Sunday 16/07/06 Tin Pan Alley @ Denmark Street, London

London’s famous Denmark Street is a Mecca for anyone with a love of music - very rarely will you ever see the street empty, and today is no exception. People have been queuing up at the barriers for hours already and when they’re finally opened a great flood of people run to the front of the stage. You see, that’s a mighty fine bonus - the festival is free!

With a fast gathering crowd bright eyed and bushy tailed XFM’s John Kennedy appears onstage to announce the first of the day’s acts - The Ape Drape Escape, a Sheffield based band who try to provide a punk meets disco sound with a heady mix of guitars and synths. A little shot of indie today comes in the form of The Holloways. Typically Libertines/ Kooks sounding, with The Pogues and Madness thrown in along the way, they’re fun and the crowd love them. Theirs is a fast and lively set of tunes that most certainly grace London’s indie club scene and have the whole crowd jumping and dancing around.

One of the main highlights of the festival comes in the form of the following band Louie. A fast and furious blast of good Rock n’ Roll sounds and a barrage of shouts and screams unusually provided by two singers blasts out of the amps as they launch themselves into their opening number. This is most certainly like nothing the crowd have seen so far today. Their best song is ‘The Curves And The Bends’, a punked up shot of riffs and tight beats that mark this band out as a must see live.

The Violets are purely average in their sound and appearance, especially their frontwoman who is trying so hard to be the next Debbie Harry and whinges about the heat ****ing up her makeup. Lets be honest- who cares? With no stage presence and a boring slant on the disco sound that marked the 80’s, The Violets band were awful. Like The Violets, Keith were average, although they preferred an alternative style for their music. This Manchurian four-piece are a ‘nice’ band that is not quite strong enough to really create an impact but not loose enough to be ignored.