Ste McCabe - Night & Day Manchester - 4.7.06

Just at Stephen Nancy came out fighting after the first wave of Britpop brought on a load of chancers trying to be the next Oasis (and that was just the Southerners, never mind hardcore Mancunia), now with the likes of the Arctic Monkey's and Kooks providing a very omnipresent male macho stereotype of "girls on dancefloors" and WKD and whatever default options are available to them, Ste McCabe has dropped the nancy but is still rallying against the walking clichés in the gay village as much as venting his anger against the rest of the world.

Deciding to dispense with a band it's just a one man band of McCabe with guitar and drum machine for company and once he gets into his stride it works. This being his first official comeback gig after years in exile in Liverpool and the outskirts of the city centre the nerves get in the way for the first few tracks as he does a double-check to see the drum machine's not going to explode at any second. The cheap beats add a playful element to them recalling early Bis while the riffs of rudimentary skool of punk, learn three chords and write a song, but the basis is ultimately with bands such as the Buzzcocks.

"Queer Club" is quintessential McCabe with his rant against canal street, call it the anti-thesis to Queer As Folk if you like, while "On The Cheap" could be a Courtney Love album track. The highlight though is an unrecorded track called "Rant" which does as it says on the tin and simply battles against the rest of the world for 3 minutes.

In 2006 there's not enough artists prepared to mouth off and if they came face to face, even McCabe would leave the likes of Johnny Borrell speechless. Be prepared for the many rants of Ste McCabe cos soon you wont be able to escape it

Alex McCann

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