BONES ATE ARFA + THIRD HOUSE + SCANT REGARD – DALTONS, BRIGHTON 2.2.25
The inaugural ‘Slack Sunday’ live music event took place on 8th December last year at Daltons on Brighton Beach and was presented by Slack City Radio’s ‘Vince & Jo have a Radio Show’. There were a trio of decent quality acts on offer that evening, these being The Stealers, Bacci Pouch, and Shady Baby and we were there to report on proceedings, read our account HERE.
Tonight the second installment of ‘Slack Sunday’ was on offer this evening and oh my word, they have certainly pulled out the stops this time around! Not only did this evening’s ‘Slack Sunday’ feature The Adam & The Ants drummer from 1977–1980, David Barbarossa, with his Third House venture, but also Will Crewdson under the guise of Scant Regard, who is known for his guitar work with Adam Ant, as well as The Selecter, Johnette Napolitano, Gaye Bykers On Acid, Rachel Stamp and Flesh for Lulu. Completing the lineup were energetic grunge trio Bones Ate Arfa. Just like the last ‘Slack Sunday’, the artists didn’t necessarily appear on stage in the order you would expect! I suspect trains back to London were a factor tonight!

First up then was the solo one-man whirlwind that is Scant Regard with a 44 minute set (running from 6:38pm to 7:22pm) comprising thirteen numbers, three of which were covers. It was unadulterated Reverend Jetstream RB guitar driven energy all the way from Will who deftly merges the early electronic pioneering flavours of Fad Gadget, Cabaret Voltaire and Nitzer Ebb with the classic twanging guitar sounds of Duane Eddy and Link Wray, adding to this a smattering of post punk energy and attitude to wrap it all up in a blood.
Let’s face it, some people just look like they were born to be musicians and Will is very much one of these! He oozes cool with his wraparound sunglasses, (and guyliner when they are taken off) sparkly jacket and tight black trousers. There’s an air of Neal X (Sigue Sigue Sputnik) about Will as he kicks off with a guitar frenzy and sampled backing on openers ‘The General Gist’ from 2020’s ‘ISO-Chronicles #1’ EP and ‘Car Crash On Pluto’ from 2018’s ‘Skipping Over Damaged Area’ album. I sense the vibes of Carter USM and the aforementioned Sputnik going on here.
Selection three, however, took it to another level as Will rocked on out like Marc Bolan on speed for his ‘Rip Crackaway’ instrumental, which is found on 2016’s ‘Brush With Death’ album. After this Will introduced the faster paced ‘Bloody Nora’ as being from his latest album, one which actually dropped back in 2023 and is titled ‘Everything Better Than Everything Else’. Interestingly, the platter features none other than Mary Byker (Gaye Bykers On Acid, Pop Will Eat Itself, Apollo 440) who along with Robber Byker are here this evening watching Will in action!
‘Fistbump’ from his ‘Massive Cult Following’ album is given an airing next and we are told this is about not shaking hands! The energy levels then briefly subside with the slowest offering of the set, this being ‘I’m Gonna Give Your Love Away’ from the recent album. This has a slight vibe of Big Audio Dynamite meets latter Clash. The latest Scant Regard single arrives next, which is titled ‘That’s My Name’ and speeds things up, with its earworm “That’s my name, don’t wear it out” repeated lyrics.
The first of the covers is now upon us with the timeless beats of the Giorgio Moroder created for Donna Summer ‘I Feel Love’. The Scant Regard version is pretty epic and as far as I could tell morphed into a small section of The Jacksons ‘Can You Feel It’ and back again. ‘Antisocial’ a Flesh for Lulu cover is up next and this has a Gen X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik rocky vibe going down.
It was back to original compositions with the playing of ‘California’ from 2015’s ‘The Lone Rager Plus Ultra’ album. This is another earworm with its “Californ-eye-aye” repeated lyrics, and light-hearted brief break mid-song. The set closes with Scant Regards enjoyable rendition of Depeche Mode’s ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’. This has been a masterclass performance and if you wish to check out Scant Regard for yourself, then Will is back in town on 22nd February for a special event at the Brunswick in Hove – Details and tickets HERE.
Scant Regard:
Will Crewdson – vocals, guitar, electronic backing
Scant Regard setlist:
‘The General Gist’ (from 2020 ‘ISO-Chronicles #1’ EP)
‘Car Crash On Pluto’ (from 2018 ‘Skipping Over Damaged Area’ album)
‘Rip Crackaway’ (from 2016 ‘Brush With Death’ album)
‘Bloody Nora’ (from 2023 ‘Everything Better Than Everything Else’ album)
‘Fistbump’ (from 2020 ‘Massive Cult Following’ album)
‘I’m Gonna Give Your Love Away’ (from 2023 ‘Everything Better Than Everything Else’ album)
‘That’s My Name’ (a 2024 single)
‘You’re Welcome’ (from 2015 ‘The Lone Rager Plus Ultra’ album)
‘I Feel Love’ (a 2024 single) (Donna Summer cover)
‘Antisocial’ (Flesh for Lulu cover)
‘California’ (from 2015 ‘The Lone Rager Plus Ultra’ album)
‘Harpernoid’ (from 2011 ‘Burnt Pop Cycles’ album)
‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ (from 2020 ‘Massive Cult Following’ album) (Depeche Mode cover)

It’s now the turn of Umair “Spider” Chaudhry and David Barbarossa to grace us with their presence. Dave Barb was Adam & The Ants drummer for their ‘Dirk Wears White Sox’ debut album, and he was instrumental in creating the highly influential and innovative tribal drumming style. He was famously sweet-talked by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren to leave ‘The Ants’ and to form Bow Wow Wow with guitarist Matthew Ashman and bassist Leigh Gorman and then McLaren recruited Annabella Lwin. The first Bow Wow Wow single, ‘C·30 C·60 C·90 Go!’, for which Barbarossa shared songwriting credit with McLaren, Ashman and Gorman, holds the distinction of being the world’s first-ever cassette single!
After this, Barbarossa went on to session drum for Beats International, who famously featured Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim), and then Barb teamed up with Flowered Up keyboardist Tim Dorney, Andy Todd, guitarist Johnny Male and Nigerian-born lead singer Saffron to form Republica. Their debut album ‘Republica’ was released in July 1996 and reached No. 4 in the UK charts. The single ‘Ready To Go’ peaked at No. 13 on the UK Singles Chart, and ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’ peaked at No. 7.
Barb’s a brand new venture is called Third House, and is an alliance between him and Umair “Spider” Chaudhry, who is known for his work in Silent Weapon and Walls Of Freedom. The duo released their debut EP titled ‘Inside Outside’ last November – Check it out HERE.
This evening we are rewarded with a 39 minute performance comprising of all four tunes from the EP as well as a further four yet to be released numbers. The duo take to the stage at 7:46pm to great applause. As you would expect Barb is centre stage and is sat behind the drumkit and is also looking after the other backing on the iPad style unit. To his right (our left) is Spider on vocal and guitar duties. They commence with ‘By The Hour’ which is the first selection from their ‘Inside Outside’ EP. It has a post-punk sound with a Horrors vibe and is noted for some decent drums and cymbal action.
Tune two is the first unreleased song and is called ‘Dig Your Own Grave’ and this is a solid number which has a speedier beat with echoey guitar reminiscent of Echo & The Bunnymen and the like. Track three is titled ‘Cross To Bear’ and is a jaunty number akin to something you might have heard John Peel spinning 40 years ago. This has a sharp ending that catches most souls out.
According to the setlist on the floor in front of Spider, it’s ‘Hackable Animal’ coming next, but I spy that the title on the electronic unit next to Barb is actually saying ‘Frail Strength’, so we will go with that title. It’s another unreleased song which features a skippy beat consisting of strumming guitar and marching band style drums as well as a slower vocal delivery. There’s a real depth of sound on this number, as there is with a majority of the set.
Spider informs us that the next number was their recent single release, this being ‘Inside Outside’ which is also found on their ‘Inside Outside’ EP. It’s a worthy choice as a single, with decent drumming as you would expect. ‘Silence’, also from the EP comes next and this is another fast strumming echoey number with an instrumental break which reminded me of the earliest Cure numbers. Their penultimate selection is the final as yet to be released number, it’s called ‘Head Of The Snake’ and like all Third House material thus far, has a very British vocal delivery which strangely reminds me of Phil Oakley spoken lines, although Spider is arguably not a natural frontman. They sign off with ‘Hollow’ from the EP and this has an almost Killing Joke guitar and drums combo going down. I can see why they ended with it. Third House have been an absorbing watch, although I couldn’t help thinking that maybe they should bring in a third person, who maybe could try some of the vocals.
Third House:
David Barbarossa – drums
Umair “Spider” Chaudhry – vocals, guitar, key, production
Third House setlist:
‘By The Hour’ (from 2024 ‘Inside Outside’ EP)
‘Dig Your Own Grave’ (unreleased)
‘Cross To Bear’ (unreleased)
‘Frail Strength’ (unreleased)
‘Inside Outside’ (from 2024 ‘Inside Outside’ EP)
‘Silence’ (from 2024 ‘Inside Outside’ EP)
‘Head Of The Snake’ (unreleased)
‘Hollow’ (from 2024 ‘Inside Outside’ EP)

The evening was brought to a close with the arrival of Brighton based Bones Ate Arfa who consist of Sonny Whittington aka ‘Bones’ (guitar and vocals), Herbie Wilson aka ‘8’ (drums), and Arthur Wilson aka ‘Arfa’ (vocals and bass). They follow in the godlike footsteps of Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Gorillaz, TySegall and Them Crooked Vultures. Their debut single ‘Asbestos’ roots the band in their desert garage rock sound while bringing in influences of industrial 90s metal and psychedelic punk. Back in August last year they dropped their 6-track ‘Akimbo People’ EP. Check out their releases on their Bandcamp page HERE.
The trio are much younger than the previous two acts and tonight’s sound engineer cranked up the volume to ten for them. I gave in and reluctantly put in ear protection for their 29 minute eight song set, which ran from 9:08pm to 9:37pm.
I immediately clocked Sonny Whittington as having previously seen him playing with his Mindframe outfit at the Bad Pond festival at Chalk back in 2023 (Reviews HERE), a band that originally contained Alfie Sayers on drums, before he left to join HotWax, which was an inspired move.
Vince and Jo introduced the lads as having come down from Cambridge to play for us and the trio eventually let rip on opener ‘Death Is A Traffic Sign’ after a sampled intro and tuneup jam, followed by ever-smiling Herbie showing us what he can do with the drums, and then the scratchy guitar and bass interplay and screamed vocals arrived. This number can be found on last year’s 2024 ‘Small Pond Emerging IV’ compilation album. You already get the feeling that these lads are purveyors of grunge metal.
The second song to annoy your parents with was ‘Shedtrak’ from their 2024 ‘Akimbo People’ EP. More rock screams are on offer here. In fact more of the same arrived with 2023 single ‘Asbestos’ which seemed to go down rather well with the punters in the room. 2024 single ‘Hear Me Out’ isn’t as rocky as their previous tunes, but the metal, rock, grunge format was retrieved with the arrival of the rather tight ‘Mushroom’ from last year’s ‘Akimbo People’ EP. The titled track from the EP followed and it was clear that they were a really tight unit for one’s oh so young, and the punters could see this.
Their penultimate tune, ‘Vinyard’, was their only unreleased track and we learned that this was coming out in the spring on their forthcoming EP. Well it should keep Nirvana fans happy based on this! They signed off with a final flurry with their new ‘Just Bananas’ single. I love the lads’ energy and especially Herbie’s enjoyment of playing the drums, but musically they weren’t really for me, but I know I was in the minority here! Make your mind up yourself as they are one of this year’s already announced acts for the ‘Homegrown Festival‘ – Details HERE.
Bones Ate Arfa:
Sonny Whittington aka Bones – guitar, vocals
Herbie Wilson aka 8 – drums
Arthur Wilson aka Arfa – vocals, bass
Bones Ate Arfa setlist:
‘Death Is A Traffic Sign’ (from 2024 ‘Small Pond Emerging IV’ compilation album)
‘Shedtrak’ (from 2024 ‘Akimbo People’ EP)
‘Asbestos’ (a 2023 single)
‘Hear Me Out’ (a 2024 single)
‘Mushroom’ (from 2024 ‘Akimbo People’ EP)
‘Akimbo People’ (from 2024 ‘Akimbo People’ EP)
‘Vinyard’ (unreleased)
‘Just Bananas’ (a 2025 single)