The Dirty Backbeats, Clambake + Headphoned and Chucklevision Sound System

A capacity crowd gathered for the first Snake Drive of 2005. People were banging on the doors and trying to get in from 7.30, but we turned them away. "Can't you read, you fools, it says doors open 8.30!".

By 8.30 all of the finishing touches had been put to the Attik's ambience and the doors were flung open to the waiting crowds. Headphoned kicked off the night spinning everything from the Black Lips to Robert Johnson on their turntables of love. The rough and ready DJing style that has been defined by the Chucklevision Sound System at previous Snake Drive's clearly has infected the next generation. The girls danced, the blokes nodded their heads and attempted to name all of the obscure tracks and the night got off to a flying start.

Meanwhile upstairs Clambake were cranking up their mojos and getting ready to let loose. Hulk t-shirts a-flapping animal print drums a-banging they were off. Coming on like a delta-surf-infused version of the Ramones they rocked the house. No song lasted longer than 2 minutes. No song failed to get people humming the riff and rocking along.

Next up came The Dirty Backbeats. And what can be said about these guys that hasn't been said 100 times before! High octane psychedelic riff-meisters. Better looking and cooler than any other Snake Drive band. The only downside was that the place was so packed that you couldn't really see Lee doing his muppet-Doors thing. Despite the lack of space we even managed to get a kind of mosh pit going!

Finally we all flooded downstairs and jumped and shouted and staggered around to the Chucklevision Sound System. With Pete and Steve's characteristic enthusiasm, optimism and general good humour the evening bounced to its conclusion on a wave of 60s freakbeat and a load of other stuff that sounded great at the time, but by Monday was only a distant memory of what might have been.

See you all at the next one!