If a group of overgrown teenagers came to Cardiff and swaggered down Queen Street shouting "Newport in the house", there's every chance they'd be welcomed with a serious kicking.But apart from some good natured barracking, intercity rivalry was put aside for the opening night of Goldie Lookin Chain's first headlining tour.
The Newport rap crew's profane tales of provincial life are deemed too outrageous for supermarket chains which happily sell the works of Eminem - is it cos they is Welsh??
But in a few short months GLC have emerged from the underground to crash into the Top 10 and become a real symbol of Welsh national pride, celebrating with an almost-hometown show enjoyed by tracksuited clarts and rugby-shirted Valleys boys alike.
This exhuberant ten-man tag team rattled through their Greatest Hits, many of them being download favourites for months if not years before appearing their major label debut CD.
Unlike dour Valley rockers like the Manics and the Phonics, GLC celebrate small town life in all its glory, from discount stores to draw smoking, Glyn Williams buses to mams with pushchairs - maybe it's no surprise the sophisticated city slickers of Cardiff didn't come up with the idea first.
Mindful of their new national platform, GLC also tackle more global themes, fighting back against the image of rapper as folk devil with their top three hit Guns Don't Kill People, Rappers Do.
But above all, it's a nostalgia fest for thirtysomethings, an episode of I Love 1983, with tunes like Half Man Half Machine celebrating a time when Spectrums, Pacman and Donkey Kong were the cutting edge of technology. There's even a white headband among the baseball caps on stage - how old skool is that?
Like metal's latest heroes The Darkness, people ask if GLC are for real. Hip hop has always been ripe for spoofing, from Rat Rapping to Fifty Pence. But no-one asks this of DJ Yoda and Greenpeace.
From mainman Eggsy to beatmeister Xain, Maggot, Mystikal, Mike Balls and co, they clearly love the source material and the pioneering old skool days of their youth.
Next time, lads, why not make it a roller disco?
Read a review of their gig in Abertillery Read our review of the CD
Goldie Lookin Chain Live in Cardiff
