Lo-Ego

Loughborough's Quartershade may sound like they should be the house band in the next Austin Powers movie, but that's where the sixties throwback similarities end. Instead, what we have here are tunes big enough to fill the new Wembley Stadium twice over. From the power-pop thrill of 'Paralyzed' to both 'Swim' and 'Hide And Seek''s virtuoso statements of perplexity and grandeur, Quartershade are both the anti-Feeder and yet at the same time could be what either the Stereophonics or Starsailor were like if they weren't inhabitants of their own pompous bowel areas. Definitely ones to keep an eye out for in the future.

Straight outta Hertford come Rotating Leslie, and with a mix of sounds and songs that do the word eclectic an injustice, their unabated "variety is the spice of life and all that..." throw it all in the kitchen sink and see what comes out nature could, sadly, be their downfall. That and the fact that they don't look like they all belong in the same band - a motley bunch at best with at least half of them looking like they'd be more at home in either the Bee Gees or the Strokes. Still, this isn't The X-Factor, so image isn't high on the agenda here.

Opening with a song ('On Your Way') that sounds like Radio 4 covering The Jam with Paul Draper on vocals, it's when they commit themselves to no frills, full on rock'n'roll that their real strength lies. 'Nine Bar Blues' and 'Dictionary Definition' sound like Babyshambles would if the guitarist could play and the singer could sing in tune, while 'Undertow' is to Joe Jackson and the Cars what Razorlight are to the Boomtown Rats. Give 'em another six months to hone their sound and you never know...

A fair few punters are here to see Love Ends Disaster!, particularly after the year they've had, with a Bloc Party endorsement and rave reviews of their 'Stories For The Dislocated' EP trailing in their wake.

Sadly, LED! seem to be beset with problems from the word go, as the sound mix is quite frankly awful and guitars fade in and out of the mix like some technocentric adaptation of morse code. By the time they do get their act together on the closing 'Warning! Robots', the queue for the bar gets the overworked staff in a sweat even if no one else has. Later in the evening, guitarist Jon Dix confesses to me that tonight's show "Wasn't one of their best", so I think I'll leave it at that.

Perhaps one of the most alarming sagas of 2005 is the fact that Lo-Ego still remain without a record deal. To these ears, that is something of a travesty as their semi-theatrical prog-rock is surely a natural precursor to anyone who believes Radiohead lost the plot after 'OK Computer', and a damn site more believable in it's integrity than Oceansize's "Today Matthew we'll be the Cooper Temple Clause, tomorrow??? Let's see who's down with the kids..." all change with the weather nonsense.

Frontman Martin Collins has the presence of an impoverished guerilla fighter and the voice of a shamanic angel. When he hits the high notes on 'Floods' and 'Wall Of Silence', seas could part and Cornettos would melt, while 'Innocence Gone' still sounds like a lullaby for the permanently self-pitying.

New song 'At The End Of This' serves as a wake-up call to every starstruck, scenester band out there still living on Gang Of Four basslines and Clash-lite cut out and stencil sloganeering, while the climax that is 'Suffered A Loss' revolves in a halo of tumultuous feedback and distortion down Alfreton Road and back again. One day every band will possess this kind of lucid ambition and enthusiasm without the annoying pomposity and pretense. Until such a time, there is simply no ego like Lo-Ego.