A couple of months ago I got a whole serious of emails from a cocky bunch of Cornish men known as Bates Motel, telling me they were the greatest thing to hit Celtic rock since the beginning of creation and I should do a feature on them and listen to some mp3’s on their web page. Now I’m not too good at listening to mp3’s cos’ mostly I listen to music on the train to and from work and It’s often hard to bring the desk top along on the train so they went unheard for a while.

Finally this 3 track demo/promo arrives through the mail and man does this ROCK! Powerful Celtic rock from the new masters of Celtic Grunge (to quote Steve Davies), heavy on the fiddle with an energy that could raise a dead man and get him jigging. To steal a quote from Rock’n’Reel magazine, “a glorious hybrid of the Clash, the Levellers and vintage Thin Lizzy” and there is not much I can add to that except that the Levellers sound like the strongest influence and I also hear some NMA.

July 2002