REVIEWS

LIVE AT CAGNEYS WORCESTER PARK SURREY

"Live at Cagneys" – Worcester Park Surrey

By the "Man in the Mask"

Well what a place for the debut gig of Mirmis – South London’s brightest Rock hopefuls. It’s not exactly Wembley Arena but then again a bands got to start somewhere. What was first apparent was the amount of people present for a band they had never heard before in their life. The audience mostly comprising of friends and relatives of the band were already delayed by the fact that the other bands in the prestigious Battle of the Bands competition didn’t even turn up. Perhaps they knew that one band would have dominated………

With the stage lit the band come on to a rousing reception. Mirmis knew that even though the competition had been won they still had to give a good account of themselves if that were to keep an already growing fan base.

The band opened in glowing fashion with the rousing anthem "Got No Money".

Vocalist David Langhorn sounded better than ever, Marios Loizou’s guitars were cranked up loud, Andy Kyriakides’ Bass was as sharp as ever and Lloyd Pritchard's drumming sounded as powerful as anything John Bonham or Keith Moon would produce. One gripe was Andy who seemed initially nervous resulting in playing a totally different bass-line for the first chorus of "Got No Money". However it was covered well and from then on Andy was the most consistent band member, and even taunted the crowd.

Next up was the catchy "Catch the Running Train". By this time Dave was in full swing, but it wasn’t until the next song "Fat-boy Sin" where we see the crowd start taking the band more seriously. A slow and calculating start from the band on this one, but the song really kicks in on the chorus. "My Name is Ralf" sings Langhorn, backed with vocals from Andy and Marios. A shame that Dave forgot some of the words on the second verse, otherwise this would have been the best song on the night.

The band then changes the pace again, although the start of "Smokescreen" doesn’t suggest this. Shimmering guitars from Marios, the song kicks in with Lloyds power drumming, and overdrive from the guitars. Smokescreen is by far the best song from Mirmis, again only marred by the fact that Dave’s Mic goes Awol.

We then slip into 70’s hard-rock with the Kyriakidis penned "Don’t Hold Your Breath", where the song takes advantage of Lloyds powerful drumming, and a medley version of "Twentieth Century Boy", a song which cleverly slips in "Black Night" (Deep Purple) and "Whole Lotta Love" (Led Zeppelin). One gripe is that guitarist Marios Loizou has to keep his cool during the guitar solos. On Don’t Hold Your Breath he nearly manages to pull it off, but nearly is not good enough!

Sandwiched between the two above songs is "Voodoo Man". A song that was written in 1995, this contains a killer riff and brings out the best of the band.

For a debut show, it was a promising and confident show, displaying a potential which could explode over the next couple of months. Let's see how they turn out.....