Boy it’s cold, these guys n gal from down under must be feeling it as the UK recovers from the storms and its just pre Christmas cold we have to deal with. Which to be fair is fine by me, on entering the Marble Factory its like entering the set of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but this time its packed to the rafters as The Chats are here for two nights of flat out punk rock and this time they’ve brought fellow Australian power poppers the Prize along for the ride, and to be fair they put in an excellent shift as support with their Boys meets a lighter Ramones meets Thin Lizzy but with a tripple guitar attack.

They have half an hour and this five piece do their best to just fill their time with tunes and pretty bloody decent tunes at that.  lead vocals shared between drummer Nadine Muller and guitarist Carey Paterson who both do a sterling job weaving these nifty tunes to a very appreciative Marble Factory who dig what they do with impressive rapture which bodes well for the future of alternative punk rock n roll.

Hailing from Melbourne the band have been together since 2021 and it can only be a good thing playing to sold out audiences night after night who clearly like what they hear should see the band follow up their recent single with more music soon. Being unfamiliar with their song titles I throughly enjoyed what I heard and anyone who throws out a Boys melody or two is going to get a big thumbs up from me. Honest John Plain would certainly approve.

Enter The Chats with nothing to promote other than having a night out and playing some rapid party time punk rock, no records to promote, no festivals to push just doing it for shits and giggles. The Chats are ready to rock big time.

As they amble on stage Eamon lets the audience know the house rules of have a good time and look out for each other this ones called ‘Nambored’ the entire floor became a sweaty heaving swirling mess. By the time they steamed into the epic ‘6l GTR’ and then the epic ‘Emperor Of The Beach’ I feared they’d shot their bolt early and gone all in to quickly but fear not these boys are professionals.

The energy is relentless and you know that for the next hour they are going to give the set list a good seeing to and give nothing short of 100% wham bang thank you mam! we’re outta here. Tonight was no exception except to be fair I felt the songs weren’t so hurried tonight and they kicked back a fraction and not turning it into a whole we are Australias answer to Zeke now ave it! It wasn’t far behind but noticably more chilled.

Theres equal amounts of ‘High Risk Behaviour’ with the snotty ‘Stinker’ and ‘Drunk And Disorderly’ beign the glue in the middle of the set whilst ‘Get This In Ya’ ‘Nazi March’ is a belter. Of course ‘Smoko’ is present and played like its going outta fashion but tonight something happened and they had to stop it in the middle maybe there was a crowd safety concern because it went fuckin’ nuts when the bass riff kicked in or they just decided to go on Smoko mid tune.

‘The Price Of Smokes’ saw a complaint about JPS now being too expensive first world problems I guess. Eamon gives his fourstring a proper seeing to on ‘Struck By Lightening’ and its fair to say the band are tight as a soaking wet pack of Rizlas with Josh layign down some mighty fine licks on his guitar. For one hour these boys are untouchable and this was as good as I’ve seen them since they’ve been coming to Blighty a really excellent hour of non stop punk rock n roll that has boundless energy and never overstays their welcome theres even time to crucify Kiss’ ‘Rock N Roll All Nite’ in the best way possible before its brought to a crushing end with a wholesome bargain ‘Pub Feed’, and we’re done.

Like the best Bargain Bin Records tour package I absolutely appreciate touring for shits n giggles its the best way possible now get back down under, record a new record and head back over with Stiff Richards, COFFIN and Civic on one of those travelling revue tours that would be fuckin smashing lads until then this will more than do. Merry Fuckin Christmas all and get off Smoko and back to work.

Author: Dom Daley