Shopping in Baneswell will never be the same again, writes Graham James.

Nine blokes on stage dressed in a variety of retro tracksuits and fake gold jewellery are rapping about the dubious delights of the Baneswell Express store (it’s in the centre of Newport) to a great hip hop backbeat.

Their show is a defiant celebration of our mundane lives and tonight GLC are back on their home turf and just like a returning trophy-winning football club they and a packed Neon are celebrating a city that struggled for years to get that status and continues to struggle against the predominance of Cardiff down the road.

As with the Baneswell Xpress you really have to be from here (Newport) to get the references. I’m not but did some on the spot research with an informative young woman in front of me who turned out to be the wife of one of the band.

It’s quite remarkable that they have lasted so long. 19 albums!

But they can do no wrong tonight even though it’s difficult to distinguish their lyrics and all they do is jump about a bit onstage singing profane songs about drinking, sex and drugs. One’s got a t-shirt bearing the word Newport F*****g City. The slogan sums them up really -- a truculent defiance of their hometown – sorry city!

But they have grown up since their inception 17 years ago and most have wives, families and mortgages now which make me wonder how long they can keep up this cod-bling culture façade. Rhys has even released an album of original classical piano pieces which goes to show that there is musical intelligence behind all the lads together fakery.

I guess they never expected to be around for so long themselves. But in these days of uber-globalisation there is apparently a certain cache today with identifying with the place where you live and the prosaic, which is the niche GLC can probably mine for as long as they want.