The Automatic

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Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival 2006

Friday 11th to Saturday 12th August 2006
Belladrum Estate, by Beauly, Inverness-shire IV4 7BA, Scotland MAP
£60 in advance (under 12s free)

Yeah yeah, they’re the band with that “Monster” song which is stupidly popular, and right enough, it’s the crowd sing-a-long of the weekend, but rather than focus on this, the big question is as follows: Do the Automatic have anything close to matching this song? After all, if they can’t, they risk going the same way as Electric Six and become the one-hit wonders of the year.

The answer is simple – they don’t seem to have a reply. Previous single "Raoul" is the only thing that seems to come within touching distance of that song, and that was previously released as a single. Following single "Recover" isn’t bad, but doesn’t have the hook required to make it stick into the inside of the brain.

Perhaps all this criticism is unfair – their set was a lot of fun, the whole crowd dancing and singing, but their songs are far too samey after a while to really provide any depth. A cover of Kanye Wests “Gold Digger” with Pennie (the yelping but loveable backing vocalist) taking over the rapping parts in his own unique style is truly brilliant and amongst the best novelty covers, and "You Shout You Shout You Shout" is a nice little slab of pop-rock, but ultimately when the set nears its inevitable conclusion, you can’t help but feel that when next year comes around, The Automatic will not be enjoying the same amount of popularity that they are now.

The problem they have is as follows – "Monster" is now bigger than The Automatic themselves, and as it’s such a dumb little song, anyone can sing it (as most people choose to on the campsite), and it doesn’t lose any of it’s conviction, and as a result, people are now going to see Monster rather than the band themselves.

Now that is a real monster of a problem.