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Review by Rob.

Who wins the battle of this year's bright young things?

Valentines night. A time for taking your loved one out to a full and specially overpriced restaurant, or arguing over why the card was lost in the post again this year. Sod all that, get out to a gig and even better take the other half with you. Thankfully Rock City tried to make us all forget the slush fest outside by putting on the NME Awards Show again this year featuring four of the most promising up and coming bands. Last year all of the featured acts went on to achieve considerable success, will history repeat itself this time out? Also at these events there is an unwritten battle between all the bands to come out on top on the night. Find out who we thought were the kings of Rock City.

First up were Mumm Ra. This 5 piece hail from the rock n roll hotbed that is Bexhill on Sea. We missed the first 3 songs though from what I saw I can confirm that they come across as a classic british pop band, not surprising as they cite the Kinks and Blur as influences. The two stand out tunes are the last 2, current single 'What would Steve do?' and 'Out of the question'. A good solid opener and worth seeing at their own show, though whether they achieve the heights of other notable awards openers, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and Coldplay, remain to be seen.

Definitely the band to generate the most mixed response are The Horrors. Five lads all dressed up in regulations goth black (the singer even wears a cape), they also ensure that their music lives up to their name. Lead singer Faris Rotter doesn't really sing, but delivers an earsplitting pierce that for some reason had me thinking of the old death metal titans Napalm Death. Musically they touch base with all the acts you would expect, the Cramps, Nick Cave, Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson, but also find time for the garage rock beloved of the Hives and Sonic Youth. Beforehand I was led to believe that they were really poor but from the opening song to the last I really liked them, mainly because they were different. It has to be said a large proportion of the audience sod off downstairs whilst they were on, but that's their loss. The Horrors really can rock, go out and see 'em.

Chants start ringing round Rock City from the moment the Horrors depart. "The View The View are on fire" they go. If Only. Now I do like the album 'Hats off to the buskers' even though it was a slow grower. Musically as a general rule all their songs sound quite a bit like someone else, mainly Oasis and The Libertines and its a good game to play spot the View's influences. They are received tonight by a rapturous audience but sad to say they just do not live up to the hype. Whilst the set is competent it drags badly after the brilliant 'Wasted Little DJs' just one of the quite vitriolic songs on the album. A lot of the time the band give the impression they just can't be arsed tonight, though to be fair they are only young lads and it could be nerves. Also the sound quality is not the best too, and combined with their gentle Dundee accents it conspires to make them almost entirely indecipherable. In fact they could be really slagging the English off between songs safe in the knowledge that everyone will cheer anyway. Also it doesn't help when they don't play my favourite song off the album, 'Face for the radio'. It is not until the last 2 songs when they give a glimpse of their potential. 'Same Jeans' and especially 'Superstar Tradesman' are superb. However its a bit to little too late and though the majority loved them they still have a way to go to cut it for me live.

Hordes of punters make their exit having seen the next big things play their set. A pity really they missed the best band of the night. When The Automatic released 'Monster' in the summer it sort of cast them as a sort of gimmick. Thankfully one listen to the album confirmed that this was not the case at all as there are at least 5 classic songs on their and the rest is highly competent. Tonight they prove in the space of one song that they are going to be more entertaining than the rest of the bands put together. Brilliant single 'Raoul' follows and raises the temperature further. Emo dancing freak Pennie is everywhere, and informs us he has thrown up 3 times during the show which noone seemed to notice. His crazed shouting certainly adds a dimension to the band though its one that could grate a bit beyond the first album. They are so confident they play 'Monster' midway through and it is testament to their show that the atmosphere does not drop off afterwards, even though it is still a great singalong tune, and a set high point. An unusual but brilliant cover of Talking Head's 'Life During Wartime' supplements their own songs and they close with two of their best songs, 'You shout You shout You shout You shout' and 'Recover' and looking around you could sense everyone had a really good time. Now if only The View could summon up half as much energy...

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