Rebbeca

November 19th, 2007
The Barfly, Camden

by S P

In this day and age, where singing is an expression (ie. you can scream and shout, be completely out of tune as long as you convey your message), it is extremely refreshing to find a pitch perfect singer in a new young band. Lead singer Tom Keys has an outstanding voice with a huge range, climbing impressively from a deep, warm tenor to the highest falsetto notes. He, along with drummer Colin White, keyboardist Neil Harris and guitarist Paul Tong, makes Rebbeca an above average band in the world of indie bands.

Playing at The Barfly in Camden, Rebbeca stormed on stage at half 9 and there it was! The invisible line. Yes, this line exists at all small gigs. It’s the line that no audiences cross before the arrival of the band, but still the invisible line endured throughout Rebbeca’s set. Their live set – which they were forced to reduce to five songs due to time constraints – is tightly woven together. Each band member of Rebbeca is technically adept, and with plenty of tuneful hooks and riffs they delivered their set perfectly. While I listened I mulled over how they come across. What’s Rebbeca’s identity? I found myself thinking about Starsailor. Incidentally, they’re still around and recording their fourth album. Who bought the last three?

The unnerving thing about Rebbeca is they’ve been compared to too many bands. These four boys from Liverpool have been lavished with such praise as: ‘The epic quality of Mansun at their best, and the space rock power punch of Pink Floyd.’ Subba-cultcha.com

Being compared to Mansun is a bad start and I wouldn’t necessarily want to put it on my myspace site, but they did. (Tell me, where is Mansun now?) Space rock power punch of Pink Floyd, WOW! Pink Floyd is one of the most successful, experimental and influential bands to have emerged from the 70s. They’re big huge shoes to fill. Rebbeca’s music is decent but not that superior. This comparison to one of my favourite bands (which I personally hail as genius – Roger Waters in particular) immediately makes me detest and resent it. Does it offend me, yeah!

Another bugbear of mine is that they listed their music as Zouk / Bossa Nova / Healing & Easy Listening. Category-defying sounds are good, so leave your music genre for your fans to decide.

Overall, watching Rebbeca is pleasurable and entertaining. The pint-sized boys delivered a tight set. In hindsight, Rebbeca is living a hype; they have great potential and are promising. There have been more talented and gifted bands but, unquestionably, I’m going to pay a lot of attention to them and see what happens next. Watch this space!

Rebbeca’s debut album Public Face is release on 26 November, you can listen to limited tracks from Public Face on http://www.myspace.com/rebbecainfo

They are currently touring the country, tour dates are listed on http://www.rebbeca.info/pages/gigs.html

They are also supporting Hard Fi at Liverpool University on the 7th of December as part of Liverpool music week.