Music, Style & Culture

Betaboy, AmpRocks, Bedfordshire

Sexed-up vocals, sleazy synths, and dirty pop ADHD rhythms.

Richard, Ant, Johnny, and (my personal favourite) Carl: that’s Betaboy. Kind of like Take That with attitude, or Razorlight minus the white jeans and with better songs. Either way you look at it, they’ve got some belting tunes and one hell of a cover version in the form of Pat Benatar’s ‘Love Is A Battlefield’. And let’s face it, cover versions aren’t usually better than the original, but this one blows the spandex pants off the 80s classic. But back to 2011…

Bottle of brandy in hand (stolen of course), and hairdos all set to asymmetrical perfection; Betaboy belt out synthy, guitar-backed tunes like ‘Femme Fatale’, ‘Cold Curious Heart’ and ‘Another Day’ to a drenched but happy audience.

What is a shame, though, is that the Betaboy experience is cut short due to backstage scraps. Sad, because what the audience do hear in the short set is just right for a Friday night in the park: sexed-up vocals, sleazy synths, and dirty pop ADHD rhythms. Take all that and wrap it up in a Topman wardrobe and it’s basically a teenage girl’s wet dream. If that’s possible…