Wednesday night, I’m going on what feels like a pilgrimage from the middle of nowhere, just outside London to East Dulwich, London. However, when I arrive at a certain bar in Goose Green and see almost all the people that I am more than happy to greet with open arms standing outside, the feeling of tomorrow is instantly flushed away. I wade my way through a crowd of good friends, hugging each one as I go, stride into the bar with a cigarette and someone’s lager that I picked up on the way and get my myself marked down for the gig nice and early, much to the request of Cole, the wholehearted lead singer who can fit the entire head of a microphone into his mouth.

About ten minutes later, everyone gets rounded up and it’s time to go in, as I’m power walking to the stage I notice something: I’m not usually this eager to get to the front, everyone’s dressed up, the girls have ‘I love the Realfonzos’ written all over themselves and the band are looking more suave and less casual for the first time. This is a very special occasion.

The Band goes through a short sound check and straight into ‘As British As’, passionately British and one of their more well known songs among us ‘fans’, which immediately gets us all into the spirit. Left, right and centre, we’re all in a dancing and singing frenzy. The next song ‘Watch This Space’ is a new one to me and in this song they achieve something that they’ve been doing consistently recently - they’ve made it individual, it doesn’t sound the same as their other songs. We all go from a frantic jump around to a heavy, down beat, down pitch movement. Bands that can make a crowd do things like that definitely have something loveable about them. A couple of songs pass by and the highlight, for me, of the evening comes up, ‘Hello London’. It’s been there ever since the start and for all of us it’s become an anthem, originally just acoustic, we would sit around and sing it in lead guitarist, Sam’s garden. everyone puts their arms round each others’ shoulders and create waves, flowing side to side across the room.

All the way through the set, geysers of water burst up from peoples bottles, bras land on the stage, the girls are chanting at bassist, Jo and rhythm guitarist, Hugo to tear off their tops, members of both gender are offering themselves and Big Charlie is grabbing Sam’s and Cole’s bollocks. At the very end though, for the closing song, ‘Big Easy’, Charlie leaps up onto the stage, followed by me, followed by Alex, followed by Jerome, followed by pretty much everyone. The drum kit gets smashed, light bulbs around the stage get stomped on and spark out and the set finishes in the best climax possible. These guys were only supporting, I feel sorry for the headliners.

As we leave the bar and we say our goodbyes to a few people I’ve got one song running through my head by The Holloways: ‘How Will I Get Home’. I didn’t just at that moment; I ran into the park with a dozen people instead and continued a sensational night.

Will Slater

The Realfonzos are:
Cole Salewicz – lead vocals
Sam Frankl – lead guitar and vocals
Hugo Realfonzo – rhythm guitar
Jo Rule – bass guitar
Billy Stansbury – drums

More info - http://www.myspace.com/therealfonzos