Three to watch at the Oxford O2

By Barney Goodall

Now what does the phrase ‘joyous technicolor indie pop’ conjure in your mind?

If your answer is: ‘Choc full of Doo-Wops and La La La’s, glockenspiel scattered and full of charm’ you would be correct, but cheating, as this is the first sentence of Alphabet Backwards’ Soundcloud bio. With strong influences from The Kooks, and New-Folk (yes: that is a genre), this band also throw in some unhinged synth goings-on-and-offs. Indeed their song ‘Elton John’ sounds like being stuck in a 90s Japanese arcade game whilst suffering from an epileptic fit: Definitely a good thing. These Oxford lads n’ lasses are playing on their home turf at the Academy Saturday September 8. Go! Watch! Enjoy!

In stark contrast to this merry Oxford homecoming expect a noisy Caledonian invasion with Gun on Sunday September 16. These Glaswegian guys know how to rock (and that’s ‘rock’ complete with Metal Horns and shouted in your face by some JD guzzling leather-clad Lemmy look-a-like) having toured with Rolling Stones, Def Leppard, and Bon Jovi. As touring profiles go, I think you’ll agree this is pretty impressive. Gun formed in the late 1980s, and despite several line-up changes and breaks, are still going strong today. If you like your rock heavy, epic, and stadium-filling, then come this way. In an orderly queue please.

‘I spend most of my days neither sleeping nor awake/Watching pointless documentaries on tornados and earthquakes’. What fantastic lyrics. This is Deaf Havana, the first line of their single 'I'm a bore mostly', the video to which has achieved half a million hits on youtube, quite impressive. Much beloved of Kerrang magazine types (by which I mean alternative rock, if indeed that means anything to you), these guys hail from East Anglia University/King’s Lynn/somewhere-East-of-here, formed in 2005, and have been constantly touring ever since. I am assured, by my treacherous friend the Internet, that they have a wide fan base, successful albums, and substantial radio play. Catch them on August 22.