The new line-up of The Casbah Club is made up of Simon Townsend brother of Pete Townsend from some band called "The Who", Bruce Foxton (SLF/The Jam), Bruce Watson (Dead Men Walking/Big Country) and Mark Brzezicki (Big Country/Fish). The original line-up also included JJ Gilmour (The Silencers) who left to concentrate on his solo career and Josh Phillips(Big Country).

The new stream-lined Casbah Club rolled on to the Southampton stage at about 9pm and rocked straight into a Big country number "Seven Waves", from the 1st couple of minutes it was very apparent that Simon was a very competent guitarist/vocalist and put JJ gilmour's previous efforts to shame. Looking very much a rockstar with his dark sunglasses perched comfortably on the top of his head.

The band seemed very comfortable together and it seemed like they had been playing together for ages. Next up was Jam classic "Eton Rifles" which Bruce Foxton did the vocal duty on and most people old enough to remember this song when it 1st came out, were sent back into the distant past with memories galore.

Bruce Watson was sporting a new haircut making him look very muck like ex-Liverpool Player/Manager Kenny Dalglish.

 The band went on to prove they were not just a Big Country/Jam cover band with a whole bunch of new songs showing great promise songs like "Sex Change", "Raised" and "Age" went down very well with the Southampton audience despite being the 1st time most of us had heard them. One of the new songs was a mixture of The Jam song "Start" and "Big Country Classic "Fields of Fire". Bruce Watson played the "Fields of Fire" guitar rift while Bruce Foxton played the "Start" bassline with Simon Townsend doing his own thing, strange but I think it all blended together quite well.

During "Down in the tube station at Midnight" Mark showed what a world class drummer he is with a very impressive drum solo. The encores were made up of 4 classics that really did the originals justice and sounded very fresh at the same time.

To sum up, the new-line up have improved so much on the previous one and impressed the socks off of everyone in the venue tonight - 4 great musicians making one hell of a sound.

I'm sure if they get some of the new songs recorded they could really make something of this!.