 Scouting For Girls are a band I have loved ever
since listening to their debut album, in fact
I got so addicted to the album that it became
my soundtrack to many long boring train journeys
home over the past year or so, the band have since
gone on and released their second album which
in my eyes is nearly as good as their debut, now
I know Scouting For Girls are a band that you
either love or hate and I get a lot of stick from
friends and people I know for liking Scouting
For Girls, I must admit it is slightly odd having
Scouting For Girls listed up there with my favourite
bands of Alkaline Trio, Cancer Bats and Slipknot
but everyone has their guilty little pleasure
when it comes to music and Scouting For Girls
is mine.
 I headed off to the Oasis Centre in Swindon tonight
to watch them live for the first time, before
I got to the venue I was expecting it to be full
of teenage girls and myself being the oldest person
there, however I was quite surprised, yes there
were many teenage girls there with the majority
of them right at the front against the barriers
with their glow sticks and glowing wrist bands
but as I looked around the venue there was a massive
age round in tonight ranging from 8 right up to
50 which I thought was quite impressive and as
the show started you could clearly tell each and
every member of the audience tonight was a big
fan who came for a jolly sing-a-long.
 Just before 9pm the background music changed
to ‘Here Come The Girls’ and minutes
later the black curtain on the stage came down
as the band took to the stage bowing and waving
to the ecstatic crowd as they walked over to take
to their instruments, they blasted straight off
into ‘Heartbeat’ and they basically
hand the crowd in the palm of their hands from
the opening beat to final sing-a-long of the set
closer ‘She’s So Lovely’.
A big mix of songs were played from both albums
such as ‘Miss Naughty’, ‘James
Bond’, ‘The Airplane Song’,
‘Holiday’, ‘Famous’, ‘Elvis
Ain’t Dead’, ‘1+1’ and
so many other classic Scouting For Girls songs
as well as a cover of the Journey and Glee classic
‘Don’t stop Moving’ which Scouting
For Girls have recently recorded for the BBC live
lounge, on the set list the song was named as
‘Journglee’ which I found quite funny
and once again the crowd appreciated every moment
of the song and there was even lyrics on the big
screen for the people who hadn’t a clue
what the words were to sing-a-long.
 I must admit in places the gig came along quite
cheesy such as just before they played ‘Famous’
Roy Stride picked up a massive camera and started
filming the crowd and then asked if they want
to be on TV before jumping straight into ‘Famous’,
as soon as the song finished he then asked the
audience to put their phones in the air or anything
that has a light to make the Swindon milky way,
I can imagine this was fun for the younger generation
of scouting For Girls fans but not for everyone.
One of the highlights of the night was ‘Posh
Girls’, just before the song Roy Stride
shouted out to the crowd “I want just three
words from you all”, and before you could
even start to think many young girls scream “I
Love You” which Roy responded with and it’s
not “I Love You, look on the big screen”,
the big screen had the massive words of Boys In
School, Roy then started off singing the song
in a frantic punk-rock pace for the first 30 seconds
or so before then returning to normal pace, everyone
was singing-a-long and Roy caused many screams
and much laughter when he changed the words from
“Is it true what they say about posh girls”
to “Is it true what they say about Swindon
girls” and I am sure he would get a true
answer if he walked around the streets of Swindon
for a day seeing all the young mums.
 The set finished with ‘She’s So Lovely’
which had the whole crowd erupting into a frenzy
of dancing and singing-a-long and just as you
thought the song was ending Roy stride announces
to the crowd “We have just 2 minutes left
and I want you to sing so loud that you have no
voice in the morning and the reason is so you
can say you were the 4th member of Scouting For
Girls last night”, and the majority of the
crowd did just that and I am sure there will be
a few sore throats in the morning.
Scouting For Girls are true musicians with Greg
Churchouse playing some fantastic basslines, Peter
Ellard knocking out catchy drum beats and Roy
Stride playing everything from a keayboard to
a piano and acoustic guitar, they are entertainers
who write short  catchy poppy songs that can appeal
to anyone no matter what age, they go on stage
to have fun and make sure the crowd have the times
of their lives, they spend a lot of time interacting
with their fans whilst on stage and do their best
to get everyone involved in the whole scouting
For Girls experience, even some of the security
guards were enjoying themselves tonight with one
even getting his phone out to record clips of
‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’ and that
is quite a rare experience seeing a security guard
enjoying themselves at work, overall a fantastic
gig from a truly honest pop band.
Scouting For Girls 5/5
Review By Trigger |
