The City Kids - 'Things That Never Were' Pre Order commenced 23 March 2020

I have in front of me the debut from The City Kids, formed by JJ Watt of The Main Grains, Tigertailz bassist Berty Burton, Dennis Post from Warrior Soul and Dave “The Rock God” Sanders from Cumbrian metallers Falling Red.

Until fairly recently JJ handled guitar duties for The Main Grains but as they disbanded, he was left with many song ideas and demos.

Lyrically it’s a trip of self-reflection, feelings and what we see in the world and it’s all rolled out in no-frills punk n roll fashion.

To kick off the album we have first single “Best of You”, musically it’s a nod to the late 70’s and back to when Motorhead bridged the gap between genres and when Sounds magazine was a weekly purchase from your local newsagent.

“Before You Fall” larrups along in all it’s anthemic glory, some nice hooks that work with the melody of the track and have me nodding along in my man cave.

One of my favourite tracks is “Left Behind”, it grabs you by the earholes with a big fat riff fest and again it’s soaked in rock n roll melody.

If that one was a winner then “Rats” is a world beater and is sure to become a live staple, I can just imagine drinking ale and enjoying this from the barrier, this features Billy Tee and Alex Holmes of The Suicide Notes.

What’s not to like here? I’m struggling to answer that as “No More Heroes” works its way through my speakers with its big fat power chords, the guitar solo the best of the ten tracks on offer here.

The band have managed to enlist LA Guns founder Tracii Guns and he is featured on the track “All I Want”, take a listen as he noodles all over this, as fluid as ever on the fretboard.

You could shoot me down here but my top track is “Round And A Round”, this one features Kory Clarke of Warrior Soul and The Suicide Notes, everybody has their song to get ready for a big night out and this could easily become mine, it has all the elements of a live classic and will no doubt guide the audience to the bar at the end of the set, brilliant and that’s after only a couple of listens.

So, the question you might ask is does this album break any new ground? The answer is quite simply no but then it doesn’t need to, I have to say I loved The Main Grains and their no-nonsense rock n roll and in The City Kids I hear the reputation being upheld.

Like they say “It’s only Rock N Roll, but I like it”

Things That Never Were is now available for pre order, the limited edition sold out faster than an isle of toilet rolls at Morrisons but you can get hold of the standard edition, with this you will receive a digital download of Shit That We Like, the 12 track accompaniment to the limited edition, it’s a covers disc and I’m intrigued to hear what they’ve come up with.

Pre Order at www.cargorecordsdirect.co.uk