HMV, remember them? They used to be a music retailer many years ago. Just a games and DVD outlet now really but now and again they like to pretend that Nipper still has something to listen to so, in association with Spinefarm Records, the dog handlers with a guilty conscience laid on a line up of three bands to shake London's Garage to its very foundations with the sounds of rock's 'Next Big Thing'(s).

Cambridge rock graduates The Treatment were first to give a live injection, kicking off their time under the Garage spotlights with a 'Drink, Fuck, Fight' fest of pumping fists and dirty riffs. 'Shake the Mountain' maintained the advance into a selection of cuts from the 'This Might Hurt' album. Slade's famed 'Get Down And Get With It' brought their loud and loaded set to a close showing that overall they have a lot of riffs, a frontman with a powerful voice and some talented musicians in their ranks but no real sign of any "edge".

Jettblack were up next and aside from a couple of teasing offerings from their forthcoming new album they played a set that highlighted the quality of their debut, 'Get Your Hands Dirty'. The title track of that release was first out of the traps and bassist Tom Wright stormed the stage in a rather fetching Meansteed t-shirt (check 'em out boys and girls) geeing up the crowd with loud mouthed rallying cries like the loutish love child of Frank Bello. Pounding hard on his fourstring (I said FOUR STRING!) Tom put a hard rhythmic groove underneath the twin guitars of JB's two axe-toting frontmen Will Stapleton and Jon Dow that really filled out the Jettblack sound with a dominant, in your face sound.

'Slip It On' slayed and the 'Snake like charm of 'Not Even Love' was for me the single biggest highlight of the whole night, a stunningly great tune that I love more each time I hear it. 'Fooled By A Rose' saw a mid section trade off where Stapleton and Phil Collen's shirtless twin Dow had a 12 string showdown each taking turns to impress the ladies with their fret board wizardry and G-string bending talents.

Now I first saw Jettblack four years ago, then going by the name of Skirtbox, and though the band name has changed since then one of the true original gems from their earlier days has stayed with them and if anything JB's 'Two Hot Girls' has got even hotter, heavier and a whole lot steamier. '...Girls' wrapped things up in style for the High Wycombe wonders and the response it got showed that if a title belt had been up for grabs then there would have been a more than likely chance that Jettblack would have been the ones walking away with it. A great hard hitting set that certainly lit a fire under their Finnish competition...

...And so to Reckless Love. Party rock was truly in the house and the best haired hosts since Kid 'n Play had towed their trailer full of cheesy riffs straight back to the UK after only having just left following last year's successful headlining tour. The glam rock superchargers have a dogged determination to ply their trade wherever and whenever they can so a whistle stop one-off gig to top the bill at HMV's 'Next Big Thing' bash before they return to these shores , yet again, with BVB (Black Veil Bandwagonjumpers) in March/April was a perfect stop gap.
 
As 'Animal Attraction' burst into life the hot stage lights cast rainbows of vibrant colour through the hairspray mist drifting across the stage. The slow burning seductive groove of sexuality that is 'AA' led up perfectly to the instant relief and quick fix of 'Speedin', the classic sounding Steve Vai style guitar drive from Diamond Dave's glory days that Pepe likes to use so much lit up the stage like an eighties laser harp. 'Badass continued to illuminate the smouldering atmosphere and the suggestive lyrics were only really missing a Leslie Phillips 'Ding... Dong' over the top. 
 
Since this night was being touted as a 'Next Big Thing' showcase for up and coming talent (even those these three acts are already pretty well established) each band had limited time on stage in which to win over their already ardent admirers. So when it came to the tattooed love boys quite a few of the tunes we had on last year's UK tour were dropped so thankfully the cougar lovin' cheese of 'Dirty Dreams' and several minutes of flaccid 'Sex' were not forthcoming. Instead the set was pretty much full paced and up beat with only 'Born To Break Your Heart' providing a lessening of pressure on the glam rock throttle.

A Mexican wave of hot flushes pulsed through the females (and "confused" blokes) in the crowd as Olli high kicked his way through a set littered with shirt removal techniques and pirouettes. Jalle's pulsing bass intro to 'Hot' sent temperatures higher and some blue lace panties found their way up onto the stage, Olli hung them from the bass headstock and for a brief moment they tangled themselves within Jalle's fingers as he worked his way around the top end of the neck. Trying to flick off the fishy item before the moistened gusset stuck fast to his (tuning) nuts he swung the guitar left and right just like Trevor and Simon used to swing their spandex pants back in the day.

'Romance', latest single 'On The Radio' and the euphoric TNT strike of 'Beautiful Bomb' were all bundled up into a multi coloured spray of musical beauty and tossed to a fawning cock rock congregation awash with hairspray and high heels. 'One More Time' ended the night on a bouncing high with Olli's helium screams dampening panties (both male and female varieties) all the way back to the visibly shaken Garage doors. Some may criticise the Leppard-lite style production on their studio output but on stage with the stops out Reckless Love really come into their own. Maybe too much negative focus is put on Olli's overt showmanship because to be fair he can at times (most times) be as camp as John Inman in a party frock but look past the platinum panache and Pepe, Hessu and Jalle lay down awesome grooves as smooth as Bootsy Collins' grouting. 

Much has been written about Reckless Love on the mascara smudged pages of Über Röck, mainly because their mere existence does for our opinions what Russian concrete did for Berlin, spilts us right down the middle! Me? Well I have no problem admitting that I fucking love Reckless Love, they put a smile on my face and no I don't lick windows for a pastime! I may come across as being punk as fuck in some of my other written ramblings but when it comes down to it and my true colours are revealed I guess I'm just more Angelic Poptart than Upstart.