The Black Diamond Heavies, The Dirty Backbeats, Jawbone and Post War Years

Well we don't do mid-week Snake Drive's very often, but the line-up on offer for this one was just too good to miss. So we all pulled ourselves out of our usual mid-week drinking haunts and headed down to the Musician to get Snake Drived good and proper.

First up came the Post War Years. The buzz went round the room that there were record company execs hiding under every seat as soon as they took the stage. And you could see why - these young lads are surely set to become the next big thing. So I can only hope that the A&R men took note and they will rapidly be trading their stiff art rock next to Franz Ferdinand and all the rest on the front cover of Smash Hits, Sounds and Stiff Art Rock Quarterly.

Next up was Detroit's astonishing Jawbone. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but you can't help but be struck by the amazing noise that this man makes. In an age in which the one man band has finally come of age Jawbone stands head and shoulders over all of the rest. Thump, bump, thump, bump, thump, bump, woooo.

And then of course the amazing Dirty Backbeats. Like the Muppets on excessive amounts of coffee and rock and roll juice they dominated the stage once more. This is their sixth Snake Drive and I just hope that we are privaledged enough to get them to play a few more times before the gods of garage rock take them off to the stars. DBs we salute you.

Finally up came the two-piece nu version of the Black Diamond Heavies. Think of a garage rock Jerry Lee Lewis in the form of a seventies rock god and you won't be too far away. I loved them when they had the big fat guitar player, but I think that I love them even more in this stripped down form. The piano is just so damn powerful. We just can't wait for the album.

As ever the joint was jumping until a quarter to two and then all of the lovely people vanished off into the night to take their love back from town.