[cc100]

Tue 21 Mar 2006
Scotsman http://living.scotsman.com/music.cfm?id=440892006

DAVID POLLOCK
THE ORDINARY BOYS ***
BARROWLAND, GLASGOW

IN CONSIDERING this comeback tour by Celebrity Big Brother alumnus Sam Preston and his band, the question isn't so much whether the show was any good or not, but whether Preston has blown any chance of credibility his band ever had, or whether they're now just an excuse for celebrity-addled onlookers to turn up at their gigs hoping for a glimpse of "him off the telly".

In the event, however, there was no mention of the show from the band or the crowd. In fact most of the audience-members were young and eager, and seemed entirely familiar with the band's back catalogue.

The show itself was energetic and punchy, with the decent ska-punk workouts of Maybe Someday, Week in Week Out and Boys Will Be Boys confirming the Ordinary Boys as suburban poets in the vein of Arctic Monkeys or The Streets. They neither were nor are destined for greatness, but - with Preston declaring "it's good to be back" - it's hard to grudge them a bit of additional limelight. After all, being on television never hurt The Monkees, did it?