STREET REGAL

Cambridge Boat Race, Friday 17/10/03

When lined up against their stylised peers, Street Regal look a right mess. The hair’s all over the place, the clothes are all wrong, and frontman Guy looks a right hippie (which must be a dangerous thing to do living in their native St Neots).

As yet untouched by stylists, the five piece Street Regal look funny and probably smell a bit too and, perversely, this is why we should clutch them to our hearts. Street Regal put substance over style. Not for them, ‘Oxfam’ chic or a ‘trendy’ garage sound but instead a band with balls, a band head banging, gurning, and shape throwing itself into the nearest casualty unit. A band who, going by guitarist Trev’s t-shirt, like Led Zeppelin, and probably The Who, Oasis, The Stone Roses, and maybe a bit of The Kinks too. Oh and they’ve got a drummer – and a shit hot one at that too - who if you squint looks a bit like Bruce Dickinson (either that or this correspondent’s beer has been spiked. Again.)

Clearly, in Street Regal we have a band not afraid to rock and this they do to the pleasure of a Keith Flint look-a-like, some bloke who’s hair belongs in the Mars Volta (enough with the hair already!) and a Boat Race audience standing in rapt attention (apart from the Flinty bloke pogoing drunkenly and trying to start a conversation with the band mid song.).

So then, Street Regal – energetic, tight as fuck, tunes that kill, and liked by weirdoes in bondage trousers. A recipe for success surely?

Anthony Gibbons

For more information about St Neot’s finest visit www.streetregal.com