With an 8 pm start, I settled down in an empty bar with my pint only to hear Deathtraps strike up a thunderous din in the live room thinking they were soundchecking then to my surprise a ripple of applause rings out. Bring the start time forward if you like, Jesus wept so we creep in and are greeted by the South Wales trio hammering through their set at breakneck speed and Lemmy-like volume which seems appropriate considering the new album reminded me of the now deceased hard rockin legend in places. The new album was still ringing in my head as the band struck up the excellent ‘Press Darling’ lifted from the rather impressive album that has a lot of variety to be fair and whilst they won’t shout it from the rooftops we will. Deathtraps have some bangers in their repertoire and are tighter than ever and will entertain you with their potty mouthes.

Next up was The Charlemagnes who I last saw in this very venue but supporting who I haven’t the foggiest but I can say that once again they impressed me with a short but oh so sweet set of Garage rock n roll. Unlike Deathtraps, there wasn’t a lot of crowd participation and rude words but what they do have in common is some great tunes. There was a broken E string which you don’t see that often from a bass player which in itself is impressive but using the evil powers of rock n roll they carried on with their mission of rockin’ le pub and warming up the audience. Which they did, and did it very well if you happen to be near where these gents are playing then my advice would be to take in the show they have tunes! They might still only have three chords but they now have the whole truth.

Two down one to go. Crazyhead amble on whilst their backing tape plays Nancy Sinatra to soften up the expectant audience. My Pork Beast for you have a very shiny helmet tonight as it glistens off the low-lit lights of Le Pub they wasted no time in getting down to business with Time has taken its toll B Side ‘Down’ grooving into life Le Pub was up for it from the off as ‘Some Kind Of Fever’ was about to get a shakedown and ‘Big Sister’ bled into ‘Everythings Alright’ and this criminally underrated band was proving they still had the chops and Le Pub was jumping and singing every word back at the band.

‘Rags’ sounded together I wouldn’t say tight because that’s something Crazyhead aren’t but they are together and the songs sounded fanfuckintastic. They opened up the songbook tonight and treated those in attendance to a romp through a magnificent rendition of ‘Out On A Limb’ and then straight into ‘In The Sun’. The singles were played to much appreciation from the audience as ‘time Has Taken Its Toll’ made way for a brutal ‘Jack The Scissor man’.

As the evening wore on the band looked relaxed and some good banter went back and fore with certain members of the audience and Vom in particular. A cheeky ‘Tower Of Fire’ seemed appropriate at this point before they dusted off the greatest titled single of all time – ‘What Gives You The Idea You’re So Amazing Baby?’ but to follow that up with ‘Snake eyes’ and ‘Baby Turpentine’ it seemed futile to carry on it wasn’t going to get any better than that was it? Fuckin’ right it was!

A non-encore encore sees the band not leave the stage before playing ‘Bang Bang’ followed by ‘Have Love’ before a rather splendid cover of ‘TV Eye’ and then it really was goodnight as ‘Sinking Feeling’ brought the curtain down on a bloody fantastic nights entertainment – where value for money was had by all and three excellent bands rocked and rolled like their lives depended on it under the warm Newport lights. Beaming punters filed out of LePub rejoicing in the return of Crazyhead. So please can we do it again soon because a 30-year gap between seeing the band is too long Swamp Delta a few years ago doesn’t count. If this is what people call heritage rock then bring it on, I’ll take that all day and every night. Just hope I don’t catch some kind of fever…I’ll get me coat.

Author: Dom Daley