May 12, 2000

Cardiff Warwick Hall Of Sound

Chart restrictions? Ha! [a]Rocket Goldstar[/a] laugh in the face of chart restrictions...

Chart restrictions? Ha! Rocket Goldstar laugh in the face of chart restrictions. Today, they've pledged to record, in one live take, 'Mayday Mayday' - a 12-hour single, for release as an MP3. They think it's a world record. But Norris McWhirter isn't returning their calls.

They're not alone. 'Mayday Mayday' features a rotating cast of over 60 Cardiff-based musicians, including members of art-punkers Mo-ho-bish-o-pi, local hip-hop collective Erban Poets, Welsh politico-rappers Tystion, and anyone who thinks they might be able to provide a valid contribution. Even if it's a kazoo.

Inevitably, just as if you blend together all the colours of the rainbow on a canvas you get brown, inviting a legion of musicians into a rehearsal room gets you a jazz-funk jam. At times, Rocket Goldstar sound like the Grateful Dead. Hell, when a nameless avant-rock guitarist sporting a comb-over mullet turns up and plugs in an immense effects box, they sound like Tangerine Dream.

But as night falls, Rocket Goldstar sift through the musical ashes, only to pull out a chorus, ragged but gloriously intact. An hour from the end, and the lights have gone down."I don't know up from down!" Goldstar frontman Gaz Williams bellows, still plucking ferociously at his bass. It's Captain Beefheart in orbit, an unhinged cabin-fever freakshow. And in a weird way, it works. Cardiff's answer to The Flaming Lips? Sometimes, today, we wished we hadn't asked the question.