Cheapscape, freeloader, penny pincher … yeah yeah yeah … fact is the Undertones at Bingley fest on the free day was the band I wanted to see. I spose because bands from around 79 influenced my musical tastes for the next … years. The Undertones were high on that list. Original lineup, except for the ‘new’ singer (since 1999) replacing Fergal … I was wondering how they would sound compared to yester-year. After seeing ‘From the Jam’ at Bingley a few years back, I was prepared to give a band with a replacement singer a go. For From the Jam, their replacement for Paul Weller, sounded like Weller and had some much needed energy being younger than the man – it was a good gig. The Undertones new singer also sounded like his forerunner – with the same cracked warble … and it was looking good going into the first couple of songs. Then the problem started … he began strutting around the stage like Mick Jagger … except he was a fifty year old bloke doing something very old and unoriginal … Mick owned his strut. The songs were good, but looking at this guy was painful. His continual hip thrusts, and rockstar poses just looked crap and pretty embassasing. My perfect cousin and Teenage Kicks went down predictably well – with all and sundry jumping around … the bearded 50 year old biker in leathers jumping around with some young ladies in front was my favourite … accompanied by the stench of weed the couple behind were blowing straight at me. It was a good gig, marred by the singers posing … he should watch a video of himself – some of his moves worked and some looked really terrible. Best thing for me was material I hadn’t heard that was really good – I don’t know which album(s) they were from but there were some cracking songs that never reached me as a 12 year old.