One Minute Silence, MuDvAyNe and Breed 77 - live review @ Rock City, Nottingham, England (19/12/2000)

Note: This is your first warning! This review goes on a bit! I couldn’t help it, as I was so taken by the events that unfolded it seemed the only way to do it justice. So, please forgive me. As a treat, I have included a number of MP3 samples taken from the gig. The quality maybe a little poor, but it’s not too bad and gives an idea of what things were like on that night. So, I hope you enjoy them. Oh yes, there may also be a slim chance of some pictures coming soon.

Hey, what a great time of year to come and see this band. One Minute Silence and Xmas, should be the recipe for an excellent party, and it’s definitely been one that I have been looking forward to for ages. Indeed, I had bought our tickets way back at the beginning of November and have been waiting impatiently for the gig ever since.

The publicised support was MuDvAyNe and it turned out that on the night there was also an additional opening band. That band was Breed 77, a UK outfit that hail from Gibraltar (the same place as Glen Diani, the bass player from OMS). They play a strong blend of modern rock, which mixes hard-edged guitar and rhythms with melodic vocals that are also occasionally more of a raw growl. They gave us a 30 minute set that was pretty good considering they suffered the usual Rock City opening band treatment of playing while everyone was still arriving. They did their bit to warm the crowd up for the rest of the bill and played some good songs, including ‘Breaking The Silence’ and ‘Rise’.

They struggled a little to remain as tight as maybe expected these days, with the tremendously high standard of bands around now, and the vocals quite often battled to stay in tune, but that said this could be forgiven as the overall show was still good and entertaining. On their performance tonight, I think they are definitely worth looking out for in the future and their recent deal with Infernal Records should produce an album to look forward to, early next year (2001).

A visit to the bar passed the time as we waited for the next band. That was ‘MuDvAyNe’, who I had already caught live a couple of months back in October at the Flying Machine in Lorain, Ohio, USA (a gig at which I was affectionately know as ‘English Dude’!). Their performance was rather impressive then, so I was kinda ready and basted for this appearance.

"Nottingham! Are you ready to die? Will you die with me? Put your fucking hands in the air, I can't fucking hear you! We are MuDvAyNe…"

One thing I found (me being English and all), was that I had to get passed the farcical names, face paint and American ‘in ya face’ image before I could enjoy what was beneath. That is worth doing, because essentially, what this band (from Peoria, Illinois, USA) are about is good time entertainment and as such the image is of course, just part of the show and not to be taken too seriously. I thought of this as Ryknow (bass), Gurrg (guitar), sPaG (drums) and Kud (vocals) took to the stage with ‘Monolith’ playing in the background. This prepared the atmosphere for the furious shouting from Kud as he proclaimed "Nottingham! Are you ready to die? Will you die with me? Put your fucking hands in the air, I can't fucking hear you! We are MuDvAyNe…" and they launch into ‘Dig’.

The power and energy is immediately evident and the crowd instantly responds as the pit begins its life. This band just demands your attention with their strong demeanour, the vigour of their music and the competence of their performance. "I can’t hear you mother-fuckers," shouts Kud as the gentle guitar intro of ‘-1’ unfolds before opening out into a flag of war. Again, the tight sound that this band produce powers out as the song reaches its climax and abruptly ends. A simple comment of recognition that sums it all up, came from Kud. "Yep!" he says as the crowd cheers loudly and there’s applause all around.

‘Under My Skin’ followed, with Kud continually encouraging everyone to "...make some noise..." and get involved throughout the gig, to which most people willingly obliged. Ryknow (on bass) was a man possessed, hardly ever standing still, running around the stage most of the time and bouncing about for the rest of it.

"This is a song about love. This is a song called, Nothing To Gein" and the slow intimate inception lulls you into a false sense of security, until it forces you into its midsection and chorus. All the show, Gurrg the guitarist stood riveted to the spot, with just occasional robotic movements to the music, his face as miserable as sin.

"It’s time for aerobics people. I want to see this place go mother-fucking apeshit…" and then straight into ‘Internal Primates Forever’. The crunching bass and drum combination that gives such a heavy platform for the guitar is further augmented by the angry strong vocals, and this song typifies that sound. The structures of the songs are often not straightforward, with stops, starts and pace changes that often catch you out.

"We will be coming back here in March …We got one more left. This is a song about growing up. This is a song called ‘Cradle’. We will see you guys next time we come back, thank you very much for having us… We want to see everyone in this fucking pit that’s been going off all night, lets see it go fucking apeshit…" Kud announced as the last song started, his voice as strong at the end of the gig as it was at the beginning. Mid song he did some more of his expressive story telling. This is not just singing the vocals but explaining them, with expressions and actions that often includes violence, such as banging the microphone against his head!

As a continuation of ‘Monolith’ took over from the feedback at the end of ‘Cradle’, the band said their thank you and left the stage to rounds of applause and cheers. The soundtrack faded and the show was over. That was one hell of an ‘In your face’ performance. WoW.

"My God it’s good to see ya … my God it’s good to see ya" say Yap and into ‘Rise and Shine’ (482Kb MP3) we go, again everyone singing "My God it’s good to see ya, another day another dollar", fucking two songs in and the atmosphere was electric! This band just has an aura about them that oozes character and good feeling, and everyone feeds off it for their energy and entertainment. The band in turn feed off the crowd, it makes for a fucking mutually good time.

"Thank you very much. It sure is good to be back here, in one of the best rock venues on planet fucking earth … Come on…" and they launch straight into ‘A Spoonful Of Sugar’ with the pit going completely mental. The band is so well practised and displays complete mastership of the songs, the stage and the crowd.

"Thank you. Are you guys wound up, yes?" asks Yap as the song finishes and the crowd goes crazy. Glen says something about "Mozerella cheese, 57p?". He’s off his box. Someone in the crowd shouts "Shit of the earth". Yap explains that Glen’s real name is "Shit of the earth". The crowd starts to shout "Spud, spud, spud". It’s all just mad.

To this background they start playing the heavy intro of ‘Roof Of The World’ (450Kb MP3) and just before the song drops like lead and the pit is about to explode, they stop the song dead. The pit carried on for a few seconds, people everywhere. "Delighted." Yap says as the band is in bits, "Made my Christmas that did." he says as the song resumes and so does the pit. It’s smiles all round.

At the end of this song, someone produces a Christmas present and Yap takes it to the front "Can I open my Christmas present now, yeah?" He opens it… "You mean bastards, I wanted Lego!" he exclaims. Someone shouts "But, that would be too complicated for you", everyone laughs and Yap retorts "I wanted Baby Lego!" The present contained Party Poppers and he throws them out to the crowd. Poppers are going off everywhere and it’s like a real party.

"You guys wait for me. I want nobody to move until this drum beat kicks in. Nobody move … I’m gonna count all you crazy metal-fuckers in, let me see all the hands in the house..." A slow bass line starts up. "This is called ‘Stuck Between A Rock And A White Face’ ... Nobody move ... Nobody move." The bass changes to the start of the song. "Nobody move … You guys wait for me." The guitar intro starts. "Are you ready? … Nottingham Rock City, are you fucking ready? … One, two, one, two, three, four!" The song drops and the drum kicks in, the place fucking erupts! There are bodies everywhere, the music is blowing everyone away and it’s excellent. Halfway through Yap shouts "Just about ready for this" and it happens again. This is heaven...

"Can I open my Christmas present now, yeah? ... You mean bastards, I wanted Lego!" he exclaims. Someone shouts "But, that would be too complicated for you" ... Yap retorts "I wanted Baby Lego!" It contained Party Poppers and he throws them out to the crowd. Poppers are going off everywhere and it’s like a real party...

Now during the show, there had been this geezer with a video camera, in and out of the crowd. ‘Who the fuck was he?’ people were asking. He was quite brave, getting in there with the pit hero’s and it looked as if he was getting some good footage. Now, he was strolling about again, attracting kids like fly’s to shit.

‘Holy Man’ was up next and the bloke with the camera was out there again, getting a right battering from the frenzied lunatics. Yap had a bible and was tearing pages from it during the performance. The song was played with passion, the crowd reacted with passion, the party continued. As it ended, the bloke managed to get out alive and he even had a huge grin on his face.

"You guys okay out there?" asks Yap, "Monster Munch, 37p?" exclaims Glen, "We need a bass player, he’s gone loopy!" replies Yap. There are looks of acceptance on the faces of the crowd, they already know he’s loopy! Yap continues, it was that time, time for his usual rant. "We keep getting asked the same questions around the world. From good journalists who help us out, from the journalists that don’t like us and from the kids as well. We try to answer those questions the best way we can, the thing is, we are always going to be pigeon holed, all your bands out there, they are going to fit you in nicely somewhere. The thing is, originality doesn’t come from bands or Tom Cruise movie stars, or who ever the fuck else is out there right now. Originality comes from kids, who sit in their bedroom at night alone, girls and guys, black and white, and create new ideas that inspire the rest of us. And then some corporate whore comes alone and sticks the fucking dollar sign on it and turns it into a band or a Tom Cruise and says, hey, we got an original band or got an original movie. Now we are all out of ideas, this is the best shit that we can come up with. I’m looking to you guys, maybe some kid out there, at some fucking venue is gonna come along and inspire the fucking rest of us with something new because, same fucking shit isn’t it, every fucking day. So erm, look at your own fucking heart, don’t look to bands or religious fucking icons or political arseholes or movie stars. I dare one of you fuckers to come up with something new for the rest of us to fucking latch onto, and lets hope they don’t put a fucking dollar sign over it."

This is a feature of any OMS gig, you always get to share some of Yap’s famous banter, and of course we love him for it. "Anyway, you guys too tired for anymore?" The crowd responded with a massive "No!" Yap smiles as he says "Maybe you guys want to go home now and listen to some Westlife? Is that it? Are we playing to a Westlife audience?" Another huge "NO!" comes from the crowd. "Damn right we’re not" replies Yap "Give it everything you got. This is Food For The Brain" (862Kb MP3)

"You guys wanna hear a new track? …This is a Christmas present for you guys. Just remember when you open your Christmas presents, sometimes you get disappointed. We thought we’d better back ourselves up, in case it’s shit…" It was called something like ‘In The Boat’ (743Kb MP3) and it rocked. I am very happy to say, it was anything but shit. Another great live song from the boys that mixes good explosive power with a rhythm that will rock the pit at future gigs.

The intensity of this gig was phenomenal, and it seemed to be so easily maintained by both band and crowd. Next, there featured a few words from Glen about where he came from. This is Gibraltar and as he explains, it is only the size of a biscuit. But it is full of snobs who, because they have more money than others do, elevate themselves above people for no reason. The higher they place themselves the further they have to fall. No one should place themselves above or below anyone else. Glen’s solution to this was to place himself at the bottom, below everyone and his name from now on should be ‘Shit of the Earth’. There were shouts of "We love you Shit" and everyone fell about the place.

The symbols struck up a rhythm and Yap sings "They say he struggled, they say he fell. I say he found himself, black in a pig cell." The crowd cheered and shouted "You never know what life is gonna throw at you". It was ‘Sixteen Stone Pig’. There were people on stage, singing into microphones, they were dancing, and they were running all over the place, it was crazy. "Nottingham, your fuckin rockin, init" shouts Glen at the end.

‘Fish Out Of Water’ (803Kb MP3. This is to be their next single, released Jan 8^th) was next and Yap shouting "I wanna see you jump, I want to see you jump, I want to see you jump, jump, jump, jump, jump…" as the song kicked in. And the whole place was jumping as one, excellent! Throughout Yap encouraging the continued carnage, until the end with the obligatory "That’s got hurt, just a little tiny bit".

Then there was the pot smoking, where it is alleged that, shall we say someone enjoyed a ‘special cigarette’ on stage. "Being as this is a Christmas tour, I don’t think that you guys are going to mind if we have a bit of a smoke, yeah?" someone said. There was a lot said about employers testing employees for pot smoking and the rights and wrongs of using pot. But the point was "…we are not a band that is pushing pot … it's not an issue of whether I smoke it or you guys smoke it, the issue is, who tells me I can’t fucking smoke it?" Fair point, I reckon!

"Nottingham fucking City are you guys Number One in the world or are you guys number two? Let me see what Number One is made of! Are we about to do this, are we about to do this, are we about to do this?" and the song kicked back in. The place must now be at a climax and I don’t think there’s a person in the venue that doesn’t have a smile on their face. This was the one of the best gigs ever, as the song came to an end and the band left the stage, everyone was shouting and clapping for more. Chants of "OMS, OMS, OMS, OMS!" sounded around the place until at last they reappeared.

"This place will self-destruct in five seconds, this place will self-destruct in four seconds, this place will self-destruct in three seconds, this place will self-destruct in two seconds, this place will self-destruct in one second. And suddenly, boom…" They came back with ‘And Some Ya Lose’ in explosive fashion and now we really loved them. And Yap even shared his jellybeans with us (another present from a girl in the crowd), even his pink ones!!

"Can we get a circle pit going here please?" demands Yap and a slow bass line starts up. "Everybody walk. Everybody in the circle pit, the whole fuckin room here walk. I’ll tell you when to get faster, everybody walk. Get you asses in everybody. You with the camera get in the fucking middle. Get in the middle with that camera. In the middle, in the middle". The circle pit was now formed and there was a lot of people circling around at a steady pace "Now this guy in the middle here, this guy in the middle with the camera, he works for the BBC. Now I want Nottingham to show this man from the BBC, that he’s in the wrong fucking place right now. That poor mother-fucker, has no idea what’s fucking coming has he? No fucking escape, no fucking escape! Keep the circle going. I’ll tell you when to get faster." The bass line picks up. "Keep it moving. Faster ... Faster ... Faster." The circle pit was now moving at one hell of a pace, the poor bastard in the middle happily filming away.

‘Remain Calm’ (828Kb MP3) kicks in with Yap on his megaphone shouting "Please remain calm, please remain calm, please remain calm, please remain calm, please remain calm, this is you last warning…" The circle pit splits and everyone runs at that poor bastard in the middle. He disappears until Yap reforms the circle pit midway through the song, for almost a repeat. That poor bastard, I though as the song ended.

"One Minute Silence in the house, have a great fucking Christmas. Thank you very fucking much! Peace!" Yap concludes and they leave the stage to massive cheers and applause. What a gig, what a show, it was just the best. An hour and twenty minutes of pure magic. One Minute Silence we salute you!! The best live band on this planet! We THANK YOU very fucking much!

Rigsby.

Note: All mp3 samples of the bands are the property of Rigsby and although I have no problems with you taking copies for your own listening, they may only be used or further published with prior permission.