The NME tour normally has an important function in the average music lover’s calendar. After the previous summer’s numerous music festivals, the NME tour functions as a distillation of what the said music magazine thinks will be the year’s biggest hitters and best shiny new bands. Previous NME Tours have enhanced the success of The Killers, The Arctic Monkeys and The Automatic...so why are The Automatic here again? Well as it turns out the repeated appearance of the Welsh rock monkeys are the least of our concerns: here is what the NME thinks will be big in 2007.

It seems that Mumm-Ra (2/5) are still clinging on to the crumbling precipice which separates those bands we care about and those which might as well never existed in the first place. Mumm-Ra might well have the support of some respected music publications, but this doesn’t stop them from trying to survive off tracks with no distinct character or memorable riff. In truth, they have so far peddled out the same electronic tainted rock which was over done for the past two years, and are later firmly brushed under the carpet by the mighty Automatic.

The Horrors (2/5) have had some patchy buzz which mainly springs up when the NME can be bothered to update their award winning website. Their Waltons-dressed-in-black appearance is inevitably interesting; the thick bass throbs and jagged Jaguar guitar crunches make heavy hooks; even the black balloons which Faris Badwan threatens the audience are a mightily cool touch. However, it’s all ruined by the deranged screeching that comes out Faris Badwan’s trap. Completely unbearable and unpleasant enough to shit on the whole performance – not cool, kooky or ‘individual’, just unnecessarily wank. 

Next up is the band that has unashamedly ripped off ‘Brimful of Asha’. It got the desired result and the said rip-off, ‘Same Jeans’, zoomed into the top three. Unfortunately, that is where The View’s (2/5) good ideas stop. The audience have clearly come for the one single, and merely politely bop along to the rest of the one hit wonder’s mediocre drivel. It seems that we are finally faced with the question: how many copies of Razorlight/The Kooks do we actually require?

Eventually The Automatic (4/5) enter to rapturous applause. Well trained by a year of constant touring, The Automatic bang out most of Not Accepted Anywhere in record time, with a surprise in the form of a Talking Heads cover, ‘Life During Wartime’, where their tour manager sings lead vocals – brilliant. As expected, the crowd go mental for ‘Monster’ and ‘Raoul’ with the rest of their set getting more interest than it did a year ago. Because of constant touring, The Automatic perform a perfect set, but look decidedly knackered. Hopefully they’ll bugger off for a year now – you can have too much of a good thing.