Friday, March 14   8:00 p.m.
BD Riley's   (204 E 6th St)

Dubbed by the NME as “The Ordinary Boys Gargling Glass” or “The Jam if they'd read the Razzle instead of books on politics", Underground Heroes are currently the most talked about thing to come out of Chatham in Kent since the word ‘Chav’.

Influenced by their heroes The Specials, The Jam and The Clash, they describe their sound as ‘Chav Punk’. The sound of booze-sodden, crap fag smoking, cheap drug taking, concrete Britain. Lyrically they are inspired by the day to day life they know - the fights, night life, friends, birds - and the identikit town they live in.

Otherwise known as brothers Aaron(19) and Joe Dollimore(17), George Penfold(21) and Jak Miller(19), Underground Heroes are the product of two rival local bands. Aaron and George met on the Kent circuit in early 2005 and hit it off immediately. They started writing together, working round George’s shifts in the studio engineering for drum n’ bass producers and Aaron’s dayjob fitting double-glazing. Shortly afterward they were joined by Joe on the drums and Jak on the bass, and by 7/7 they’d christened their newly formed band. It was watching the footage on TV of paramedics and fire fighters rescuing victims of the terrorist attack on the London Underground while listening to The Libertines song ‘Time for Heroes’, that inspired their name.

After rehearsing for several months in the Dollimore’s basement Underground Heroes played their first gig at the well respected local venue "The Beacon Court". It went well. They were invited back the following week to perform at a ‘battle of the bands’ competition, which they duly went on to win. More local gigs in and around the Medway towns followed including the legendary "Tap n Tin" where the likes of The Libertines, Gallows and The Charlatans have all performed.

By the summer of 2006 the Underground Heroes branched out from Kent, supporting The View on a toilet tour in Scotland, playing the smaller summer UK festivals and doing their first international gig - Ibiza Rocks Festival. By November the band got together their own tour, playing club NMES up and down the country. At about the same time, James Endeacott’s label 1965 Records, released the bands first outing on wax – a limited edition single, "Stella The Mistress". The release sold out within a few weeks and garnered much support from the likes of NME, XFM, Zane Lowe, Colin Murray and John Kennedy.

Since then the boys have shared stages with the likes of The View, Towers of London, Little Man Tate, The Cribs, The Metros, The Holloways, Kate Nash and Lily Allen, aswell as playing their first Glastonbury.

As for the future, Underground Heroes’ plans include working on an album worth of tracks with producer Paul Epworth, (Bloc Party, Maximo Park, Babyshambles), releasing their single “Alright Darlin’!?” on
James Oldham’s Loog Records, and hitting the road for their first headline UK tour (supported by The Steers). Or, in the words of Aaron, “more carnage, more sweat, more screaming, more songs, more rock n roll, more injuries, more laughs, more friends, more fun, more parties, more travelodge, more van journeys, more touring, MORE GOOD FUCKING TIMES