The La de Da’s are a mixed gender quartet from Tipperary whose musical stew could be described as a blend of Fairground Attraction and The Corrs. In vocalists Mary Nugent and Derbhile Fabie they have two real finds and the backing, especially the keyboards, pays its way most of the time. All four write, and for what is effectively a demo they have used their home recording facilities to turn out superb slices of catchy, sophisticated pop like ‘Universal Situation’ and ‘Fade Away’.

The La De Da’s may be nowhere near as original as they think they are, and I don’t know why their name has an apostrophe, but they have all the materials to work with in order to make their mark if they avoid the obvious cliches.

The four-man Driver are surprisingly tame and polite, lacking the panache (or even the road rage) necessary to make an impact. They deliver crispy pieces of pop-rock, but their vocalist has heard too many Britpop records for his own good (or mine). Beneath the unwanted influences he has a fine voice and he should lose the mannerisms fast and be his own man. ‘I Wanna Be Free’ is just the same old same old, but ‘Are U?’ is a more interesting stab at something original. Driver can obviously play, dance and sing, but they need to work harder at the coal face of creativity.

Bogus Friendly is the brainchild of art school drop-out and window cleaner Terry D. Lots of top pop people have been art-school drop outs and Van Morrison was a window cleaner, so Terry D is on the right track there. The drifting ‘Death And The Weather’ has too many influences from Bowie, Weller and others to be much more than interestingly competent, although I like the chunky guitar bits. ‘Until The Stars Fall From The Sky’ is a magnificent pastiche of latterday U2. Yet he mysteriously omits the foursome from his long confession of influences. When all is done and said I’d prefer to have Terry doing something original, like my windows, than produce pleasantly inoffensive potboilers.

Along the Monaghan-Louth border we find The Flaws. Their punky guitar-driven pop-rock has much to commend it in terms of energy, atmosphere and edge, but vocalist Paul Finn delivers the melody of ‘Pretty Little Thing’ as if he hasn’t quite worked it out yet. ‘Roll On’ has some meaty guitar parts, but little else to write home about, apart from showing at some points that Finn has a decent bluesy voice. The song ‘Swing’ builds up well and with some serious application and some sharper focusing of the otherwise nondescript vocals it could turn into something useful.

They used to be Last Exit but the Donegal/Derry-based rock quartet have now adopted the timely moniker of Blowing Up The World, with both Treasure Island and Supremo record labels allegedly showing some interest. ‘One Night Stand’ is a handsome slice of solid guitar pop-rock, uptempo and in your face, and vocalist King Paul uses his style and panache to steer it right into the pocket. ‘After Midnight’ is stutteringly similar and features subtly wah-wahed guitar from Sean Douglas, plus harmonies reminiscent of Thin Lizzy. But by the time the rowdy ‘Rising Up For Air’ comes along it’s all getting a bit repetitive, ultimately proving that BUTW make a very limited number of musical ideas go further than they deserve.