A FUNKY CHICKEN SPECIAL

First of all I should declare an interest really. Popgun, all five of them, are extremely good friends of mine, but that honestly doesn't affect this review.

We know one another well enough for me to be able to say that they were rubbish if they were, and in fact they would expect me to.

Yes, longstanding friends - two of them are Godparents to my kids and all of them are dyed in the wool Reds fans. We've stood on the Popular Side, in the rain together, for more years than I can remember.

I can't really recall when they last played, but they certainly haven't done for at least six or seven years. - that would be my guess.

They have reformed specifically at the request of the organisers of Solfest - where they will be playing on the main stage on the Sunday afternoon - to thousands of folk most probably, and the comeback trail started at the week-end in the somewhat more  prosaic setting of Seaton Legion.

Mind you. one that was absolutely packed to the rafters (Sold Out totally) for a Charity night, where there was three other bands on the bill Bullfrogs, Vaseline Groove and Slag Bank.

The five members of Pop Gun are Stephen Wilson (28) on guitar, Paul Knowles (64), drums and percussion;Tony Steel (36), drums and percussion (36) all from Seaton; Bob Needham (25) bass and Mark Armstrong (52) guitar from Workington.

One of the things that sets Pop Gun apart from a lot of bands is that they write all their own songs, and in their set at Seaton there was only one cover -The Beatles, Across The Universe.

The quality of the song-writing is fantastic. All the tunes that they played are great, three minute pop songs - catchy tunes and very poppy - and nearly all the songs are enhanced by the use of loads of percussion, which you don't come across very often, even if it was a bit hard to hear it at times in the Legion.

Not having seen them play for a while I'd forgotten just how good the songs are, starting with Knob Child and As Soon As, and then one of the standouts - Don't Wanna Be Around  which I'm still singing to myself this morning.

They even had the professionalism to be un-phased by Bob snapping one of his bass guitar strings, and I hadn't even noticed until he told me.

This was followed by the full repertoire of Pop Gun classics - Rocks and Stones, Skyscraper, Mr Big Stuff, and then the absolutely rip roaring finale of Personality, a really anthemic closing song, complete with an opening  that sounds like it's been nicked right out of the Sham 69 songbook.

They are probably their own biggest critics, but they had every right to be pleased with their night's work, and they will be playing some more gigs between now and their afternoon in the spotlight at Solfest.

I would heartily recommend that you go along and see them and if you want to know more about Solfest 2010 just click on http://www.solwayfestival.co.uk/.

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