The Peel, Kingston, London

After writing Saturday's review of Panic Room's exceptional album Satellite, I rushed down to The Peel to catch the band for the first time. It was a largely uneventful journey, except for the broken down Motorway Maintenance truck on the A3 just outside Kingston, and in no time at all I wandered into The Peel, in time to catch a few songs from the opening act Chris Johnson, formerly of Mostly Autumn and Fish's band. I was encouraged by the virtual lack of people outside (hi Sarah) and strode confidently in. Unfortunately, after about 10 seconds I realised that this was so not my cup of tea, so went back outside for some "fresh air".

During the brief interval, I bumped into Steve Nicholl, friend of Silhobbit, and we had a little chat, before I headed back into the busy room and grabbed my place.

After a few more minutes, the intro music starded its low growl thru the speakers. You could feel the anticipation growing amongst the crowd at this point, and after a couple of minutes, the band wandered onto the stage and assumed their positions before launching into Freedom To Breathe, the opening track from Satellite, Paul Davies' guitar riff underpinned by Alun Vaughan's throbbing bass and Gavin John Grifiths steady drumming. Then Anne-Marie Helder emerged onto the stage, wearing a short black number that had the front row transfixed. However it became apparent that there was something afoot, as her opening lines couldn't be heard. Then, when they could, we could hear that there was something terribly wrong with the mic set-up, and her voice was coming out all distorted.

Undetered, the band continued swiftly into 5th Amendment. At the end of the song, Anne-Marie complained about her in-ears, and got them sorted at the flick of a switch, however, as the band played the next track, the emotional Yasuni it was clear that it hadn't fixed her sound. You could tell that the sound desc were frantically trying to sort the problem out, as each instrument in turn was isolated as they tried to discover the sauce of the problem. During this song, I got the dreaded sinking feeling that the problem wouldn't be fixed. The rest of the band's sound was just fine, and the on stage ambience was great. After the song, as Gavin started the intro to the next tune, Anne-Marie called a halt to the proceedings while a solution was sought. "Use Paul's mic" was the advice, leaving Paul looking a trifle miffed, though in a humorous way.

So, after a bit of kerfuffeling about with mics and leads and whatnots, they started into Picking Up Knives, and thank St Cecelia, the vocals were now crystal clear! The relief was visible around the room. Especially from me, as this is one of my favourite tracks on the new album. While they were playing this song, I was struck by the bass playing of Vaughan and wondered if bass players like him (and Lee Pomeroy of It Bites / Take That) could quite believe that the members of the CRS constantly vote John Jowitt as the Best Bass Player.

Then, despite a plea to play Yasuni again, they played The Fall, dedicated to their "usual Steph lady, Merch". As Paul's mic was now kaput, he bunched round Anne's for the backing vocals. This was followed by the heavier Black Noise giving Davies the chance to flex his axe muscles. Reborn, from their debut Visionary Position album (the first track played NOT from Satellite), was introduced as a song about getting your mates to see a prog band. Or something. The piano of Jonathon Edwards announces the start of Into The Fire - well, Anne introduced it really, but you know what I mean. This rolled into Go, one of the heavier numbers from the new album which gave them all the chance to rock out.

After that, we were treated to Blood Red Sky, perhaps the standout track from Anne-Marie's 2004 solo album The Contact, initially just Anne-Marie on guitar, before being joined by the rest of the band. It finished with her whispered vocals over the acoustic guitar. Lovely!

Then it was back to the Satellite album for Sunshine and the enigmatic and energetic I Am A Cat, before the deep tones of Edwards organ signalled the rockier Dark Star. The band were fully in their stride now, enjoying the feel of being on the stage together. The song left Anne-Marire so breathless that she joked she sounded like she blonged "next door". We all know what that means...

The groovy Sandstorms funked its way in next, all keyboards and bass, while the eastern-tinged sound of Apocalypstick from the debut signalled the end of the set. The band wandered off stage to a great round of applause, which continued until they re-emerged to play an excellent rendition of the title track Satellite. After a bout of "thank you"s to the crew and such, they really finished off with a cover of Massive Attack's ambient classic Teardrop before heading off to the Helder household to drink. Red wine probably.

Panic Room really impressed me tonight. Apart from the poor vocal sound for the first few numbers, the band were right on the button, looking comfortable on stage and looking capable of making the next step. Make sure you catch them at the Y Theatre in Leicester (April 25th), supporting Hawkwind at St Davids Hall in Cardiff (April 30th) or supporting Wishbone Ash (along with Mostly Autumn) at the Shepherds Bush Empire on May 15th.

Another enjoyable night down at The Peel, even with a dodgy opening act. In my opinion. Of course. Thanks to Sarah Ashley for the decent photo;s on this page. The rubbish one is mine!