Man Or Astroman?

The Witchdoktors

SPG

Colchester Arts Centre 12/5/96

SPG were the first band on stage. They were I guess a punk band who went a bit thrashy in places, with a ska influence not that's a bad thing of course. In fact after a pretty bad start they sounded good. I say a bad start because the first few songs were just a noisy dirge in which you really couldn't hear very much, whether the sound man or the band were to blame I'm not sure! Anyway they were pretty good as far as the first band on a bill of three goes. I've seen worse and I've seen better. I'd maybe see them again if they were playing at a local pub and it was only a few quid to get in. That is to say, what they did they did well but it wasn't really anything special, as I said, just another noisy punk/trash/ska band really!
P.S. The singers hair was cool! Big yellow spiky Mowhawk!

The Witchdoktors Now this band I really did like, and I told them so after the gig! Hard to put my finger on what sort of music it was, or who they sounded like but it did sound a little bit like several bands but not really like anyone in particular! He he, I'm not really making a lot of sense now am I but I really do hate describing bands 'cos it's so difficult to do! I guess they were kind of pyschobilly/punk/surf guitar kind of thing. Little bits sounded like Rocket from the Crypt, but other bits sounded nothing like them! But they were very good, the sort of band I would definitely recommend people going to see. They did a couple of covers, one I can't remember/didn't recognise, the other the Ramones' Blitzkrieg Bop. They come from south east London I think they said.

Man or Astro Man? really are very cool nerd/geeky looking people! You've got the bassist wearing an orange NASA jump suit, one guitarist wearing a 60s/70s astronaut uniform(kind of Thunderbirds looking thing), the other guitarist wearing silver trousers and some v think glasses and the drummer with hair a la Elvis! However they are f*£&ing awesome live! Their mix of punk with surf guitar does separate them from Mr Dick Dale(king of the surf guitar, who is also awesome live). The guy with the orange jump suit runs and jumps about a lot, wears a TV on his head sometimes, and goes a bit mental. The guitarist in the grey Thunderbirds suit looks deadly serious the whole time, and doesn't change facial expression throughout the show(although he did stand on top of the speaker stand playing for a while, which was decidedly wobbly!). I couldn't see the drummer or other guitarist much, but there was one 'tune' where the 3 axe-men (I've always wanted to use that word!) each moved in time with each other, i.e. hands, heads and everything, very weird. What was also pretty cool was the projector showing NASA footage of space type stuff on the back wall of the stage! I guess that's about it apart from to say I definitely would see them again, even though the volume really was very loud and my ears are still ringing now!

Man or Astroman's Official web page


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