 
I had been looking forward to tonight’s
show for a number of reasons, reason one was the
fact I had never been to Rayleigh before and had
the chance to check out a different venue, number
two I have been wanting to see Not Advised play
for quite a while now and number three the press
release going around promoting the tour claimed
that Not Advised were embarking on a fully sold
out UK tour so I was looking forward to seeing
the band for the first time and rocking out to
a sold out venue that I had never been to before.
We got to Rayleigh later than planned due to
heavy traffic and roadwork’s down all the
major roads, the venue is pretty hard to miss
mainly for the fact that it is situated alongside
the historic windmill which I guess is where the
venue gets its name from. The venue looks massive
from the outside looking slightly like a school
with two floors. Once you first walk into the
venue you walk into a big hallway, which has the
front booking desk, doors to the toilets, and
stairs to the second floor of the venue and also
the door to the main hallway. We made our way
to the main hallway which looked like your average
school hall except for the fact it had a fully
licensed bar to the left hand side. When we walked
in there was a small number of people sat on seats
down the right hand side of the venue waiting
for the bands to start.
We missed the majority of the first band due to
our interview with Not Advised happening later
than planned due to the band and ourselves being
caught up in traffic and getting to the venue
later than expected. However we managed to get
back in the hall for the main support band The
Fallout Theory.
We headed straight back into the hall after the
interview and was shocked to see there was only
about 40 people maximum in the hall despite the
fact that it can hold 500-600 people. The Fallout
Theory took to the stage minutes after and kicked
straight off into a poppy song, as soon as I saw
front man Carl Haffield throwing himself around
stage like a ball of energy I knew The Fallout
Theory were going to be my kind of band. The band
played through a number of songs that are from
their forthcoming new album such as the melodic
'Don't Show Up Perfect' to the more laid back
sound of 'You Got Me Good'. Half way through the
show the band announced that they had a new drummer
Darren May, the man was sat at his drums Travis
Barker style with his top off and big chest tattoo
on show, and really good drumming skills to match.
Frontman Carl Haffield spoke to the crowd at every
opportunity he had, first off all asking the 40
spread out people in the venue to come closer,
it took some time but the crowd came closer in
the end, then Carl went one better asking the
crowd to go nuts and jump up and down, but this
was to much to ask for such a small crowd and
wasn’t very successful. The Fallout Theory
played for a good 40 minutes leaving the small
but dedicated crowd happy.
After the Fallout Theory finished we went to the
bar for a quick drink and returned to the main
hall for the headline act.
Not Advised are a poppy punk band and are the
closest thing England are going to get to sounding
like New Found Glory, Blink 182 and the other
heavyweight American bands of the same scene.
By the time Not Advised took to the stage at 10.10pm
there was only about 15 people left in the building
which was quite shocking but Not Advised didn’t
let it get to them much, the band joked along
with the 15 people in the crowd who stayed along
to watch there set, and even getting the crowd
to form a line of "wooo" which was quite
humourous for a few minutes.
The start of the set had a few minor hiccups such
as Greg Day's bass string breaking mid song, but
apart from that the band didn’t let the
lack of crowd and support get to them, they played
the show like they were played to a packed out
festival crowd, guitarist Jack Hairbrother was
completely energetic on stage spinning around
at every opportunity. Frontman James Thomas has
a stunning voice, which is fast, catchy, poppy
and best of all English.
The band played a 40 minute set and fired through
some great tracks such as the awesome 'Jane Says
Left' a song that is really fast and has lots
of backing vocals of "wooaaah". One
of the highlights of the set for me was hearing
the band play 'Here’s an Idea', a song that
I have listened to time and time again on the
bands myspace, the song was played with so much
energy with the whole band running and changing
places on stage, well except for Andy who was
sat behind the drums and gave his drums an equally
energetic bashing. When frontman James Thomas
introduced the song 'Too Many Superheroes Not
Enough Phone Boxes' I instantly geeked it up and
thought of Superman, but it wasn’t long
before the music wiped my thoughts away.
'You're The Designers We're The Deciders' was
the song that I had been waiting for all night,
the song was the closing song of the show and
sounded even better live than it does recorded,
the band jumped round the stage full of energy
for the last time for the night.
The show was a little bit of a let down with the
oversized venue and lack of people turning up,
which I put down to either Rayleigh not being
a popular place for live music or the promoter
being extremely lazy and not promoting the show
properly, however Not Advised played like the
venue was packed and are going to have no trouble
what so ever playing to larger crowds or in bigger
venues. Could this be the start of the English
pop-punk revival? Let’s not jinx it just
yet.
Review By Trigger
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