Chick Korea?

You said I was ill and you were not wrong. Urgh, I feel like crap. Here's an anonymous old BBC review to make us both feel slightly worse.

WARHEN/ PHYAL/ FORK, Oxfam benefit, Bully, 7/04

Calling your music "prog punk" is rather like calling it "chalky cheese" - a contradiction in terms. With Fork it really means "new wave with a few extras". Most afecting in parts, but hard to get a handle on tonight. The main problem is the lead guitarist, who is as loud as the rest of the band put together. At least. This wouldn't matter so much if the vocals weren't whispered in a menacing rasp, and the squealing licks deflated the effect somewhat.

Ultimately the best tracks were those where they open the rock and roll throttle, or strip things down to an ominous pulse spiced with eerie murmuring. In other words, the tracks with the fewest prog elements. Someone is missing the point here: question is, is it me or Fork?

Phyal can be relied on to produce a good show, that's a given. Their sound is simple, if fabulously unfashionable: a tranche of funk, a soupcon of mild goth, all floating in a bouillabaisse of oldschool metal. Rather like German band Uniting The Elements, who recently visited The Zodiac, Phyal banish any worries about musical naffness with a searing theatrical performance. Glenda is a committed hair-flailing frontwoman and the band is compact and forceful. They could maybe do with an extra string to their song-writing bow, but they're certainly worth watching.

Where did all those Supergrass comparisons come from? OK, Warhen are young, a trio, and full of beans, but that's where it ends. Aerosmith, AC/DC and Cream are more useful reference points. It's silly, it's adolescent, it's resolutely dumb but Warhen's marriage of 70s cock rock and punk attack is great fun. They play well tonight too, though the tiny powerhoue drummer steals the show, as ever. Maybe the music doesn't linger in the memory, but for 30 minutes Warhen were captivating. Now, if only they could learn some interesting stage banter...