In a tiny venue up some stairs in Camden we found four people on a stage. One of them looked fairly ordinary, one looked like summint from Little House On The Prairie, still another looked like a futuristic Thamesmead street fighter and the final one resembled Bertie Bassett. This was to be no ordinary gig...
Sgt Rock is a chap from Tooting who has decided that dance acts are all very well in clubs but in gig venues, when the audience are watching as well as listening, said audience needs something to watch. This explains the presence of the other three who played characters in his manufactured universe for us all to see. The place really had filled up by the time the Bertie Bassettesque specimen, with a huge circular yellow foam head and mechanics' overalls, began to prance his way about the stage.
The audience seemed to be so involved with looking at the actors, however, that not too many people were dancing to the uplifting beats provided. With Stephen from Bis DJing downstairs, the whole evening was theoretically in honour of Wiiija Records' fifth birthday, but with Brassy having pulled out and with the venue's publicity managing to spell the label as Ouiija (dictionary fetishists, the lot of them), it seemed rather more like an ordinary album promotion.
That said, the use of actors was novel and, as discussed in the album review, there's not much wrong with the Sgt's music. The crowd seemed pleased and all passed off successfully. It will be interesting to see which direction Sgt Rock chooses to take from here on in.
ALBUMS OUT THIS WEEK:
