Friday night is for partying and we are very much looking forward to heading down to Daltons which is located right on Brighton’s iconic seafront under Brighton Zip. The Friday in question is the 19th July, where three top quality acts will be plying their wares, headlining will be Bacci Pouch and they will be supported by Bighead Tea Drinkers and Scattered Ashes. Tickets for this night are a mere £3 in advance! So this is your chance to catch them before one or more of them seriously blow up in the music world! We have previously witnessed live sets by Bacci Pouch and Bighead Tea Drinkers and here’s what we said:
The evening kicks off with Bacci Pouch who are an unsigned indie band from Brighton made up of James Neighbour (guitar and vocals), Sam Raymer (bass guitar) and Charlie Heasman (drums). Thus far they have self- released a couple of singles, these being 2023’s ‘Learn To Love’ and this year’s ‘When The Lights Come On’. They are set to drop their third instalment this coming August with the arrival of ‘Normal People’.
The lads take to the stage at 8:03pm to the backing sounds of The Ronettes ‘Be My Baby’ and set about impressing the punters with the first of six tunes as yet not scheduled for release, this being titled ‘She Said’, which saw James putting his Fender through its paces whilst delivering the vocals. It’s evident that there’s a real buzz from the very start as the band have clearly put the word out as they have many mates in the audience and so it’s heading towards three-quarter capacity. Suffice to say that this decent punk ditty ‘She Said’ received a warm welcome, as in fact did all of their songs!
The unreleased ‘By My Side’ was Bacci Pouch’s second selection and although less intense than the opener it still had a pop punk vibe, which like a majority of their tunes reminded me of the long forgotten Northern Irish outfit The Moondogs. During this tune Sam’s bass guitar strap came undone, but rather than trying to fiddle with it mid-tune in order to endeavour to get it fixed, he simply knelt down on the stage and finished the tune. Strap fixed and the trio were away with ‘Dilute’ another unreleased number which was delivered nice’n tightly. Next up was their forthcoming single, ‘Normal People’ which benefited from a catchy opening riff and was very much like The Moondogs and a great selection for a single. Not many pop punk acts would think to cover Fatboy Slim’s ‘The Rockafeller Skank’ but the Bacci Pouch lads did and they made it sound as if it was always a rock number. The trio were certainly on a roll now and sped things up with their speediest number of the performance next, this being the unreleased ‘Corsa’ which sounded as though it totally belonged on the famous ‘Spiral Scratch’ Buzzcocks EP along with ‘Breakdown’, ‘Time’s Up’, ‘Boredom’ and ‘Friends Of Mine’. This was their set highlight for me.
By now the lads only had a trio of tracks left and they were reminding me of another Brighton outfit Shady Baby, which is a positive thing as I reckon they are still in my Top 5 Brighton bands and I was contemplating adding Bacci Pouch into this list, but there’s still three to go! The first of which being their debut single, ‘Learn To Love’ from last year. Sam’s bass rumbled the intro to this track and was another slice of happiness for me. James then informed the crowd that they are going to play “a new one”, which was ‘It Ain’t Pretty’ and yet another corker, which more than any others recalled memories of my Good Vibrations record collection, being the Belfast label founded by Terri Hooley originally who put out The Undertones ‘Teenage Kicks’ and releases by Rudi, Outcasts, Protex and The Moondogs, plus many of a similar ilk. Bacci Pouch signed off with recent single ‘When The Lights Come On’ which was another earworm. Tonight was my first encounter with the band and their set was all hits and no misses and I’m desperate to see them play live again! Their 31 minute set concluded at 8:34pm and yep I had decided that Bacci Pouch had crash landed into my Top 5 Brighton bands list! Great work fellas!
First up at 7:48pm are Bighead Tea Drinkers, who are a young Indie rock band based in Brighton, which is made up of Freddie Brindle (vocals/guitar), Ellie Hart (guitar), Kian Ramsey (bass) and Marshall Tyce (drums). Freddie and Marshall hail from Essex and wrote some material together at the tender age of thirteen.
They have since relocated to Brighton to study at BIMM Institute, which as an organisation has been turning students’ passions into their career over the past 35 years. Previous alumni have included George Ezra, Fontaines D.C. and Natasha Bent. It is whilst studying at BIMM Brighton that Freddie and Marshall met Ellie and Kian. As a quartet they decided to form the Bighead Tea Drinkers.
This evening, they take to the Green Door Store stage and from the very first notes it is obvious that tonight’s volume is going to be loud. The performance room is filling up with punters as charismatic frontman Freddie leads us on a trip through their half dozen twangy guitar toe-tapping anthems across the next 25 minutes until conclusion at 8:13pm.
Freddie is learning his craft well, as he is already at this stage in the band’s young career able to get punters onside with his polite enthusiasm. He flits between vocals and his Fender guitar, whilst Ellie puts her left-handed PRS Custom 24 guitar to good use, and Kian masters his Squier Mustang bass, whilst Marshall endeavours to keep his drumset from toppling over.
Ironically, their best preferred tune for me was one that was written when Freddie and Marshall were thirteen, that being ‘Your Not Gangster’, which initially sounded like the classic 1960’s ‘Batman Theme’ by Nelson Riddle and then morphed into a straightforward punk number. The previous tune, ‘Immature’, was penned at the same time, but the song after, ‘The Way She Goes’, was a new number, which had more than a whiff of Arctic Monkeys about it. They concluded their pleasant set with their 2022 single, ‘Tokyo’, which they informed us can be found on Spotify.
Completing the forthcoming Daltons bill will be Scattered Ashes who are an abrasive Dublin four-piece. The band opened up 2024 embarking on a mammoth UK tour with Meryl Streek, along with being named as one of Louder magazine’s ’10 Irish Artists You Should Be Listening To In 2024.’ In April the band released their sophomore five track EP ‘All That Is Solid Melts Into Air’ via Blowtorch Records, which is very solid indeed and contains their ‘Kingdom’ and ‘Ether’ singles which have already received support from BBC Introducing, Radio X, and XS Manchester. The remaining trio of tunes being ‘They Can’t Divide Us’, ‘Love Is Not An Option’ and ‘I Will Be King’. If their live performances are as good as their EP, then we are certainly in for a real treat!
Purchase your tickets for this exciting concert HERE.
