Chicks with guitars. You can’t beat ’em, and The Subways’ blonde bombshell Charlotte Cooper is not only mighdy purdy, but she can’t half make her guitar howl.

Date: November 24, 2008

Venue: Rock City

This may be a re-scheduled gig after their original September date was cancelled due to illness but it’s amazing The Subways are here at all.

Despite their tender years they’ve endured more than most.

Lead-singer Billy Lunn’s larynx has taken a real beating due to his vociferous histrionics, almost resulting in the loss of his voice completely. Couple that with the fact that Billy and his bassist – blonde bombshell Charlotte Cooper – were once engaged to be married and are now, well, let’s just say ‘just good friends’.

Their existance reads like a triumph in the face of adversity, and their perseverance and commitment to the cause must be applauded.

It’s not known whether the split was acrimonious or not but the pair remain largely distant from one another on stage. Despite the coldness between them they manage to exchange raw power via their instruments.

Maybe the split still churns the anger deep inside them both as Charlotte throttles her bass like an axe-wielding maniac while Billy defies countless doctors’ orders and abuses his throat muscles with a display of flesh-shredding shrieks and yelps as they churn up a torrent of grunge-themed American-sounding rock.

Old favourites like Yeah Yeah and Rock and Roll Queen still bubble like fervent Green Day songs, while new track Shake Shake is the Foo Fighters 10 years ago. Recent single Girls and Boys will have Muse’s Matt Bellamy ringing his lawyers about stolen riffs.

They’ve done it the hard way, but The Subways are beginning to sound like the band they set out to be before they hit the rock ‘n’ roll iceberg.