 |
 |
 |
›Lost Classics 7
Rhino Bucket – Rhino Bucket
1990 Reprise Records
It was the 29th June 1991 and I and four friends pulled up in the car park at the rear of the Newport Centre in Wales to go and see the fantastic double bill of Sepultura and Sacred Reich on the Sep’s Arise tour. Parked up across the other side of the car park was a small camper van and spilling from it were several long haired blokes drinking cans of Special Brew, headbanging like idiots and singing along to what sounded like an AC/DC album with Bon Scott on vocals that had somehow passed me by.
Sitting in our car eating our pre-gig packed lunches (come on, it was a long time ago!), we were soon sucked in to this monster of an album blaring from the back of that camper van, and through mouthfuls of sandwiches and Frazzles we started to exchange comments like ‘fuckin hell, this is brilliant!’ and ‘I need to know who this is!’. Once our hearty feast was complete the Welsh drunkards were well into their fourth cans and their singing was beginning to scare off others from even coming in the car park, but I needed to know just who they were listening to, so I strolled over to them and put the question to them.
Now, when you are told by a drunk Welsh bloke that the music are listening too is by a band called Rhino Bucket, you obviously think you are having the piss taken out of you, but after several ‘what?’ and ‘who?’ type responses from myself, a tape (yes a cassette, this was 1991 remember!), was passed to me, and I had at last witnessed the fact that Rhino Bucket were indeed a real band. On returning to Plymouth from Newport I spent the next 6 months trying to find a record shop which had in stock, or would even order me a copy of the Rhino Bucket self-titled stunner. In the end the now defunct Rival Records delivered the goods and at long last I had the Holy Grail in my sweaty palms.
Not being one to beat around the bush, this album and in fact the band, are a complete AC/DC rip off, but when you can come up with music this good, who really gives a fuck? By the time this release had come out AC/DC were seriously treading water with the very poor The Razors Edge album, and Rhino Bucket went and completely beat AC/DC at their own game producing an album that many think sounds like the lost Bon Scott fronted AC/DC album that could have followed Highway to Hell. Yep it is that good!
The heavyweight blues rocker One night Stand kicks off the album in fine style and is worth the price of the disc alone, before breaking into Beg for your Love, which ups the tempo and contains a great little solo in the middle of it by Greg Fields, which really shows what an influence Angus Young had on him. You can even imagine Bon Scott being proud of the lyrics on this album, from song titles such as ‘Even the sun goes Down’ to lyrical gems like ‘You’ve got a cosy little station, it’s the nicest one I’ve seen’ during Train Ride. The pace of the album doesn’t let up, and there is not one ballad contained in the 40 minutes and 10 tracks on the Rhino Bucket album, and it is all the better for it. The only time where the AC/DC influence is perhaps a little over the top is during the album closer Ride the Rhino, which does at times sound a little too much like AC/DC’s Beating around the Bush, but hey, I ain’t complaining as it’s still a great track and it closes the album at break neck pace just to finish you off perfectly.
If you are a fan of AC/DC, Airbourne or even Rose Tattoo, try and find yourself a copy of this long deleted gem and listen to how the Californian foursome take on the Aussies at there own game and come up trumps.
Nige.