Hot on the heels of last week's Popes Of Chillitown album launch show, Emma and I found ourselves at another. On Saturday the 19th of May we made the journey back to my hometown of Colchester to go and have a dance at the album launch for Colchester's greatest EVER band, the New Town Kings, for the release of their long awaited third full length, Reach Out. Of course the only place the Kings could have their album launch show was at the home venue, Colchester Arts Centre. And as an added bonus, their good buddies and one of our favourite bands in the world, Faintest Idea were support for the evening. The sun was shining and we were ready for a fun night of ska and reggae.
Faintest Idea were the only band announced as support. Normally I like to see at least two support bands but Norfolk's finest band put on a show worthy of two bands. This was their first time playing Colchester so their tradition of having the brass section begin the set in the crowd for opening track Back To The Asylum took a fair few people by surprise. I've seen this a lot of times now and every time it puts a big smile on my face. I have to admit I was wondering how the Colchester crowd would react to Faintest Idea. The New Town Kings generally attract more of an old school reggae and ska crowd these days rather than the punk rockers so it might not be the type of crowd that Faintest Idea are usually used to. Of course they quickly got the crowd on side with a high energy set and they got many of us dancing and skanking away, as well as shouting along to songs such as Youth, Mutual Aid and Bull In A China Shop. We were also treated to a couple of new songs which will hopefully be recorded soon. One was named Stomp Them Down and unfortunately I didn't get the name of the other but they both sounded superb and has me impatiently awaiting some more new material. Faintest Idea were fantastic, they always are. After the set we popped to the bar and overheard a gentleman talking about their set and saying how good they were. It was "really punky." That's at least one new fan gained for the band but I suspect there were many more.
This review was written by Colin Clark. Photos by Emma Prew.
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