Rat Boy, Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth

INDIE hip-hop star Rat Boy had the south coast bouncing on his biggest tour so far and, incredibly, the first song of the night had only been finished on the way to the venue.

The Essex born singer, alias Jordan Cardy, told The Southern Daily Echo that his sold out show in Portsmouth, had been “five star” and that it had been brilliant to get so many fans down to The Wedgewood Rooms.

“We’re getting everyone involved on this tour” said Jordan, who first appeared on stage through a huge blast of smoke and in between two giant cigarettes that were soon surfing over the crowd as the band began with Move, Turn Round Mate and Knock Knock.

And the mischievous musical tearaway was true to his word about including as many as possible when he saw off tight security to let a handful of fans join him on stage for songs including breakthrough single Sign on.

He even got the house lights turned off again to play an extra encore of Move. “Get on someone's shoulders – security love that too!” he added.

With his endearing stories of being fired from Wetherspoons, fake IDs, trouble in town and the perils of the dole, the lively singer is already one of great storytellers of English life as well as a pioneering musician and a very talented artist.

There are super summer samba beats on recent release Get Over It and even a sample of the old London Thames Television theme on the intro to Left 4 Dead. Rat Boy, along with bandmates drummer Noah Booth, guitarist Harry Todd and bassist Liam Haygarth can create something special from almost anything.

And following the release of latest single Cash in Hand the chaotic collective have plans to do more of the same.

“We’re going to get working towards our first album” revealed skateboarder Jordan. “We’re going to join up with legendary music producer Stephen Street and record some tunes in a studio rather than our usual at home.”

“We’re writing songs all the time; we even wrote tonight’s first opening song, still unnamed, on this tour and it had its first play in Portsmouth.”

Earlier in the evening five piece Bad Sounds made a great start to the evening with pretty much a full house watching them warm up for the headliners. Expect to hear more from them soon.

After the show Jordan, Noah, Harry and Liam stuck around for more than an hour to meet delighted fans after their outstanding show. Rat Boy is one singer no one can put down.

RICHARD DERBYSHIRE