Curly hair, big shorts, and loose limbs, A Hundred Reasons were a chundering, gurning Brit-rock band--the sort of thing you'd like if your big brother was into Feeder. Seen early in their careers and in a tiny venue, they had a good deal of energy, which counted for something, but not a lot. At the Drive-In and Cave In were big news at the time, and they made AHR sound extremely pedestrian. But they had a middling career, around the Kerrrang/Reading festival axis; a few years later, they might have been bracketed as emo, though they'd have needed a stylist.
This was something of a Brit-rock all-dayer, organised (I think) by the recently-formed The Club That Cannot Be Named--now a successful promoter of louder gigs in a number of cities. I can't remember who played, but at a guess, there would have been Black Candy, who played loud and ugly without thrill or joy; Jor, kids who wanted to be Korn; and Faith in Hate, whose name never fails to make me laugh.
The Elm Tree, then a god-on-a-string pub, is now a cheerful Chinese eatery. In fact, check out the Lan Kwai Fong on Cowley Road--it's cheap, the staff are friendly, and they have cider on tap.
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