Sunday 15/07/07 Tin Pan Alley Festival @ Denmark Street, London

Denmark Street; the capitals Mecca for musicians and the largest musical retail thoroughfare in Europe, is hosting its annual and fourth edition of the free one day festival Tin Pan Alley. Once again, TPA is hosted by XFM’s John Kennedy, smack in the middle of tourist happy London town and overlooked by the monstrous shadow of Centrepoint, which is apt as this years chosen charity is Centrepoint, whose work aims to directly improve the lives of socially excluded homeless young people. And to be in the shadow of this towering slab of concrete can mean only one thing…sun. Yes that right folks the great British summer is at last with us and July’s blue skies are out in force.

Opening the day and giving people a reason to be standing in a blocked off half deserted London Street at 11 O’clock on a Sunday morning are My Device. And a jam packed thirty minute set loaded with their signature moody, pounding energy and exuberance including ‘Eat Lead’ and crowd pleasers ‘Slamming Doors’ and ‘Fountain Of Youth’ complete with stop start punctuation and continuous confidence, smashes any hopes that the local residents may have held for a long and lazy lye in much to the delight of the music hungry and plain curious passers by.

Next up and playing a somewhat cut short set are Leicester hardcore three piece Herra Hidro. They’ve got the ability to produce an undeniably big sound but unfortunately flaunt a somewhat limited repertoire, and following My Device proves to be a difficult task. In fact, it’s a bit of a non-starter. That aside their all out, no holds barred audio assault including the crashing drums of their new single ‘Up Against The Bat’ manage to coax a small reaction from a similarly small crowd. It is Sunday after all and remember the great British summer and July’s blue skies? Hmmmm…que the umbrellas. It’s raining and TPA’s clout and line-up faces its first true test of the day.

Despite the rain, Leamington Spa’s Post War Years manage to lift the atmosphere substantially by playing off dirty organ lines against intelligent considered guitar riffs cemented together with an unshakable cracking vocal, plenty of self-assurance and a natural confidence that exudes cool. Certainly the best so far and things are looking up especially with the space jazz fuelled ‘We Could Dance’, ‘You And Me Both’ and the mind blowing ‘Black Morning’. They’ve got the tunes and the ability and are indisputably one to watch for 2007.

Gigwise favourites and Indie Idol winners at this year’s Camden Crawl, 35 Seconds, have the unenviable task of taking to the stage next. It’s been a whirlwind of a year so far for the boys from Birmingham and their exhilarating and fresh slant on contemporary rock stands them in good stead much to the delight of an ever growing booze fuelled crowd. The sharp and at times intimidating sounds that are brought to the likes of ‘Dinosaurs’, ‘Filth’ and ‘Walk The Plank’ shine through the ominous clouds and echo through London’s streets despite a few technical hiccups and the loss of their well crafted techno beats and bleeps. It’s a job well done and TPA is back on.

Just when you thought things would be hard pushed to get much better they do…immensely, in the form of The Peoples Revolutionary Choir. Jaw droppingly remarkable in every sense of the word, the crowd appear to be in two minds as to what to do. Stand stock still in all out wonderment or dance as if this was the best performance they had ever witnessed and if they were to get knocked down by a bus immediately after the show things would still be OK. More than OK in fact. With a swagger to upstage Tom Meighan and more thoroughbred DNA than Richard Ashcroft, lead singer Lal Townsend is a frontman in the truest sense of the word, whipping the crowd into an intense frenzy of unadulterated ecstasy through a classic British wall of sound. TPA has just transcended a one day event into a full blown festival. It’s absolutely lashing down now, but those who know a good thing when they hear it aren’t going anywhere. ‘Take Me Home’, ‘Elevate’, ‘Breeze That Blows’, ‘Girl’ and ‘Last Song’ are just a small taster amongst others of what this band are capable of…and that, to put it simply is UK, if not worldwide domination. For the rest of the bands on today’s bill, this performance is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible to follow.

With a view to clearing the bar that TPRC have just raised are Sunset Cinema Club. Experimental indie sensibilities, post rock attitude, a good old fashioned sense of humour (“Thank you for turning up to the celebration of Bernard Manning’s death”) and a skinfull of booze all make for a good combination and increase the pace of TPA 2007. Shared vocal duties and a great bouncing dynamic encourage pockets of dancing in the by now packed crowd with future, if not current myspace hits including the drum ‘n’ bass metal infused ‘Confectionary Hell’, eighties funk laced ‘Sunday Best’ and the angry ‘Bus Stop Girls’. Throw in some sleazy schizophrenic punk and dirty bass lines and you’ve all the trappings of a great set and more importantly yet another fantastic and largely undiscovered band that’s shouting out to be heard.