NOT everyone at next week's Red Hot Chili Peppers concert will be there just for the headline act. The support acts have quite a following too.

NOT everyone at next week's Red Hot Chili Peppers concert will be there just for the headline act.

Today CHARLEY GEATER looks at the support acts which have a big following of their own.

ROCK legends The Red Hot Chili Peppers will be the latest in a line of big name acts to appear at Portman Road when they play Ipswich next week.

Anyone with an interest in popular music knows about The Chili Peppers - in recent years it's been hard to avoid them. But what of their support acts?

!!! (pronounced chk chk chk) are an American band that have been around since the middle of the nineties. They play a mixture of dance, funk and punk. !!! are currently recording their third album which is due for release in the autumn.

Dirty Pretty Things, a much newer band, are the second support act. The front man, Carl Barât, put the band together only last year after The Libertines, the band he previously co-fronted, fell apart.

The Libertines have recently become infamous due to the constant scandals surrounding Barât's former band mate Pete Doherty, but Dirty Pretty Things have done their best to ignore this and let their music do the talking.

The music falls within the indie rock/punk genre, like The Libertines, but they are different from Barât's former venture - they are angrier.

Barât's lyrics address his self-loathing and allude to the breakdown of his former group. They also mix with the punky guitars and occasional handclaps to create a strong, interesting sound.

While half the band was actually in The Libertines (Barât and Gary Powell, the drummer) and the other half stood in for Doherty on various occasions (Didz Hammond, the bassist, and Anthony Rossomando, the second guitarist) they are a different band, and a force to behold when onstage.

Their recent debut album, Waterloo to Anywhere, showcases their strong song writing abilities, with many tracks sounding like future singles. It received good reviews from the press, as did their first single, Bang Bang, You're Dead.

Dirty Pretty Things have toured smaller venues extensively this year already, to similar critical acclaim. They have a large fan base already, and their slot in this Red Hot Chili Peppers line-up has been earned. It's time for Dirty Pretty Things, and !!!, to show a wider audience what they can do. As Dirty Pretty Things would say, “something's gonna change”. With concerts exposing acts like this to more potential fans, this can only be good.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers play Portman Road on Friday, June 30. For extensive news about the band's much-anticipated Ipswich concert see The Evening Star throughout next week.