The peace and tranquility of the Scottish coastal town was somewhat disrupted by the arrival of Little Angels, Scarborough's biggest and baddest export, as they began a brand new UK tour with pleasing news that the just released 'Radical Your Lover' single had just gone into the charts with a bullet.

Over the last couple of years Little Angels have risen from being the young kids the industry wanted to put down into a band (which some sections still want to trample over) slowly realising that childhood dreams are developing into an exciting prospect for global domination.  Seriously.

Face facts.  If you really believe the likes of the Quireboys and the other Faces or Rolling Stones wannabes are the acceptable face of British hard rock in the '90s, then the firewater must be rotting the brain.  It's a band like the Little Angels we should all be looking up to for the real thing.

And while it disturbs me to see Polydor trying to get an immediate return on their money by pushing out singles like there's no tomorrow and promoting LA as if they must be Britain's God-send and answer to Bon Jovi, in the end common sense will prevail.

Little Angels don't go for over-the-top theatrics or drown themselves in glitter and Revlon; nor do they jazz up Rod Stewart outtakes and don tablecloths.  Instead it's a case of letting the music - original music - doin the talking.  And, my friends, the music is good.

LA perform great songs, songs you can be a part of.  Songs you can sing along and feel great about even if, 'Johnny never cared about nobody, 'cos no-one cared about John'.

Needless to say, 99 per cent of tonight's set came from the 'Don't prey for me' album.  Following the sweet sounds of long-time band anthem 'She's a Little Angel', the first album cut of the evening crops up in the form of 'Do You Wanna Riot'.  The band hit the accelerator pedal, Michael Lee's drums making mincemeat of the kids standing in front of the PA, with vocalist Toby Jepson ably supported by the shape-throwing pairing of guitarist Bruce Dickinson and bassist Mark Plunkett trying to be all over the stage at once.  Keyboardist Jimmy Dickinson, bathed in red light, found himself up top behind them.

Jepson's stage presence and vocal performance was exceptional, dealing with both ballads and nasty hard rockers in complete ease, giving excellent renditions of the vaguely Zeppelin-ish 'Promises', the US radio favourite 'Kicking Up Dust' and cardiac arresting 'When I Get Out Of Here'.

'Don't Pray For Me', the album epic bathed in the twilight of one too many nights up late listening to Elton John and Queen, was also delivered with aplomb and a bomb.  Oh, and new number 'Young Gods' was an indication that the Angels' future is as bright as neon.

They encored firstly with the brilliant 'No Solution', then crept back with a stomping version of The Who's 'My Generation'.  No first night blues or screw-ups.  By the end of the tour, believe it, Little Angels will be absolutely deadly.

Dave Reynolds, Raw