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The Ordinary Boys are suffering from the 'Preston effect'
May 9 2006
Claire Hill, Western Mail

The Ordinary Boys are suffering, I fear, from the 'Preston effect'. This is a seemingly innocuous set of events which makes you think that you can go on Celebrity Big Brother, survive, sell millions of records and retain credibility.

Oh what fools.

Where do I start with what was wrong with this gig?

Firstly, it's the first time I have been bored rigid in a long time at a concert, and I don't even hate this band. If I wasn't reviewing it, I'd have left half-an-hour into the set. And I think the rest of the band would've quite happily joined me.

Because while Preston blithely jumped around on stage, shouting about having a "last night of the tour" party, the rest of the band must have missed the memo.

Stone-faced and bored is the nicest way for me to describe William and James, on guitar and bass respectively. As for Simon on drums, he was happily tucked away at the back.

I've got it on good authority that their last gig in the union, less than half-a-year ago, saw the band jumping around and pretty much climbing the rafters.

That's before Celebrity Big Brother though and Preston's appearances in Heat.

Beginning with Over the Counter Culture - a song which features the lines 'this new fad will fade' - it was no doubt a reaction to the band's current time in the limelight.

That, however, seemed to go over the heads of the girls who had turned up to look at, take pictures of, and record Preston on their mobile phones.

Barring a few excitable Ordinary Army fans, who haven't felt let down enough to scratch their logo tattoos off, there were very few in the half-filled union who seemed to be intently listening to the band.

Given that the audience were struggling to get excited by versions of songs from second album Brassbound, and failing miserably with tracks from first album Over the Counter Culture, it seemed foolish to start a game of guess the obscure B-side.

This consisted of Preston trying to spot the die-hard fans in the crowd by singing even lesser-known songs than the seemingly lesser-known singles. It's a shame because songs like Week In and Week Out and Seaside are decent enough tracks.

And, as suspected, Boys Will Be Boys got the biggest cheer of the night.

Preston might have sung Life Will Be The Death Of Me, but Celebrity Big Brother could be the death of the Ordinary Boys.