When I was a lad, in sunny Welling, I used to work – aged 11, Dickensian shit that – in a petrol station washing cars for 4 hours for sick squid, which enabled me to buy a record at Cruisin’ Records on the way to going to watch Welling Utd. Halcyon days. I fell in love with football for the rawness of everything. From the banter to the dishevelled stadium, watching the saturday shoppers over the wall if the game was crap, even the way the steps crumbled. Everyone was there for a laugh. Just ‘cos they loved football, mainly. I then gravitated to The Arsenal’s Northbank and then all seater stadiums came in and the fun was basically over. Years and years later, living in Sydenham, I went to see Dulwich Hamlet and it reminded me why I fell in love with the game. You’re next to the pitch, with a pint, the players can hear every word and they react reciprocally. You can chat to them if you want at corners. It’s a reboot.

What the f**k is he going on about I hear you cry. Well I now live in Broadstairs next to Margate and there’s a venue called Where Else? which is the antithesis to the 1% music industry and consume-via-a-platform music culture we find ourselves in. Margate as you probably know, is a melting pot for the arts and is smashing the back doors in on the emerging bands front. On the 7th March I popped down spontaneously and as soon as I walked through the door…you know those places you walk into and it feels like trying the perfect jacket on in a shop when you were a teenager. Even the PUSH & PULL on the doors is kooky and out of kilter. It smells perfect. That waft of a live music beer drenched venue. Psychedelic visuals upstairs. Pool table. Great music pumping through the speakers for pre gig pints. It’s now garnered the rep it deserves among those who seek the irreplaceable soul food that is live music. It’s very rare you see a new band you know nothing about and it’s one of those this-is-why-I-fell-in-love-with-live-music moments. Epiphany. It’s already boasting a list of bands who are regulars on BBC6 such as Wet Leg and

The night was put on by Some Nice Things, and the man behind it was a lovely bloke called Angus who the bands obviously very much appreciated. Thanking him with honest and direct gratitude.

The bands – Tarmac were the support and they just went for it like an early IDLES sibling. Great trio, to a man, like a punch in the face, singer oozing persona, up for it entirely, like one of the Scots Ulster rebels that took music to the new world, but still the kind of bloke you want to have a beer with, you couldn’t stop watching him, top entertainment, and the drummer, phenomenal, stuck a solo in between songs that was just epic. They’re back in Margate on the 4th April so if you can. do

Then Nothingheads entered the fray.

When you see a band for the first time and get blown away, it’s like life itself has just shuffled the cards for a game of Shit Head and dealt you an ace, a 2 and a 10 face down.

I apologise to the band if I’m rolling out the obvious comparisons but I mean them in the highest regard possible. The singer Rob, has frontman stardust. Kooky, preppy almost, but very, very Ian Curtis. I don’t think I’ve come across a voice like it. Spawn of Johnny Rotten maybe but more laser guided in its oratory. They clearly blew everyone away in there. Musically they were tight as fuck and you can tell they have put the hours in and don’t just wing it. They need (apologies again, if they already have this underway) but someone needs to start booking this band a tour. They’d grace any stage. Joe Talbot of IDLES is DJing at another local venue called Faith in Strangers very soon and I might get down there solely to bend the ear of the motherfucker and convince him to check these boys out. They need to be supporting that band or another with the same footprint.

I’ve no idea which song was which – as is the way with seeing a band you know nothing about – but there was one around the middle of the set, which may well have been called Repeat Under the Lense, and it was one of the best live songs I’ve witnessed. It must have been at least 10 minutes long and took you on a pure rollercoaster ride of riffs, information, deep dark basslines like knuckles to the temple and an extended middle eight that was Black Sabbath at their finest. Taking you to the back of a dark cave then firing you out of it via a greased up cannon. I was looking around and no one was chatting, just locked in.

People were losing their collective shite in there. One thing I’ve heard about Where Else? and which rang true was that it welcomes music fans of all ages. There were teenagers in there and a few grey heads. But they all collectively lost the plot and were bouncing about going bananas by the end of the set. I’ve got a lot of time for any guitarist – one, with that sort of talent – but two, who jumps into the crowd and makes it to the back of the venue. What a ledge. We thought he was taking his guitar for a piss momentarily.

They have a lot to say. It’s hard to decipher it all amongst that sort of racket but I’d lay my missus’s Dry Robe on the fact that their lyrics were firing arrows at various aspects of our cultural malaise, and the arrows that I did gather were doused in poison and had hit every bullseye.

Follow them. They’re playing Nottingham so if you’re up (or down) that way, do yourself a favour and get down (or up) there. They’re playing some dates in Italy and just as I was writing this I discover they’re coming back to Margate on the 26th April! Nice darts

What a band. They’re an eerily dark and spiky hug. Get involved.

David

@slice007

@nothing_heads

@whereelsespace

@some_nice_things_margate

@_tarmac