Tuesday 8th July 2008

A great gig at the very friendly Crown in Westbury last Saturday. They wouldn’t let us go! Colin’s been reading a biography of Keith Moon, and it shows - by which I mean that he drummed magnificently in true showman mode, rather than driving his car into a body of water. This being Wiltshire, it would have involved a Mondeo and a duckpond rather than a Chevy and a hotel swimming pool - so just as well. Bev was a true star as always and Tim in top form.

And we got another anonymous rave review on the Lemonrock wesbite! I have cause to believe that this is a different person from the one who wrote the review of the Scally’s gig, and I’d sure like to thank him/her and shake him/her by his/her hand and buy him/her a drink. He/she said:

‘Hadn’t seen this band before... So I expected they’d rely on the usual set of tired covers that a lot of pub bands seem to stick to. Not a chance! Sun Machine turned out to be a very well rehearsed indie-rock band that does a nice line in original material - plus a few well-chosen covers.

‘Vocals and musicianship were of a consistently high standard and the whole gig was well received by a crowd that got bigger as the night went on. I’m not sure if this pub has regular live music... But it seemed that, as word went out as the night progressed, more people came to check out the band.

‘The original songs were very good... Some reached for catchy, indie-pop perfection... Others had a strong anthemic quality.

‘With regard to the covers... For me, the standout was “Come Together”. Totally nailed it... But still with their own spin. Such a good vibe that they were made to play it twice.

‘Was it a good night? Well, I honestly lost count of the number of encores that the audience called the band back for... But it was about 4 or 5. So I think that speaks for itself! This is one band that I’ll definitely be going to see again.

‘A music fan, Mon 7th Jul 08.’

Thanks!

Russ