The Road to V Via Islington’s Carling Academy

With the honourable reward of opening this year’s V Festival looming, the bloodthirsty battle between the 14 band finalists at Road to V has begun.

Whittled down from 2500 entrants, the chosen contestants have in recent weeks been clashing, thrashing and bashing away at the Carling Academy (in both London and Liverpool), louder than Amy Winehouse’s cry for help.

They’re all striving to earn the opportunity to join the bigwigs (à la Muse, Kaiser Chiefs, Kings of Leon, Stereophonics, The Prodigy, The Kooks and The Verve to name but a few) at one of the largest outdoor music events of the summer.

It’s all under the watchful gaze of Channel 4, who will be televising the eventful build up to V Festival on small screens nationwide from mid-June. The ‘expert’ panel (made up of ex-Libertine Carl Barat, Mark Beaumont from NME, A&R man Sav Remzi, and Paul Samuels from Crown Music Management) will then decide who gets the gong with the help of viewer votes.

Last week I saw three groups of promising young things at London’s Carling institute in Islington: a 17,000 square foot dark and dank gig space, with quality acoustics and a reasonably intimate capacity of 800. It doesn’t feel particularly rock ‘n’ roll situated right in the middle of a shopping mall surrounded by the Wagamama, Accessorize and Starbucks chain gang, but some creative visuals and smoky effects quickly help you forgot about the commercial vacuum outside.

First to take the stage is Fat Sue, a Brixton-bred foursome that bounce about like pre-pubescent-looking Arctic Monkeys (if that’s at all possible), but with a funkier edge thanks in part to their excellent drummer, Alex Walker. The crowd obviously enjoys Fat Sue’s big old brouhaha of bass, guitars and unfettered frolics, but when they have the audience right in their grasp they really could milk it just that little bit more.

Act number two, The Rebs (my highlight of the evening) make a massive impact with their modern synth-pop, getting right down to business faster than you can scream “rock on!” while throwing corna devil-horned hand gestures.

Made up of Russell Edmonds (guitar,vocals) Vicky Averre-Beeson (keyboards,vocals) Sim Cracknell (drums) and Nader Rezaie (bass) The Rebs are like a cross-between The Zutons and Dandy Warholes (you expect the chick on keyboards to flash her breasts at any minute).

Led with gusto by a couple of fuzzy-haired dudes, The Rebs play a tight set of indie, rock, reggae, ska and pop made up of catchy original tunes and a whole lot of charm.

Last and, in my opinion, least is Imperial Leisure. Resembling a testosterone-fuelled crowd of football fans going to a hip-hop fancy dress party, they bounce onto the stage like frogs on speed (and with about as much charisma).

Belting out an aggressive mish-mash on trumpets, keyboards, drums and decks, Imperial Leisure seems lacking in a specific sound or direction, while taking inspiration from everyone from Madness and The Specials to Rage Against the Machine and So Solid Crew.

One guy on the trumpet jumps into the audience for a little, err…blow, after one of the (three) lead singers starts throwing shiny objects into the crowd before headbanging the air. It’s all harmless, stage bravado, but the one thing that really lets the side down is the fella wearing sunglasses. Call me old fashioned, but it is night time. I can only take so much cool.

In all the Road to V Carling Islington gig is a breath of fresh (smoke-machined) air in the festive and fascinating world of budding British talent.

Stay tuned for more Road to V news in the build up to the V Festival in August, and check out http://www.roadtov.com/ and www.channel4.com/music for more information.