Three bands in one evening set, Bristol Carling Academy. Headliners NYPC on the rise currently, they do kind-of-dance music with guitars and sort-of-rapping. They may even be associated with that new-rave movement that's been sweeping the nation. I'm afraid I'm too old to conclusively comment about that. A song of theirs, the one about ice-creams was in an advert once. The fact that I can remember the song from an advert appearance, but have no memory about the visual components or the brand or product, ought to be the sort of thing to give pause to people commissioning expensive television branding campaigns. For bands awaiting a breakthrough and wanting to be noticed though, it seems like a grand idea. Wikipedia tells me it was a campaign for Intel Core Duo processors . I quite like those.

In person the band sounds much like the record. A little too much perhaps, in that there's not much differentiation between their songs. And for an act that's mostly rythmic, and drawing on dance styles, to my ears they could have done with more going on with the drumming, which seemed a bit weak. An enjoyable set though, and the crowd, although slim by Academy standards responded well to it. I applaud the fact that one of their members looks a lot like Howard Moon . I'll probably pick up the album at some point.

Immediately preceding them were the Ting Tings ; a two-piece, inverse White Stripes, with a robustly proficient male drummer, and an enthusiastic, but rudimentary, female guitarist, along with a fair amount of sequenced help. I'm sure I've seen them once before, at some multi-band event, but I can't really place it. It seems like it ought to have been British Sea Power, alongside Morton Valence , but the more I think about it, the more I'm sure that it wasn't. They were pretty good fun, high energy, got the crowds dancing, and a short set ensured they couldn't outstay their welcome.

Starting off the evening, the first support act, and the actual reason I was there: Black Affair , the latest incarnation of Steve ( Beta Band, King Biscuit Time ) Mason, and the first time I've had a chance to catch up with this latest material. Performed as a two piece, just him and a bass player, it's funky, electro-pop, lots of squelchy keyboards and sequenced drums , with those unmistakable vocal melodies still anchoring everything with a nice sprinkling of familiarity. I enjoyed the short set hugely, and so did some of 'the kids' who were enthusiastically dancing away. Mind you, as they continued to bop with vigour through every successive band set, I did wonder if perhaps they'd been eating some of those special dancing sweets.

Later on, Mr. Mason and bass playing friend then came out and watched the NYPC from the back of the hall. Embarassingly enough this meant they were standing immediately behind us . I couldn't really avoid a brief chat and a handshake as we were leaving. I somehow managed to avoid gushing too much, and extracted the pleasant news that some singles are on the way, and there's an album complete awaiting a subsequent release date. It's good to have him back.