26 November 2006 (gig)
03 December 2006
The Virgin Mobile-sponsored gig for around 200-odd competition winners last Sunday had a nice buzz of anticipation running around the Academy.
A young and hyper crowd seemed really excited about seeing headliners The Automatic, but just from one or two conversations Music News overheard, you got the feeling that they were oblivious to the quality that was about to hit them that was Keith.
However, excitement soon turned to slight disappointment as lead singer Oli Bayston walked on stage alone. He mumbled something mostly inaudible about the rest of the band being stuck in Manchester because of a petrol cap (I did say it was inaudible!) and did a solo acoustic set. Fair play, I thought, though it was a tough crowd, seemingly disinterested in what he had to say. Sadly Keith’s current set list doesn’t really translate acoustically that well, and the opportunity to win over a crowd of new fans was wasted. Which was a shame, because that brave young man has such an incredibly moving and powerful voice and when the band are seen as a unit they are unreal.
The Fields started well, but soon collapsed into what can only be described as a monotonous jumble of too many sounds. The band put out a messy blend of instruments all indistinguishable from each other, of which the low point was when the keyboardist started a completely pointless attempt at looking like she could play the accordion. It added nothing, except more noise.
Luckily, the dissatisfaction I had experienced two bands in (for two entirely different reasons, I might add) skyrocketed into pleasure the moment The Automatic loped on stage.
As MN chatted to the guys, well, bass playing frontman Rob and drummer Iwan, they seemed impressively relaxed, milling about their fans with total ease.
Rob said they had just come back from a break in Amsterdam and were now looking forward to getting back on with their songwriting and hoping to break America. 'We are always writing,' he said. 'It is pretty much a constant process. We are working on the new album at the moment but nothing is recorded yet.'
He also said to look ahead to early January for the re-release of excellent single 'Raoul’, which he said was forced upon them by the record label. 'It’s not exactly my ideal choice, it was a record company decision.'
The four guys proceeded to nail their set with passion, energy and flawless musical ability.
Highlights were the obvious 'Monster’, 'Raoul’ and finale 'Recover’ plus a stunning cover of Kanye West’s 'Golddigger’ by the nutcase that is Pennie. The keyboardist and novelty vocalist proved he was far more than just 'the mad one’. He delivered a multi-faceted performance that showed more energy or passion than I can conjure of any other band of their age and experience, climbing up scaffolding, desperate to stage dive and generally giving it 500 per cent. He makes The Automatic stand out from the crowd but the solidness and the quality of the band as a whole, combined with some killer rock songs should see the four kids from Wales stick around for a while.
