The Ordinary Boys

Fame is a mixed blessing I guess.

Wednesday night after work I pootled up the road from my office to go to the Islington Academy to see the Ordinary Boys. This is a somewhat smaller venue than my normal haunts and indeed I struggled to find it. I circumnavigated a small shopping centre off Upper Street only to realise the venue was right in the middle of it. Or probably more accurately, under it. Anyway, I hadn't booked in advance although had checked it wasn't sold out. That's the blessing (from a punter's viewpoint) of an act not being that famous, or at least its moment of fame having rather passed. (Contrast my efforts to get tickets to see Coldplay over the internet some weeks ago at the Emirates where whole blocks were selling out in front of my eyes. Its ok - I succeeded in the end - review will appear here next Easter!)

However, the Ordinary Boys, or rather their lead singer Preston, did indeed have a brush with fame of the tabloid variety. For one year he decided to go on Celebrity Big Brother. Now as we all know, no celebrities go on celebrity reality shows, only wannabees and hasbeens. Preston was clearly in the former category. I dodn't recognise him when I saw pictures of that year's housemates, and by that time I had already seen him twice in concert!

Anyway, he ended up having an affair with one of the other non-entities, a blond air-head called Chantelle (Think Katie Price with a lower bra size. I wouldn't want to call the comparison on brain cells - there is a point where numbers become so low as to be statistically meaningless.) And as these things tend to go their very public relationship (with book deals) filled the tabloids until they unsurprisingly split up very shortly afterwards (Think Katie Price....yeah you are ahead of me).

Now all publicity is good publicity they say. Well not always. And if you are lead singer of an indie band you are supposed to have some credibility. Which Preston's little side project cost him I would suggest.

Which is a pity as I liked the Ordinary Boys. And still do. Preston is a charismatic and good-looking lead (barring armfuls of unsightly tattoos) with a strong voice and great energy. He could do with a bigger stage (literally in this case as he bounded round the limited space like a caged tiger). The intimacy of the gig made it so much more enjoyable. I was, as is my wont, right at the front, and the front was very close to the stage. The lead singer of the first support act (The Brassic - very listenable) admitted he had actually bought a ticket for the gig before he had been invited to play at it. And indeed later on he appeared a few yards from me in the audience.

And Preston early on said the set would concentrate on their first album. "Because it was the good one" he admitted wryly, recognising the downward slope of his career. But it was a great set, starting up with a rousing rendition of their debut album title track, Over the Counter Culture, and straight into the second track, the List Goes On (which contains some of my favourite pop lines "Radio play just depresses me today. Originality is so passe").

I quite like bands who do the odd cover version, and they cover both the Buzzcocks and the Specials, two very dissimilar bands. So all in all a good night. Trouble is the music is rather "geezerish" and so does rather attract a geezer audience. And you wouldn't really want to spend a night with the geezers who would go to Millwall games (and I say that when one of my best mates is a Millwall fan!)