Fresh from their tour with Daniel Bedingfield the Harpenden rockers play clubland.

Sometimes the setting seems to accentuate a message, sometimes it can be so at odds with the content that the contrast makes you hear what is said in a more relevant and purposeful way. Onehundredhours are a rock band from Harpendon, Herts. Already well known for their work with Spring Harvest, Soul Survivor and the Factory, as well as some critically acclaimed CDs, they have spent the past weeks as the support act on the Daniel Bedingfield European tour. While most people would have taken a well earned week off the Hours decided to immediately follow that up with a demanding four day - four club tour playing at Cardiff, Brighton, London and Nottingham (and immediately follow that with a weekend playing at the Roots festival!) And that's where the venue comes in. The Metro club in London is a setting steeped in club culture and alcohol. Time Out's venue of the year 2003, it's little more than a single subterranean room hidden under Oxford Street. Two bars and a tiny stage bookended a darkened room so small that a close experience soon became a hot and sweaty one as the heat from the lights, cigarettes and concert goers accumulated to create a highly charged atmosphere all of its own. The support acts, Mohair and Alchemy, warmed the room up further and then, as the excessively priced drinks flowed and people stood wedged close to each other and the huge speakers that stood at the front of the stage, Onehundredhours took the stage.

The set list contained old favourites and a couple of new tracks as The Hours sang songs that fitted the surroundings with a message that was less often heard, but it wasn't easy going. Three times guitars had to be changed at short notice or even mid-song and the levels seemed a constant issue to the technical staff, which was a surprise, because as a band they'd done all of this a hundred times before with few, if any, of the difficulties that came up during the London set. This fight to deliver their songs led to an unusual intensity and seldom have signature tracks "River Wide" and "King Of Every Heart" been so powerfully sung. Topping the night off was the message that the Hours had used the unique opportunity of the Daniel Bedingfield tour to raise £15,000 for the charity, www.engagehivaids.com, which helps AIDS sufferers in Africa. An unusual pastime for a rock act and yet perfectly in keeping with the heart of the band and the message they deliver. At the end of the concert the Hours packed up their equipment ready for the journey home and the Metro switched from concert venue to DJ led club night. Although the music took a darker route it didn't negate the message that had been delivered earlier, that God went to the darkened corners of the world and raised a standard.And that his message was loud and lovely to hear.

(This review first appeared in Christian Herald and is used with permission.)