Friday 26th 2015, a date that will live long in the memory for the 100k plus attendees of the BST Hyde Park gig.

On a fantastically sunny day, the beers are going down smoothly, there is a slight breeze aiding the upbeat atmosphere of the crowd in anticipation of the forthcoming bands playing that day.

There were two stages the Oak (main stage) and the Barclaycard stage with bands gracing both stages at the same time until headliners The Who.

To be honest, I wasn’t bothered with the Barclaycard stage acts I was there for Gaz Coombes, Johnny Marr, The Kaiser Chiefs, Paul Weller and The Who.

First on was Gaz (ex lead of Supergrass) with a sweaty mix of soulful and rocking tunes which if the crowd weren’t aware of before they were certainly going to check them out after as he played a cool smooth set.

Johnny Marr – need I say more? Ripping through some new songs, old favourites and Smiths classics.

This is when I had to leave, to go and make room for more liquid refreshment and upon my journey back to the main stage, my ears were assaulted by some rip snorting riffs, sweet harmonies and a real rock voice. Where is that coming from? What’s that over there? Well, it was a third stage, the Summer Stage and on it were a four piece giving it some.

I watched for a few minutes and was instantly hooked – I got tapped on the shoulder ‘ excuse me mate, who are these guys?’, a question I also wanted answering. ‘Sly Digs’ a muso type shouted, ‘Sly Digs’ I tell the shoulder tapper, ‘Sly Digs? They’re my cousins’ wife’s boy’s band! I’d better go find him! Fucking good aren’t they!’. Something I had no issue in agreeing with, having watched for three tracks not knowing any of the song titles I knew I would have to look into them further when back at base. As I turned to go back to my group via the bar the crowd of maybe 8 deep had swelled to over 30 deep with singer Dean quipping that they must have sprinted after Johnny Marr had finished. No they hadn’t, their tunes, text messages of come see and word of mouth had pulled in the throng with them jumping up and down. Nodding to the freshest rock ‘n roll sound to come out of anywhere for so long.

Tight and loose, energetic, effortless melodies with dirty slick playing all combine to produce a Faces/Stones swagger that many bands aspire to and these guys have in spades.

Louis, Pete and Ben complete the line up and I for one hope these boys get the exposure they deserve, not for years have I seen a band be just so good, the attitude, the hair cuts! They have the capacity to spark another band explosion.

Noel Gallagher commented that there aren’t any good bands coming forward……..There is now SLYDIGS.

Check out their web site www.slydigs.co.uk go see them and lets get behind a deserved sound – fuck yeah!

Oh The Kaisers were typically polished, Weller was fucking immense and The Who were ok……….

SLYDIGS is the band and set I took away with me and look forward to seeing and hearing more of them.

Get into them, be cool.

What are your onions?

RPOS X