Broken Records
The Cluny, Newcastle

A promise of free Jack Daniels, and a five-star live review in the Guardian, found us in the back room of the Cluny to see Scotland’s most hotly-tipped musical act since that woman off Britain’s Got Talent.

Tonight’s festivities are being filmed for the JD Set, a TV show that airs on Channel 4 at the wrong side of midnight somewhere between a Hill Street Blues rerun and the See Hear edition of Hollyoaks. Support bands Odd-Shaped Head and White Belt Yellow Tag are local lads, and the audience seems to be made up entirely of friends and family. Oh, and only the David Gedge out of the Wedding Present. He’s standing in front of us, and then he’s onstage compering, and knocking out a version of Dalliance with WBYT.

Then Broken Records squeeze onstage. There are seven of them, and they make a big sound, swapping violins and keyboards and ukuleles to create what might be described as sounding like ‘baroque pop’ or, inevitably, ‘Arcade Fire’. It’s very dramatic, and the singer’s voice is ear-prickingly good, but are the songs strong enough to propel them to rock stardom? Difficult to say on a first listen, so let’s just see what happens, seek out more free JD, and stalk David Gedge.

Broken Records’ first LP will be released in the summer. Until then, there are a couple of singles on Spotify, and more tracks on MySpace.

Music Broken Records, The Wedding Present