Working hard at it for over 24 months Edinburgh’s No-Things have fast established themselves as one of the city’s garage punk regulars. Gigging plentifully at both at home and abroad (the Paris suburbs were taken by storm at the end of 2016) they’ve built up a solid live act over the course of two consecutive Franklin Fest performances along with numerous shows either as headliners or in a supporting role to bigger or visiting acts.

Musos’ Guide has been on hand to catch the quartet live on a number of occasions, stretching back to their inception, so regular readers will be well aware of the regard in which we hold their on-stage antics (making us possibly a bit biased in our coverage …) but such an infectious group needs rightly praised for their total commitment in the live sphere.

Counting amongst their number an ex-Thane and a current BOF! Their pedigree is undeniable, leading to Germany’s mighty Soundflat Records offering them a deal last year. Here Come The No-Things!! is the resultant musical total of their time in the studio.  

Comprising 14 tracks Here Come The No-Things!! naturally contains the band’s current live set at this time, including the continual crowd pleaser ‘Who Did You Rob Bob?’ and 'Why Do You Love Me?' Garage songs are rarely known for their lyrical or musical complexity and the contents of 'Don't Get On My Tits' ably live up to that revered tradition.

The No-Things are by no means the first such band of their ilk to fall foul of not having their live sound replicated when in the studio but, when performance is so much a part of your whole schtik and on-stage wildness (often becoming off-stage wildness) you really need a sympathetic producer at the controls to compensate for the lack of visual distractions as well as to reproduce the raw musical edge such a propulsive band possesses when out in the open. Unfortunately, this time around, The No-Things have ended up with a work which is too cleanly produced to do their efforts ample justice. The general idea is there but overall it’s the band in embryo.

You can though appreciate the band in all their live glory at the album launch in Edinburgh on January 21 (full details here).

Here Come The No-Things!! is available from amazon & iTunes.

It's been another great year, and it got off to an amazing start with The Senior Service's cracking debut single, 'Depth Charge' (my favourite single of 2016), followed by their debut live performance at the Half Moon, Putney. It certainly exceeded my (already high) expectations. And, for those who don't know, the Senior Service have ex-members of The Prisoners, JTQ, The Solarflares, The Prime Movers to name but a few. The whole event was organised by Steve Worrall of Retroman Blog who definitely deserves a mention for all the hard work he puts in to organising these regular events, with such quality acts. Where would we be without you? I doff my cap to you sir. Their LP The Girl In The Glass Case is beyond sublime.

June saw the return of the Franklin Fest in Edinburgh (review here) which once again was a blast. Well done to the organisers again for supplying us with acts from further afield, such as the mighty Courettes, Thee Jezebels, The Embrooks, The Sine Waves and Oh! Gunquit. Also making their debut were garage lovelies The Nettles and The Gastronauts, featuring frenzied frontman Spencer Envoy of MFC Chicken. 'Scotch Egg' anyone? A fantastic weekend and I'm already looking forward to finding out who will feature in the 2017 line-up.

The best Halloween party in town was hosted and headlined by Geek Maggot Bingo, featuring The Fnords & The Reverse Cowgirls. Showing us that local talent is just as good as the more well-known names mentioned above, and of course they were all part of the Franklin Fest too.  

Lord Rochester played the early December Franklin R&R Club, and they really knocked me out. Maybe something to do with playing at the more attractive end of the venue? Their success lies in their simplicity. A minimal drum kit, sing-a-long swing-a-long tunes, with added bite. We also gratefully received an extra helping from The Gastronauts, with their second appearance at The Franklin this year. On form and as eggs-elent as before.  

This year also saw the release of The No-Things first LP, which is everything you would pretty much expect from seasoned musicians like frontman Laurent Mombel and drummer Calvin Burt. A review of that to follow soon…   

The only downside to this year is that I haven't really travelled far afield due to other commitments, so missed out of a few festivals like The Medway Legends Weekender and The Green Fuzz Weekender (both in Spain). Hopefully next year will be different, but I can't really complain, as my home town (Edinburgh) has such a great scene, and I for one, am very grateful for that.