This is an excerpt of an article written by Tom Girard
Three days on from the launch of Kiya Ashton’s debut EP, and in the midst of a month packed with new music release from Guernsey based artists including Lord Vapour, Insurrection, BLAKALASKA and more, The Honest Crooks released their first EP proper, Crook, Line And Sinker, with a show at The Vault in St Peter Port that they were also describing as their ‘office Christmas party’.
By the time the band took to the stage for the first of two sets, the bar was already packed and it didn’t take long for the crowd, as much as possible, to cram into the narrow area in front of the stage.
It looked as if the set might be derailed early on as drummer Andy Nicholson broke his snare during the second song, but, with a little bit of drum kit rearrangement, they were soon back up to strength.
The first set mixed some of their own songs with an extended selection of covers from the likes of Sublime and Gentlemen’s Dub Club, all of which went down a storm.
After a short break the band were back on stage and started the second set by playing through the new EP in full.
With the tracks already well-known from countless live shows they were greeted very warmly by the big crowd as The Vault was now possibly the busiest I’ve ever seen it.
Adding a new spin on things Buffalo Huddleston MC Jull-Z joined the band for an extra verse on Rain Or Shine which just added to the party atmosphere.
Across the night, and particularly in the second set, the band as a whole seemed more relaxed than ever on stage, particularly frontman James Radford and keyboard/saxophone player Naomi Burton, as it was clear that the great atmosphere was flowing both ways between band and audience.
The second half of the second set saw The Honest Crooks embrace the Christmas spirit with covers of Christmas classics from Mariah Carey and The Pogues, with a suitable extra dose of ska, along with their takes on Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds and the Reel Big Fish version of Take On Me.
With The Vault now supremely hot and sweaty from plenty of skanking, despite the stormy conditions outside, The Honest Crooks rounded things off with an encore of Sublime’s Date Rape (despite their own vague protestations) having certainly brought a festive spirit to the evening and launched their new EP in real party fashion.
