Kingsley HarrisWe made it! 2009 is here and we're already on the way to another good year for local music. I'm sure the current financial climate will have an impact over the next twelve months but lets just jump each hurdle as we come to it.Kingsley Harris

We made it!

2009 is here and we're already on the way to another good year for local music. I'm sure the current financial climate will have an impact over the next twelve months but lets just jump each hurdle as we come to it.

To put a positive spin on it, lets look at the facts, the recessions of 1973, 79, and 92 all kick started great musical revolutions. Would it be too crass to ask for another great a tidal wave of garage bands?

I started the year at THE LINES gig who had three Norwich bands in support. It was a good turn out for the Arts Centre considering all the taxi drivers were telling me it would be dead in the city from the January 2 till pay day!

I completely missed openers Vanilla Kick but picked up a copy of their new CD. It's a two-track freebie and can be picked up at all gigs while stocks last, as they say. Its a fine listen.

Next up were the INTERPRETERS. Early last year these guys were on the cusp of doing things but then seem to drop by the wayside. It was disappointing to see the backbone of their set is still built around the same songs with the newer songs not being quite as strong except for a slow one, the title of which escapes me.

The stage show was poorly sold with too many in-jokes, chatting to friends and excluding any converts that might be had. That said the (old) songs stand on their own two feet and the dual pronged vocals are still the heartbeat of the band.

Monroes became BLIGHTERS at the end of 2008. The band has got this whole 80s scenario going-on in a Pigbag minus the percussion and brass kind of way. It's not a million miles away from ex-UEA band The Higsons. The group did play a lot of old material but its good stuff and they really sell it live.

The Lines are from Wolverhampton. Now you really can't knock an unknown band from the Midlands pulling in a hall of people on a cold Norwich night just two days after one of the most expensive days of the year, so lets give them credit on that score.

However, they are just one of those formula bands, in the 60s and late seventies this clean style was labelled mod.

These days we bundle as much as we can into the guitar based indie category. Acceptance into the crowd is more to do with how good you look in your jeans and Fred Perry than any affiliation or appreciation of music.

The songs drift from lightweight pop to psychedelic soundscapes in a Kasabian meets Kula Shaker style.

Despite loving their track Domino Effect, with so many similar bands about I don't think they'll enjoy anymore than Andy Warhol's fifteens minutes of fame.