Allan Crockford of The Galileo 7 is another Soundtrack of Our Lives fan but then again he can already do no wrong with me. As a key member of The Prisoners and The Solarflares, and of course now with Graham Day & The Forefathers, Allan has had a hand in some of my favourite records of all time and now with Galileo 7’s “False Memory Lane”, I can add that to the list too. Stepping into the limelight as main singer-songwriter and guitarist must have been pretty daunting when you have worked alongside someone such as Graham Day for so long, but with “False Memory Lane” Allan has built on all the good bits of the previous two G7 albums and packaged them up into a near perfect Psych-Pop classic. There’s an undoubtedly English sensibility about Galileo 7, from Syd Barrett and the Beatles “Revolver”, “The Who Sell Out” to Blur’s “Modern Life Is Rubbish” and I keep getting drawn back to Julian Cope’s first two solo albums “World Shut Your Mouth” and “Fried”.

The band have had a change of line-up since I last saw them, drummer Russ is on tour with Secret Affair so Mole has switched to drums and Paul Moss has joined on bass. This change seems to have boosted the band’s confidence and the on-stage energy was certainly infectious. Mole is a live-wire behind the drums, all Keith Moon rolls and fills and Paul jumps around all over the place, adding some melodic backing vocals into the mix too. Viv mostly plays her keyboards one handed, bashing away on a tambourine with the other hand. She sings the lead vocals on the glorious headlong rush of “Don’t Know What I’m Waiting For”, which is an unashamed Power Pop song in the vein of The Primitives. The band are already hard at work on new material and we get treated to both sides of the new single which will be out on Mole’s very own State Records, and in “One Lie at a Time” they seem to have really captured the essence of the current line-up’s energy perfectly.

Allan wonders out loud if there will be a conflict of interests what with Mole being in the band and their label boss too! Tonight’s set comprises a good cross section of tracks from all three Galileo 7 albums with older favourites such as “Anne Hedonia” from “Staring at The Sound” and the excellent “Orangery Lane” from “Are We Having Fun Yet?” rubbing shoulders with new material and a cover of The Who’s “Tattoo” with Viv taking over lead vocals. My highlights of their show were probably the stand-alone single “Modern Love Affair” with it’s fuzzed up guitar which comes over really well and “My Cover Is Blown” from the latest album, which starts off with a slow meandering keyboard riff before bursting into a catchy chorus that will stick in your head for days after.