The ‘Collateral’ train drove into the back streets of Camden Town, North London, last Thursday, on the wave of Planet Rock radio playlisting their single ‘Midnight Queen’, plus a full house at The Black Heart. Planet Rock’s breakfast DJ Paul Anthony was on hand to introduce the band who ploughed into the opening numbers ‘Calm Before the Storm’ and ‘When Faith Breaks’ to get heads rocking in the crowd. Their recent ‘4 Shots’ EP, that has brought them recent acclaim, got its first airing, appropriately at song four, with the opener ‘Going With The Wind’ - in my opinion the best track off the EP. ‘Just Waiting For You’ dropped a couple of songs later, again to great applause from an appreciative audience. Three new songs ‘Promise Land’, ’Merry Go Round’ and ’Lullaby’ followed, which are set to be featured on their forthcoming album, with the former having that stand out anthem feel about it. All sounding very promising!

The encore, of course, could only be ‘Midnight Queen’, finishing off the evening with an air of euphoria-hit song, works every time! Indeed, there was good feedback from the audience for the band despite a limited amount of space on stage for them to move around, as you could see singer Angelo Tristan and guitarist Todd Winger wanted to let loose behind the solid bass of Jack Bentley-Smith and drummer Ben Atkinson. Also good sound in the venue, but just one gripe, that if you are 6ft and above, you should consider keeping to the sides allowing shorter people like me to see! That apart, a good night was had by all! Make sure you check Collateral out when they support Bad Touch at Leo’s Red Lion, Gravesend, Kent, on Friday 26 April, London’s Borderline on Saturday 8th May when they co-headline with Daxx & Roxanne, and Camden Rocks on Sunday 2nd June.

Geoff C. (photos courtesy of Richard Bolwell)