Let’s not smack ourselves with the Silly Stick and pretend that it’s otherwise: I am a fairly opinionated man. I have many views, ranging from ill informed to vaguely inflammatory, occasionally bordering on the inspired. When I say occasionally, I really mean seldom, but we’re getting away from the point I haven’t even made yet, which is this: of the myriad opinions I harbor, I firmly believe thrashy guitars and catchy choruses are only convincing when played by the young, whilst anything involving more notes than are necessary is usually the reserve of the wrinkled. Every so often I’m proved wrong, and I’m glad of the change believe me, but generally I find it’s a fairly successful theorem.

This ideal has been recently reaffirmed to me by a four piece called Flashguns. Although still up to their ears in A levels and in many ways indistinguishable from the hoards of spotty herberts in ill-fitting hooded tops, Flashguns stand out like Steven Hawking in Sommerfields when it comes to the business we call song. As you’d expect from modern urchins, they play fast, considered music in the vein of… well, take your pick, but unlike many of their peers strung out on Silent Alarm they’re not afraid of injecting relatively new ideas into the well worn “Three Minutes of Fast Guitar” mould we all know so well.

They write songs with a bristling maturity that belies their bum fluff, producing memorable music without sacrificing intelligence or intrigue. In performing they’re similarly accomplished and committed: I watched them play a gig to about 10 people (two of whom were parents, either that or SAGA are starting a record label) recently and regardless to the nominal numbers they still gave it the full “up to the elbow” treatment. I’ve watched plenty of bands twice their age give it half as much effort in front of audiences a hundred times bigger- it’s watching a band like Flashguns that makes you think ‘Why the fuck did I bother?’.

Let’s not start blowing the smoke up where the sun don’t shine- like a 1st years blazer there’s still room for growth, but it’s definitely the right colour.