Turtlehead, Beauty School Dropout, The Webelos @ Zelda's World: Punk & Stuff

Turtlehead / Beauty School Dropout / The Webelos Date: Wednesday 28th March 2001 Venue: 13th Note Cafe, Glasgow
First on are The Webelos. They take to the stage, well what passes for a stage here at the 13th Note Cafe basement, and have some banter with the other bands, mainly to the derision of the Beauty School Dropout members, young upstarts that they are. Of course it helps if you're actually plugged in properly, but after enlisting the help of Brad Dropout (a bassist who obviously knows his amplifier holes) they're off. The singer's got bleached spiky locks and a bolshie attitude, the guitarist is wearing a Screeching Weasel T-shirt, so I'm quite hopeful. They're fast anyway and by the time they launch into a cover of 'Cretin Hop', I've forgotten about their between songs whining and have decided that I quite like them. They don't play very long and the next day I'll find out that they've split up. The potential's there, we'll just have to see what they can do with it.

Next up, the main reason I'm here on a Wednesday night, Beauty School Dropout. Four Scottish guys in Hawaiian shirts who play the catchiest pop punk this side of the Atlantic. They start off with one of the promising new songs, which sounds quite at home amongst the fast, bouncy songs from their first album. They play a couple of old favourites too, 'Just Seventeen', 'Best Kept Secret', 'Safety Net' and some more new songs that alter the pace slightly, without losing any of the interest. One of which may well be renamed if it ever makes it onto disc as, allegedly, it shares its name with an Sclub7 song. Well we couldn't have that, could we? The new songs sound really good and it would be nice to get them on CD sometime soon. A band guaranteed to brighten up your night, and I don't just mean their shirts.

Last band of the evening are Turtlehead, who hail from another part of Scotland, Falkirk I believe. They are the third band tonight that play with the careless abandon that makes you think you've just stumbled into a band rehearsal night and luckily they're playing really well. Maybe it's just a Scottish thing, but all these guys are so laid back, with casual banter separating the songs. I had read that Turtlehead was a melodic punk band and melodic they are, regardless of what the singer keeps telling the guitarist. There are a couple of occasions when I am reminded of Strung Out, although that may have more to do with the singers microphone style and gutsy vocals, I'm still pretty sure there was a guitar bit in there somewhere. They finish off with two ridiculous cover versions, The Buggles 'Video Killed The Radio Star' which anyone young enough won't remember, luckily for them, and The Proclaimers '500 Miles'. They even make them sound good. And all of that for £2.50! Makes you proud to be Scottish.
Zelda
Turtlehead Official website Beauty School Dropout Official website