This was Marc Valentine & his Three Dicks Xmas bash with a well put together fun line-up, first on were Mid-Age Rampage the 4-piece glam covers band fronted by Lizzy Lastic who played a classic 70's disco set, of the sort of songs I would have heard in a freezing cold disco in Crowborough or Folkestone circa 1973/6.
They stomped into view with a chugging slightly out of time version of Action, that I was assured by the other half was by Def Leppard an that Sweet mob must have covered it, yeah they poured some sugar on it right. Lizzy had a glint in her eye on 20th Century Boy as they tried to get as gritty as Girlschool did when playing this classic.
Crazy Horses saw the guitarist not even attempt the songs signature sounds, just sticking to the rhythm parts. As for his mangling of Ronno's parts on Hang Onto Yourself they were best overlooked as we all sang along, while trying to find some black leather gloves to pull on in time for My Coo Ca Choo to chug across the Hope & Anchor as quickly as it could, as we all needed to properly stomp our Tiger Feet once more.
They then leapt forwards in time to smash through The Heavy Metal Kids Delirious that of course had both my other half and me singing along like it was a Hanoi Rocks tune, they then shocked us be singing The Primitives classic Crash, that really was from the wrong decade, but was the closest they came to all playing in time all set. They then closed with a rollicking run through We Wish You A Merry Christmas to leave us all with smiles on our faces while I tried to remember the name of the last band we saw Lizzy Lastic singing with as I think the Mau Mau club. I was also wondering why they didn't play Hi Ho Silver Lining.
Next on were Rich Ragany & The Digressions who sadly for this show were Gaffless as the bands guitar god was unavailable, so they were playing as a 5 piece and opened with What We Do To Not Let Go that as ever sounded good and full on, with some heartfelt lyrics, Rich was doing his best to mimic Gaff's solos on what I guess was It Was Lonely At The Time that had good frayed edges. Beyond Nostalgia & Heartache really needed a bit of lighter in the air action but otherwise was sounding good and punchy.
Heartbreakers Don't Try has some wistful lyrics that got a little bit run over, as they really went for it and the whole band looked like they were having a lot of fun. My super messy notes claim they did a song about Bunny taboos that was certainly another glam stomper with a full-on Ricky McGuire bass rumble and Kit Swings Tambourine and backing vocals. One More For The Train was a bit early as we had plenty of time before the last train.
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How Much Of Me Is You is a rather bittersweet song played with plenty of swagger from Kit Swing. A great version of Pretty Breeze was next that saw Kit doing her best Crucial Taunt moves. Kit then sang lead vocals and played tambourine on the next song before they closed with One Last Thing or is it called Outro, either way they are still great fun live, just as Rich and Simon Maxwell had been back opening for Michael Monroe in December 2017 when they were in the Role Models.
Then it was finally time for Marc Valentine who introduced his band as being his Three Dicks as backing him were Richard Davies and another couple of Dicks, who opened with what should have been the last song of the set Last Train Tonight that was of course the opening song on the brilliant Future Obscure album. Richard Davies was looking suspiciously healthy on the song I guess from my scrawl was High Flow it certainly had plenty of power and energy.
Arcades took us all back to wasting time at the seaside as this top-notch glam punk kept coming at us. The guessing game at my notes for the next bit gives the absurdist word salad gonna be all my lords advice Myself, so let's say I have no clue what they sang, but damn it sounded great as did Ghosts Of Amsterdam that had me thinking of a few friends who went to Amsterdam never to return.
Was that Break My Heart Anyway next in this glam slam before there poignant version of Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow they then played the bands next single Skeleton Key that had some intricate guitar work from Richard Davies.
Marc took us to his Camden Roots for Mornington Avenue about the good old bedsit days. Marc then got Rich Ragany up to help them blast through Born To Lose in as ramshackle a fashion as the song always demands. They then closed with a great version of Swiss Launderette.
They did more than enough to deserve an encore and came back on for what I guess might be called Shy Thing but most probably isn't, one of these days I'll write legible notes, but where's the fun in that, what was certain was this was a great fun night out that should have been able to sell out the Garage up the road.
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