With a festival of quality local music such as A Drop In The Ocean, we found it hard to pick out a selection from the vast quantity of talented acts on display. But we had a go...
Mood Indigo
(10.30pm, Dogma)
If you've spent all day with your head in a speaker while assorted rappers and Rockular types make a concerted effort to turn your brain into the consistency of mushy peas, there's no better way to wind down than with a cocktail or twelve as the smoother-than-smooth vibes of Nottingham's toppermost Lounge act wash over you. Also see that guitarist? He's one of the chaps who put the day together...
The Magic Heroes
(5pm, Rock City, 10.30pm, Junktion 7)
A Bridgford power trio of no little repute, the Magic Heroes harness the majesty of straight-up, no-nancying RRRRAAWK to create a massively plump arse, which they then kick from one end of the stage to the other. Their first CD is about to be released, they're playing Rock City and headlining Junktion 7, and they take their shirts off. If you're a fan of blistering melodies and male nipples, you will not be disappointed.
Rapunzel M.A.P.
(7pm, Wax)
If you've walked past the Council House steps at midnight on a weekend and been enchanted by the magnificently-maned stylings of Ms M.A.P, here's your chance to see her as nature intended. As an awesomely talented singer and guitarist. Wax have promised us that all attendees will not have to avoid stepping over someone else's regurgitated tea, there'll be no naked blokes on stag nights walking across the stage, and no-one will be shouting "Traceh! Get yer keks back on, I've just gorrus a taxeh" at any time during the performance.
Elementz
(3.30pm - 4.30pm 7pm-8.30pm downstairs The Social)
Liati and Zoutr have been honing their art as hiphop deejays like Samurai soldiers over the past year. They've also been busy doing production for wordsmith's such as MC NME and Karizma (not to mention that track with Skinnyman). There are two chances to catch them on the decks at the Social...
Hexadecimal
(Spectrum room, Stealth, early evening)
Stealth have come through big time, as is their wont, and if you've never been there before, you've got no excuse this time. And don't give us that 'Eeh, they only play records and it's not proper music' cobblers. Hexadecimal are a live band, with real instruments and all sorts. When they played Stealth the other week, we stood there at the front all glassy-eyed with a can of Red Stripe trying to work out how they do it.
Richie Muir
(1pm, Dogma, 8pm, Walton's Hotel, 11pm, South Bank)
At Live Aid, Phil Collins flew on Concorde from Wembley Stadium to Philadelphia. At A Drop In The Ocean, Richie Muir, one of the finest acoustic artists this fair city has to offer will leg it from the centre of town to The Park, and then drag his gee-tar to West Bridgford. For this creative attempt at getting the most out of a City Rider ticket (and not getting Noel Edmonds involved), we applaud him.
Vaccine
(11.15pm, Market Bar)
When Daz Drum, after having have one too many at Yates, calls Barry Bass' Mam a slag and asks what he's going to do about it, the resultant scrap outside is what Vaccine sound like. We're talking heavier than heavy, live-as-can-be D&B, people, with a drummer who goes at it like, well, a mad bastard, to be honest.
Joe Buhdha
(The Edge, late)
Sod it, every act at The Edge deserves a mention, simply because there hasn't been a Reggae all-dayer in town since Musical Youth played Rock City. Most of you weren't even born then. Joe Budda is a hiphop producer, playing an alternative selection for the night. Mash down Parliament Street, me duck!
Old Basford
(9.45pm, Old Angel)
If you ever wondered why the front door of the Old Angel had a massive hole in it until recently, one listen to the bands on offer on the 30th will tell you why. Old Basford are topping the bill, and rightly so. This is what proper Punk Rock sounds like when it gets tired of falling off skateboards in Slab Square and opens its mind to new influences.
Cappo
(10.40pm, The Social)
Trying to pick out an act in the Social's Notts-Hop all-dayer is like deciding which ride you want to go on first at Goose Fair, but Cappo gets the nod because he encapsulates everything that makes our local hip-hop scene the best in the country. Unapologetically non-Yankeefied lyrical roughness. Get there early. The place is going to be rammed.
The Hellset Orchestra
(4pm, Rock City)
Longtime LL faves, The Hellsets finally make the step up to the big stage, and we have a feeling this isn't the last time they tread the boards of the beloved Citeh. If Jack The Ripper and Burke & Hare had met up in a Spitalfields pub and said "You know what? Killing people and digging up bodies is boring, let's get a time machine, nick some electric guitars and an organ from the future, tack on a string quartet, and kick some Neo-Goth shiz in a Penny Dreadful style", they would have sounded like this.
A Drop In the Ocean takes place on Sunday 30th January 2005 all over Nottingham.
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