhem. Rolling effortlessly from tender choruses to Green Day-esque blasts, and bouncing along at an often breakneck beat, this is punk rock, but made by people who have actually thought about what they’re doing first.

There is also something quite indefinable going on here, it’s a very intelligent and different record, in an area where you’d think things would be very simple and easily pinned down. Singer Charlie Gray, with backing vocals at times by guitarist Marilyn Ford, isn’t necessarily the voice you’d expect for this record, but somehow pulls it off marvellously, handling sweet powerpop melody as adeptly as the shouty bits. Occasionally it reminds me a bit of Cay, if anyone remembers them, but that’s by no means a comprehensive comparison.

This record bodes well for Ferocity Lights, and I for one am certainly interested in where this could go next.

Tracklisting:

1. Happiness
2. Your Hair
3. Long Lost Smiles
4. Away From Yesterday
5. Vinyl
6. (Someday I Will) Feel Much Better
7. My Reasons
8. A Thousand Years
9. Vietnam
10. Save Me

www.myspace.com/ferocitylights

Always a rowdy and rabble-rousing live band, best viewed at a dive bar in shoutalong beer-o-vision, this bunch of rock n roll misfits laid down their favourite 12 tracks back in 2007 somewhere in a back street in Soho.

Opening with the super-catchy single Jimmy Does, Tom Spencer’s distinctive rasp leads us over bouncy Wildhearts / Social Distortion influenced good time rock n roll and through the classic blues back alleys of drink, women and cynicism. In a good way. Euphoric drunk love, fuckup friends, late nights and putting the world to rights, all easily fit under the drizzly canopy of late night Soho. Indeed, The 12^th Bar Blues really must owe something to Denmark Street’s 12 Bar – it’s certainly pretty reminiscent of some nights I’ve spent there.

As well as being a great rockin’ party record, So Much For Soho is very much an album of stories, and not without its coy humour either. There aren’t many records around that can tell the story of getting older, and realising you really should’ve grown up by now, with such wit and candour as 30Nage.

With The Loyalties having been rather ‘on hiatus’, with various band members dragged back to other commitments more likely to pay the bills, many feared this album would be pretty much all they left behind. But, it looks very much like we will be seeing them back this October, so here’s hoping album number two can deliver as many kicks as this does.

Tracklisting:

1. Jimmy Does
2. 5 Aces
3. Sugarcoat
4. So Much For Soho
5. Sofa Surfing UK
6. Green Eyes
7. The Girl Upstairs
8. The 12^th Bar Blues
9. 30Nage
10. The Ballad Of The Wishful Drinker
11. Ain’t Love A Drag
12. Bring On The Bomb

www.myspace.com/theloyalties

Pure Rawk plays the very best in brand new rock, glam, punk, sleaze and metal. Hosted by Pure Rawk editor and ‘on hiatus’ Total Rock DJ, Nix prepare to get yourself well and truly shaked into a lethal cocktail of awesome music. This podcast features an exclusive competition to win tickets to the London Tattoo Convention plus musical entertainment from Black Spiders, Dead Identities, Shush, Stereo Juggernaut, Chickenfoot, Exit State, Jim Jones Revue and Stephen Dale Petit!

Right click here to download (39mb mp3).

Yikes, yellow dungarees! We still love you DLR.

Friday night, seven o’clock. Time for a party as the Quireboys once sang and it’s here at this decidedly early hour that the weekend begins in deepest darkest Islington at the Academy Bar for the magnificently moody Stereo Juggernaut. It’s always good to see a band doing something different and SJ’s mix of heavy guitars and dance rhythms is certainly something that sets them out from the crowd. In lesser hands trying something as ambitious as this could spell disaster but the key is that SJ are quite simply four very talented musicians and they take these songs by the scruff of the neck and absolutely belt ‘em out. There’s definitely a hint of Muse in the complex song patterns and use of electronica plus frontman Ben’s vocal style but they’ve got enough of an individual stamp to avoid sounding like mere copyists and could well go far. They’re opening for Acey Slade at this very website’s next gig at the Purple Turtle in a month’s time – if I was you I’d make the effort to get down there early to see ‘em.

We would’ve stuck around at the Academy a bit longer but quite frankly the beer was ludicrously expensive so we head up the road to the Zenith Bar and a rendezvous with the new look Patchwork Grace. The Zenith is definitely a bit of an odd place and tonight PWG find themselves sharing a bill with mainly acoustic acts which is somewhat incongruous company for Tori and co. However, come showtime they show that the recent line-up changes certainly haven’t dented their ability to put on a good show. New guitarist James seems to be settling into his role well while new bassist Scott (in for the recently departed Joey Strange) is a commanding presence stage right with his gravity-defying blonde quiff. Meanwhile, Tori Trash is just as captivating a frontwoman as ever, alternating between cooing and screeching the lyrics out. A few old songs like “Soap” get an airing tonight but the new stuff like “Sevlar” and “Monster” shows plenty of promise too – rest assured there is most definitely plenty of life left in this band.

From hereon in, the weekend takes something of a surreal turn. I’d ventured down to my traditional stamping ground of the Gaff on Saturday night to see Skintight Jaguars, a band who I’ve only managed to catch once since moving to London on what quite frankly was a bit of a disastrous night at From Dusk Till Dawn in Archway when their equipment went completely wrong three songs in forcing them to abandon the set and they were unlucky enough to be sharing a bill with two of the worst bands I’ve seen during my time in the capital (names withheld for obvious reasons). Tonight is a major improvement although no less weird – the Jags are playing at an aftershow for the London Rock ‘n’ Rollergirls and are sharing a bill with not one but two Turbonegro tribute bands (then again, I quite like Turbonegro so that’s no bad thing). They’ve certainly come on a long way in the last two years and their new EP shows a band who’ve now moved well away from their sleaze-rock origins to a much more fast ‘n’ furious punk rock set (their choice to do a Poison Idea song as their cover version for the night is a telling one). Key is that they’ve still got plenty of good tunes and riffs intact (“The Death Of Rock ‘n’ Roll” from their new EP is the pick of tonight’s crop) and they get a good reception from the assembled denim jacket and sailor hat clad hordes here tonight. As with both of the other bands in this review, this is a group who’ve got plenty of potential, it’s just up to them to realise it and hopefully they will.

The evening ends some time around midnight with a rollergirl lesbian wedding onstage. Evidently it’s been that kinda weekend. And you know what? That’s probably why I moved to London in the first place…