See you down the front

There will always be a certain snobbishness about music. I’m afraid I can be as guilty of it as anyone else.

I try not to be, I really do. But sometimes you find yourself unable to contain your prejudices any longer and when someone tells you that Telegraph Road by Dire Straits is a top three song of all time, you can’t hold it in any longer.

I’ve been misguidedly snobbish in the past; sneering, incredibly, at both Abba and Steely Dan. How wrong was that?

And I’ve found there’s always been an element of condescension towards British rock music by the cooler end of the music media.

So how the scenesters viewed a triple-headlining tour of Terrorvision, Reef and The Wildhearts is anyone’s guess.

But I’ll take more than three hours of unfashionable rock over half an hour of what passes for the next big thing any day of the week.

Which is what I did.

I’ve seen all three on their own and been hugely entertained, so the chance to see them all on the same bill wasn’t to be passed up.

Strangely, Britpoppers Dodgy had been added as the opening act for some reason. They might have been contemporaries but shared nothing in terms of output.

So regular Tony and I gave them a miss and headed in for the night’s proper opener, The Wildhearts.

It was very weird seeing them at 6.30pm with the sun blazing outside, but the conditions were soon forgotten as they tore through the likes of TV Tan, Caffeine Bomb, Headf*ck and Everlone without a misstep along the way.

We were then joined by a gig-going companion from yesteryear in the shape of our friend Ste who now lives in London but was a regular back in the days when these three bands were top of our particular hit parade.

Unfortunately he arrived just in time for Reef who were the weakest of the trio on the night. There were still some great songs and stuff from the new album held up very well, but there was a little too much self indulgence and not enough rock and roll swagger about their set – at least until the closing stomper, Yer Old.

By the time Terrorvision came on we had been joined by two more of our wider late 90s circle in Fiona and Shellyanne, as if the scene had been transported back 20 years.

Terrorvision were everything they always are – punchy, funny, catchy as hell and over too soon.

As I approach seeing them for the 20th time I never find it any less entertaining than I did back in the day when me, Ste and Tony saw them at the Krazy House in Liverpool and thought the floor was going to collapse.