High Vis – Guided Tour (Dias) – Where were we? Drop Me Out comes bursting in as a second track, no messing, no time for politeness, no time for passengers, just right there and on it, second track on the UK band’s third album (and the first that’s really registered with us) There’s nothing revolutionary going on here but then there doesn’t have to be a revolution every time does there and there’s a glorious knowing here, almost a swagger, High Vis are a band who know that this time they’ve got it, that they’re good.
Dare I say a touch of early Oasis in there with street wish dream killing, a touch of that punch The Professionals had when they were dealing with those little boys in blue? The meter’s on so don’t be long, and what is truth when your mind’s a lie anyway? He doesn’t know what to believe in but it can’t be this – they’ve just got what they do nailed and nailed properly, they are the right here right now. True, if they went away tomorrow they wouldn’t be (f’king) missed but for now, for right now, for the right here right now, it really is a great big very real yes.
Drop Me Out is just one of those songs, one of those tunes, one of those proper slices of proper punk rock that just has ‘it’, that one piece would be enough to walk away from this album happy (with your mates or your co-defendants).
Oh, I like that bit she said as she came down the stairs, now where did you leave yer ‘ed?
Yeah okay, people will tell you there’s some kind of Britpop-meets-hardcore thing going on but don’t let that put you off – and yeah, I know there was nothing good about Brit Pop, not a single thing, we were there, stuck in the middle of it, on the front line, in Camden, fending it off – this new album Guided Tour is the street-wise London punks’ best yet by far, this is a very fine album indeed and for many many reasons other than just the obvious ones.
Guided Tour is at times bleak, it is very very real, it is streetwise, it is through tainted eyes, vocalist Graham Sayle deals with the realities of just wanting to exist while raging against the machine and those who both cause and then seemingly ignore the lives that so many people in the UK and beyond face each and every day – from the lack of community care and public services through to how this ultimately affects people, relationships, and yes, three quid for a bus into town does hurt some people. High Vis sound like a band who understand that a bus fair going up does make a difference, they sound like a band who just know, a band who care, a band for the disenfranchised. A bunch of what sounds like working-class guys in their late 20s or probably their early 30s, High Vis sound like they actually live it and for once a band who aren’t just about escaping it.
Bleak yes, it is defiantly positive though, dare I say it is enjoyable? Hopeful? Just enough to not dull it all but to defiantly stand there and say you can’t take us down – we’re meant to be in this together, a little more than just being broke and trying survive in a system that’s rigged against you, sure, there is aggression and attitude, swagger, but there’s more, the importance of community and supporting those around you, standing together, something just a little more. You have to like High Vis before you even start to consider the very real sound they make… (sw)
THE ORGAN 