Reveiw by J:
6th February 1999 @ The AlleyCat Live, Reading
PHOENIX and PINNACLE
I made it down for the last song of Pinnacle's set: they've a big, baggy Madchester sound, more Stone Roses than 'Mondays or Charlatans though the frontman is doing his best Tim Burgess / King Monkey /  Ian Brown thing. Big, Ben Sherman shirt wearing anthemic chorus, and psychedelic guitars - well at home on a stoned-out festival afternoon. It's a blast - it makes you smile… but it ain't no revelation.

Phoenix take to the stage with a  track called "Someone Else" which kicks off with a massive Du Duh -du-du DU riff and then drags U2 sounds out of their limos kickin' and  screaming into mess of punk. This song comes over all fucked-up relationships and self-loathing. The sound is immense:
When I put my drink down the booze kicks and jumps in the glass like that scene from Jurassic Park where the Tyrannosaurus Rex is creeping up on the kids in the jeep in the dark.
The next track  draws parallels with Sugar (especially the  "Copper Blue" album), with cascading guitars crunching out melody in a dense wall of sound and Chris's vocal screaming over the top. Chris introduces the third track as "the best song ever written" - it turns out to be an epic, with slow, low verses and pounding choruses - "Nothing is what I give you" - eventually giving way to a squall of guitars in an ass-kickin' finish. And so it goes on: Phoenix treat us to dynamic, rifftastic start-stop punk-pop  with ultra-short guitar solos, which contrast with moodier late-night type stuff which sweeps you up with big chords and haunting picked-out arpeggios. Intense and unmissable.

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Beat Nites to watch out for in Reading:

I have word from a trusted source that the last Inner State -
the stomping successor to Free State Sound System - held in February at the After Dark Club on London St. Reading - was technotastically good. Go there.

Preview by: The Rev. Doctor One-Black-Hat
Saturday 13th March @ The Rising Sun Arts Centre, Silver St.  Reading
FREESTYLE  - 1st Birthday £3 entry

This one is looking good… featuring London's The Hustler,
3 deck wizard DJ Sammy B & DJ SK, promising breakbeat, hip hop, d'n'b, weird beat, electronica, leftfield and trance. This is the place for the more discerning beat fanatic - if getting pilled up and leapin' about to technotechnotechnotechno for 9 hours solid doesn't appeal to ya (and hey, I'm not dissing that scene at all - whatever stokes your toke, maaaaaaaaaan) FREESTYLE will take you on a journey with pleasures for the ears as well as the feet. Their February party was the biz, that Dark Angel -  he tha' man.
Since FREESTYLE was born last year it's featured
Reading DJs spinning low and hi-phat sounds. Beats, breaks and soundscapes. The drum, the bass, the loop.  Reading residents showcased include Dark Angel, DJ Lee Jones (he fill th' dance floor!), DJ Muzzell  & Zootwoman to name just a few. Decor from M Marquees and Fushion, plus projections by Travelling Light and experimental film makers totally transform this intimate venue. You know it makes sense. Get moving.
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THE BADDAZINE STILL HAS 3 COPIES OF READIPOP #1 to give away to the first 3 people who send in a stamped, self-addresed envelope big enough for a CD to:
BADDAZINE c/o Sodium Productions, 30, Silver Street, READING, RG1 2ST. Mark the back of your envelope with POP#1. Ta.
Wake up! This is the real deal! There will be a test! 
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