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The Ordinary Boys
March 20, 2006
The Times http://entertainment.timesonline.co....091036,00.html

Nick Kelly at the Ambassador, Dublin

“Who liked us before we were cool?” asked Preston, peering down into the moshpit of the Ambassador Theatre, Dublin. The paltry response from the Ordinary Army, as his band’s fanbase is called, spoke volumes about the nature of the singer’s newfound fame.

Some observers felt that Preston’s tenancy of the Celebrity Big Brother house in January gained him a new audience for his band but cost him his street cred. Indeed, the media buzz surrounding Preston’s relationship with the eventual winner Chantelle Houghton saw his song Boys Will Be Boys — previously available only as an internet download — rush-released as a retail single, after which it duly raced up the charts.

So, given that he’s now a name known in millions of households, why was the Ambassador only half full? Those who did turn up consisted of a small band of hardcore latter-day mods pogoing at the front. Surrounding them were a disconcerting number of Chantelle lookalikes. Who knows, maybe one of them was Chantelle herself?

Either way, the Chantelle Army for the most part didn’t seem terribly familiar with the hotch- potch of Jam, Clash, Specials and Madness-influenced songs served up by the well-drilled quintet on stage. Which meant that the evening had a strangely subdued feeling to it, as if half the audience were expecting something other than Preston playing choice cuts from the two albums Over the Counter Culture and Brassbound and offering the odd bit of banter in between.

Despite never really taking off, the gig did have its moments: the jaunty keyboards of Life Will Be the Death of Me recalled ska classics of yesteryear; the punkish Maybe Someday and Weekend Revolution were delivered with vim and vigour; and the finale Boys Will Be Boys kept the moshpit busy. But too many of the songs sounded so . . . ordinary.