The Automatic

Let's face it, the reason so many people are here to see The Automatic is that they want to see how they fare without eccentric keyboardist Pennie. The answer, it seems, is that they have decided to cover for the absence of the manic shouty one by getting louder and heavier. Which is ironic, given that Pennie left to - amongst other things - spend more time hanging out with Gallows.

New man Paul Mullen acquits himself well on the new songs, but there's definitely something lacking when they play the mandatory old songs 'Monster' and 'Raoul' and you wonder just how much of their back catalogue they are going to be able to rely upon when they come to play longer sets. More significantly, though, new songs such as 'Magazines' and 'It's a Fix' don't have anything which distinguishes them from a number of other, newer, bands out there - which is going to be a problem, no matter how fast and loud they play them.

Cheese says: I loved them so much, I bounced myself off my feet and bashed my face