And so battle commenced...

The venue for the first night of the 1998 clash of York's musical wannabes may not have been heaving with sweaty punters, but all three bands put blood, sweat and tears into their war efforts.

First up were The Urban Soul, who win the maddest drummer of the night award, with Keith Moons' spiritual baby brother Kev Johnson battering away at his kit with boundless energy, (probably trying to wake up the practically unconscious gum-chewing bassist). Musically, they come on like the teenaged Shed Seven with Rick Witter-esque lead singer Jonathan Atherley's high-pitched tones reminding these ears of the Bluetones' Mark Morriss. They are at their best mining a seam of full throttle Verve/Sheds guitar driven rock.

If Radiohead had spent ten years slogging round the pub circuit being fed intravenously on steroids and Newcastle Brown, they would probably sound akin to Benson, who deal in tight, heavy-duty guitar rock.

Taking to the stage with confidence they blast through half a set of surging rock with three-way punk rock vocals on the choruses, and shaven-headed lead singer Nick West clobbering noisy guitar breaks out of his instrument in style. They declare unlikely allegiance to Thom Yorke and company with a cover of The Bends, which inspires them to reveal their softer side on their closing song. A full-on guitar-destroying feedback finale follows. Nice.

And finally, Cognac, who inspire the first gaggle of (female) fans to approach the stage. Mainman Stuart Jones is one of those people who was genetically created to be in bands, bearing a supernatural resemblance to The Verve's Richard Ashcroft, grafted on to the haircut of any member of Leeds sleazemasters The Dandys. He has the voice and the poise, plus a tight band, with fleet-fingered fringe-flicking guitar from stage right and chugging bass stage left. The influence of the ubiquitous Ashcroft kicks in on the slower songs, but there's more to them than being mere imitators, as strong, individual-sounding songs like A Proper Soldier and Superstar demonstrate. Their closing song, however, is pure Verve circa A Northern Soul's mantra-rock.

And so (as it dawns on me that the phrase "influenced by the Verve and Radiohead" is going to get used an awful lot this year) to the judgement of the assembled multitude.... the spoils of victory and a place in the semi-finals go to Cognac, with Benson second.

A word of thanks to the night's sponsors, Carlsberg-Tetley, MOR Music, York and the Old Dairy Studios, York.

THE RAT

HELLO, hello, it's good to be back, good to be back.

And it's The Urban Soul who greet us with "Awwwraaat!". The relaxed frontman's angelic whine reminded me of Rick Witter until he sang an entire song out of tune. Good performance from the drummer, who dragged the bass player along. Was it Swampy?A touch of punk meets Roses rounded off a well-paced set ably played but not quite there - yet.

Up a gear to Benson, who exploded on stage with a song that Ash would be proud of. I liked all their songs, most with ace harmonies. This competition should be really good.

The singer warmed up as the bassist took his shirt off. I liked My Town, despite the dodgy key-change and then...THAT ending. An awesome slow-burn feedback laden epic that blew me away. Where Do We Go From Here? is a hit and that bass player rocks like anything while the mainman strangles his guitar. Ace.

Cognac centred on the singer for me. He's enigmatic and just knows he's going all the way to the top. The set started like Blur and then went all Verve-ish, ending with Superstar. Here's another band with a fantastic song, A Proper Soldier. It was just brilliant.

So. Nothing to chew on this week, but bands beware! The standard - and its VERY HIGH - has been set.

The Rat

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.