The Hamsters in the Muni for £15 or The Dopeys at The District for £4 , that was the dilemma facing our regulars last Friday. I'm pleased to say that sense prevailed and we once again managed to attract a respectable sized crowd for The Dopeys first visit to the club.

I've been a long-time critic of The Hamsters, they're totally overrated as far as I see. OK , they play a selection of music from two well-loved bands (Hendrix and ZZ Top) but generally perform sterile versions, musically adequate, but failing on all levels in capturing any of the excitement of the originals. I've had the misfortune of seeing the band in a number of different venues, from The Naval to The Point and they've never failed to disappoint. In that respect ,they are consistant. God knows what sort of fee they command nowadays but £15 to see a covers band is a bit of a liberty.

...and so to The Dopeys , three brothers and a drummer from Swansea with a love of Thin Lizzy.

The boys turned up nice and early (which for Swansea bands is a rarity) and got themselves set up in plenty of time to have a chill out in the smoking area. I had a long chat with the lead guitarist who turned out to be a smashing bloke and amazingly complimentary about the club and itching to get into the mood with the rest of us, but he'd promised his bandmates that he'd stay straight until after the gig.

Having refused a soundcheck the bands first few songs sounded little ropey but things gradually improved and as promised we were treated to a Lizzy-heavy set. I can't really remember the exact content of the set but most the usual favourites were played as well as some lovely sustained guitar on their version of Parisienne Walkways. The band's sound would have benefitted greatly from the addition of a couple of Marshall stacks but we decided to push the main mix levels a little higher that normal after receiving complaints the week before that the band were too quiet. Did anyone notice though ?

The patter from the lead singer between songs was hilarious - complete and utter gibberish ! I'm sure that we missed some real pearls of wisdom but to me it sounded like a conversation between Cheech and Chong after a heavy night on the Acapulco Gold. Well it made me laugh anyway.

The band, while not quite up to "tribute" standards were enjoyable none the less and played a selection of material that as a Lizzy fan I couldn't really fault. Great fun.

 

 

Having checked out the THE DOPEYS website prior to the gig (in order to acquaint myself with their music) i knew that they were fond of playing a THIN LIZZY track or two, but didn't realize that they would dominate so much within the set - fair to say they performed the LIZZY anthems along with the classic GARY MOORE & PHIL LYNOTT collaboration, 'Parisisene Walkways' and also choice tracks by FREE and a rip-roaring, breakneck speed version of MOTORHEAD's 'Ace Of Spades'... They may have been lacking the vocals of a PAUL RODGERS or a LYNOTT, but musically the band delivered some quality twin-guitar action... As Mike said, maybe THE DOPEYS were not quite up to 'tribute' standards, but by the sounds of it neither are THE HAMSTERS especially at £15 a ticket, so it was good to see a nice-sized crowd for the bands debut at the club and an excellent Hard Rocking set...