Take The 5th , live at the Sussex Arts Club, Brighton, 8th January 2005 Forget plastic surgery - this band takes 20 years off your life! Obviously this could be a problem if you're only 15, but for the rest of us it was a great feeling to be pogoing around to a pretty faithful recreation of the genuine article.

To be honest, I had been sceptical about the whole idea of a Clash tribute band, having seen the real thing a couple of times in the long distant past. But from the moment they started they did an excellent job of resurrecting the spirit of old Joe and the boys. The vocal style and arrangements were spot on, which made it slightly uncanny to be looking at a totally different bunch of people (they are not a ³lookee likee band!).

The band kickstarted a confident and accomplished first set with Clampdown, followed up by plenty of crowd pleasers such as Bank Robber, Brand New Cadillac, Safe European Home, English Civil War, Tommy Gun, Protex Blue, Police & Thieves, Spanish Bombs and a re-titled 'Brighton's Burning'. The apocalyptic sounds of London Calling lured people out from the darker recesses of the ballroom and onto the dancefloor.

The Death Or Glory Sound System kept the eclectic vibe alive during the interval with a fine selection of tunes from the likes of Delroy Wilson, The 101'ers, Toots & The Maytals, The Specials, Bobby Fuller Four, The Ruts, Max Romeo, Culture as well as choice cuts from the Strummer & Mescaleros catalogue. Both band and audience had a much more energetic second set with plenty of gleeful jumping about to Guns of Brixton, White Riot, Somebody Got Murdered, Magnificent Seven, Janie Jones, 1977, Capital Radio and a fiery Coma Girl. Maximum drink spillage all round!

The 25 minute encore leapt off with I Fought The Law, Should I Stay and Rock The Casbah and never looked back till the band delivered a glorious rendition of White Man and then exited stage left leaving an over-heated audience cooling off to the sounds of The Congos and Augustus Pablo. From I'm So Bored With The USA to Straight To Hell and all points in between, the band did justice to all the numbers performed, with profits from the gig and a raffle of Clash-related stuff raising over £400 for Strummerville - The Joe Strummer Foundation For New Music.

The gig also went out live on the internet courtesy of http://www.boombasticradio.com. This was a great way for original fans to get all nostalgic and to introduce newer fans to great music that is streets ahead of pretty much any of the manufactured old dross currently residing in the singles charts. The evening's musicality came to a close with the DJs spinning The Specials 'You're Wondering Now' and finished on Strummer's poignant cover of 'Silver and Gold².

I can honestly say, this is the best evening out I've had in a long time and I look forward to reliving my misspent youth next time they are back in town. Sophie Thorne (The band will be back in Brighton on Saturday January 7th 2006 and can be contacted at http://www.takethe5th.co.uk)

sophie Thorn (thank you) pinned on www.Strummernews.com