BRAT ATTACK

OUT of the way, Dadrockers - the Brat Bus is pulling in and there's a gang of reckless, rebellious teenagers on board. Yes, it's that time of the year again, when the New Musical Express, Britain's brightest music weekly, gathers together four of the freshest bands around, piles them onto a bus and sends them out into the world at large, with nothing but their wits, their guitars and a few cases of Miller to help them survive.

Luckily, this year's recruits are armed to the teeth with killer riffs, punked up tunes and a wide eyed pop sensibility, and they'll need all the ammo they can get if they're gonna challenge the Oasis status quo. This may come as a bit of a surprise but there are some people out there who find Noel Gallagher's brand of Beatle rock a bit old and stale and they're ready to catch the first Brat Bus out of Knebworth and into a brave new world without terrace anthems or guitar solos.

This is not, however, a new Teen C revolution and none of this year's Brat Bus bands - Tiger, Geneva, 3 Colours Red and Symposium - have much in common with Glasgow chipmunk punks Bis, unless it's a shared lack of regard for "musical correctness". Let's put it this way: if you're looking for the new Paul Weller, you won't find him on the [Brat Bus, and as for the old Paul Weller - well, it's just not his Ocean Colour Scene, is it?

So, here's a quick run down of this year's Brat Bus bunch and we'd like to emphasise that they're all over 8 (barely), so they are legally entitled to drink the beer which the sponsors will no doubt supply in cratefuls throughout the tour. After tonight's inaugural date in Dublin, the bus moves on to such places as Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol and Cardiff, finishing up in London on the 27th. Now Brats what I call rock `n' roll.

Tiger are the true pop tarts of the tour, having already guested on The Big Breakfast last summer, playing live to tens of screaming kids on Dun Laoghaire pier, only to be upstaged by local boyband O.T.T. Oh, well! So far, this five piece, mixed gender band have only scraped the charts with the single, My Puppet Pal but if Tiger do make a big scratch then expect lots of likely lads to swop their Liam Gallagher moptops for singer Dan Laidler's mullet hairstyle.

Geneva formed in Aberdeen, which is a bit of a distance from Switzerland, and their music is a mixture of head slicing guitars and heart rending emotion. What will hit you first, however, is the haunting high register voice of singer Andrew Montgomery, which has been compared to Tim Buckley and Scott Walker.

Symposium have just signed to Ash's Infectious label and they number two blokes with the unusual names of Wojtek and Hagob in their line up. Kind of makes Liam and Noel sound a bit staid, dunnit? According to their publicist, Symposium are "The Stone Roses of hardcore", while NME described them as "like Green Day having a playground scrap with Ant & Dec".

There's no one named Krzysztof Kieslowski in 3 Colours Red but singer Pete does have the rather Slavic surname of Vuckovic. They're signed to Creation Records, home of Oastsand Alan McGee has high hopes for the band's big, wide, punky sound. Current single, Nuclear Holiday, has already blown a few minds and the forthcoming debut album should put 3 Colours Red firmly in the pop picture for 1997.

Last year's NME/Miller Brat Bus Tour featured the talents of The Bluetones and The Cardigans but it's anybody's guess which of this year's models will slip comfortably into pop stardom 12 months hence. Will it be mullet haired Tiger, whose spiky, mood drenched pop tunes are pulling all the right strings? Or will it be Geneva, the soulful Scots with the spine chilling singer? Maybe you'll choose Symposium, the band with the funny specs and even funnier Christian names. They've been hailed as the new Ash. Or perhaps you'll pick punky 3 Colours Red? They've been signed to Creation Records but they've no intention of buying a brown Rolls Royce just yet. The choice, pop kids, is yours.