Reviewed by Tony Cummings

One of the privileges of being a reviewer of independent releases is that you get to see, from time to time, a band in the process of creative evolution. We’ve seen Dreamcoat move from the first faltering steps of ‘Demo’ to the unexpected radio hit of their ‘Mr Brown’ EP and now, with this, their most assured effort so far. The strengths of this title track are an excellent lead vocal, a nice blend of acoustic guitars and full tilt electrics and good sound thanks to the always-reliable Phil Goss (the man behind the recording desk of dozens of fine independent projects). The weakness is that “Disciple Man” and to a lesser extent the groove-orientated “No Glitter” and the funky “Fashion No No” go on too long, with extended solos which, though excellently executed, get in the way of the songs’ strong hooks and messages. Next time they’ll need a producer to sort them out. In the mean time, catch this. The band are great on stage as you can hear on the fourth track “Pray”, recorded live in concert. I would recommend you catch them at the Cross Rhythms 2000 festival though one thing you’ll need to look out for, they’ve just changed their name to Waxed. But whatever name they use, if you’re looking for a good new UK band, still with the bloom of grassroots about them, check out this Midlands team.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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