There are a few angry young men out there but it's been a long time since a teenage Paul Weller spat out his angst at the world, nowadays all you seem to see are tribes of Chavs limping along clutching a fag in one hand and a can of White Lightening in the other, going nowhere faster than fast, indifferent to the world and content to let the shit continue to grow around them instead of finding a way to shovel it back down the toilet. Has pop music gone soft? Is it heading the way of stagnant street fashion! Are the bands just pushing out the expected instead of forcing out an expectorant flood of political and social statement? Okay let's forget the Politics, nobody's gonna save the world in three and a half minutes and nobody but nobody wants to hear Blair and Co set to a tune. But it is nice now and again to be suddenly confronted by a coarse chord guitar and a vocalist not afraid to coat the front row in a bit of gob as he belts out an anthem worthy of a Sham 69/Undertones co-production!
Vegas Child are your typical hungry young band, ready to take the world by the throat and strangle it quick before it can recover and give you a slap! In good ole rock'n' roll tradition we conducted our interview in the Gents toilet at the venue they were headlining this particular night. The piss trough was humming and the walls vibrating from the support band and halfway through our chat the flush went and a rather sheepish punter appeared out of the shitter we never knew had been occupied. Confronted by a group of young lads in a toilet and a bloke poised with a camera, he barked an embarrassed cough and swiftly left. Gay Monthly here we come!

"We've got many influences in the band but what we're trying to take on is that no two songs sound the same"
COMA: Are you after the perfect three minute pop song?
V.C: "Definitely. We've got a lot of songs in the pipeline but were just trying to do things a bit differently."
I expect by this they mean their more hard edged approach to the indie outlook, they may look like sweet kids when they step onto the stage but as soon as they plug in its like an air raid on the senses. Where they come from a ballad's probably what they stick in the middle of the road to stop joyriders! Right from the off it's crash-chord therapy all the way while still retaining a melodic albeit bitter vocal throughout. Fast and furious just like the old punks did it, that is the old punks that could do it, the ones with the ethic of '77 but who left the safety pins at home.
COMA: Are you sex, drugs and rock'n'roll?
V.C: "Oh all the way! Without a shadow of a doubt. If we ever got on Top of The Pops they'd have to cut it to bits. We come across as sweet, friendly people but if an hen party stumbled in here tonight we'd shag 'em all!"
COMA: We've heard rumours that in the early days you all used to get pissed quite a lot and fall off yer chairs?
V.C: "Yeah, but we've calmed down a bit since then. We were playing a gig and basically started larging it too early in the day!"
This 'larging it' occurred on a hot August day in the lovely Derbyshire town of Castleton where the band had been invited to play at the Peaks Inn. Lead singer Danny disappeared inebriated into a field somewhere turning up five minutes before performance time in another pub at the other end of the village. The show must go as they say, which it did until drummer Aj fell off his stool into the fireplace and the rest of the gig went swiftly downhill from there on.
V.C: "We learned a lesson from that. Now we don't get fucked until after a gig, that's when the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll kicks in!"
You've got to smile, mainly 'cos you know that when their girlfriends read this they're gonna fucking kill them.
COMA: Your manager's got an ice cream van, must be an advantage?
V.G: "Yeah, he can play our tunes while he's driving 'round. Free Screwballs after every gig! He could pass his 99's over wrapped in a Vegas Child flyer! With every double whip you get a free CD!"

Can't be bad having Mr Whippy bankrolling your rock'n' roll career, let's just hope that the reason Vegas Child are playing the festivals this summer is because of their glorious powerpop anthems rather than their manager nabbing the ice-cream concession. Nah, it'll be the music everytime, a choc ice is nice but a big bite of rock with Vegas stamped through it is better!