buzzcocksfan: October 2017

One thing’s for certain. When you go to a gig promoted by Fast Forward Promotions / Dave Griffiths you can pretty much guarantee that as well as the band you intended to see you’re going to get a cracking support band.

Tonight this is Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons. If you like your music loud, grubby, heavy, punk rock ‘n’ roll with a touch of rockabilly and blues and a full dose of attitude then this is a band to watch. Consisting of just three members – Puss Johnson on vocals and guitar, Dirty Jake on guitar and Filfy Antz on drums – they manage to completely own both the stage and, at times, the whole floor. Puss plays guitar, a bit, but you get the distinct feeling she’d rather be creating mayhem amongst the crowd and she does this often. It’s a good thing. If you’ve seen them before you know what’s coming (almost). Those that clearly hadn’t transitioned through looks of shock and faces that said “WTF is going on here?” to dancing around and genuine appreciation of great tunes from a great band. The crowd swelled rapidly within minutes of the opening song.

Blistering guitars, devilish, wailing vocals, and explosive drums take us through a set that’s focused on new album ‘Ain’t No Pussy’. Opening with ‘One Of The Boys’ you understand immediately where Puss stands. Over the noise of the guitar and drums she bellows “I don’t know how to comb my hair and I don’t wear frilly underwear” together with “My beauty ain’t measured by the size of my tits.” And so it continues. A sonic and visual assault on the senses. Loud and in your face. Puss Johnson decked out in leopard skin print trousers complete with tail, leather mask, sculpted hair and four inch brothel creepers oozes energy, Big Jake built like a tank with a 50’s rock n roll style and Antz looking like he’s just left a sleazy 70’s soft rock band (until he hits those drums like he wants to put them through the stage). ‘Pain’, ‘The Wasp’ – “You’re the wasp, banging your head on the window trying to find your way out. I’m your personal hell”, ‘Ain’t No Pussy’, ‘Surrender My Heart’, ‘Midnight Motorway’ with its addictive drone of “Soft verges, hard urges” and sudden maniacal pounding of the ear drums.

Just one song from previous album ‘Dirty Rock N Roll’ (‘Hell Bent’) and two from debut ‘Exercise Your Demons’ (‘Wolfman Sideburns’, ‘Lipstick & Testosterone’). And that’s it. Another superb opening act.

Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons – facebook, website.

Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons

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I’ve seen Theatre Of Hate a lot of times over the years. First in October 1981 when they supported The Clash at Manchester Apollo. Most recently on the last night of The Great British Alternative Music Festival in Skegness when they were, in my opinion, one of the highlights of the weekend. Whether playing with Spear Of Destiny or Theatre Of Hate Kirk Brandon never disappoints. Both bands just get better and better as the years pass by. But particularly Theatre Of Hate who, after the best part of 40 years, are still a formidable live act. Opening with ‘Rebel Without A Brain’ it’s a non-stop set of dark, rumbling post-punk greatness. Kirk Brandon gives everything to performing. He’s passionate, emotional, completely lost in the moment of each and every song. When not playing guitar he’s pounding his chest, so much pent up energy ready to be released his body literally quivers. Arms waving he alternates between centre stage and moving completely to one side allowing the focus to fall on the throbbing bass playing of tonight’s only other original member, Stan Stammers who, like Brandon, performs every song as though it’ll be the last time he ever will. Stomping round the stage the neck of his Fender arcing just inches over the heads of those at the front. Big shout out to Clive Osbourne playing sax on this tour, replacing John ‘Boy’ Lennard who sadly can’t be here because of a family bereavement. The sax, played well, is such a beautiful instrument that can fill you with all sorts of emotions and Osbourne does just that. Hauntingly beautiful whether forming a backdrop to ‘Rebel’ or ‘Aria Of The Devil’ or taking on a more dominant role in new songs ‘Black Irony’, ‘Maintenance Man’ ‘Façade’ and ‘Ukraine Girl’. New songs, from 2016 album ‘Kinshi’, that fit right in with the old. Old songs that never sound dated. Theatre Of Hate are unique. No one sounds like them. No one else has a voice like Kirk Brandon. And of course we get the classics. ‘Original Sin’, ‘63’, ‘It’s My Own Invention’, ‘Omen Of The Times’ before the tempo, temperature, chicken dancing / slamming and general good time atmosphere all move up a notch as Brandon, Stammers and co power through ‘Incinerator’, ‘Poppies’, ‘Solution’ and finally ‘Legion’ by which time the whole place is right there with them. Returning to play the rousing ‘Westworld’ and the incendiary ‘Propaganda’ it’d be hard to ask for more. It would have been nice to hear ‘Grapes Of Wrath’ and ‘Americanos’ but hey, you can’t have everything.

Theatre Of Hate – website.

Theatre of Hate – facebook.

2018- Great British Alternative Music Festival – great atmosphere, great bands (established and upcoming), great place, decent accommodation and indoor venues.

Theatre Of Hate

More photos - Theatre Of Hate.

Promoted by Dave Griffiths / Fast Forward Promotions.

Disappointment was at a high level when the original date for Brix & The Extricated at The Georgian was cancelled a few months ago. But there was good reason for the cancellation and tonight’s show came around quickly.

First up, The Filthy Tongues whose 2016 album Jacob’s Ladder just happens to be one of my favourite purchases over the last year and has been cited by a few as one of the albums of 2016.

Opening with 2014’s ‘Crew Cut’ – full of deep throbbing bass overlaid with a guitar that builds between each verse to a perfect crescendo. A gritty, dark tune that immediately makes you realise how glad you are to be stood in front of this band. What follows is 40+ minutes of brooding, gothic blues tinged songs dealing with the not so clean underbelly of Edinburgh’s dark side. Hints of Nick Cave raise their head every so often but The Filthy Tongues do things their way. “Here comes Danny rolling in smelling like a sewer. He lost his leg injecting but he had a lot of fun.” sings Martin Metcalfe on ‘Long Time Dead’ with it’s almost catchy Television guitar riffs. ‘High’, all brooding, rumbling, repetitive drumbeat, deep bass and minimal guitar tells us about dodgy dealers. ‘Bowhead Saint’ ups the tempo a little with just a hint of organ creeping in. Feet start to move and bodies start to sway despite it being anything but a joyful song. Sinister and menacing are words more likely to spring to mind. ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ rumbles along with that dark bass and creeping keys. “There was one man having another as a feast”, “Halleluja from the top of a hill”. Martin Metcalfe (vocals & guitar), Fin Wilson (bass) and Derek Kelley (drums) were once the core of Goodbye Mr Mackenzie (that also featured Shirley Manson who went on to find fame in Garbage) but these songs are a far cry from those days of rocky pop although the rousing, danceable ‘Goodwill City’, a Goodbye Mr Mackenzie classic from 1989, closes the set. Dark, foreboding songs are the order of the day. Not only did The Filthy Tongues release one of the best albums of recent years they’re also possibly one of the best live acts you can see at the moment.

The Filthy Tongues return to Teesside on December 9^th when they play Middlesbrough’s Westgarth Social Club. Following tonight’s performance you’d be advised to buy yourself a ticket and get along there.

The Filthy Tongues - website / Facebook.

The Filthy Tongues

I’ve never been a fan of The Fall. They played at my school youth club’s ‘New Wave Night’ in 1979. I didn’t like them then. Though never deliberately I’ve listened to them on and off for the last 38 years. Most of my music mates love them. Not me.

But Brix & The Extricated are a different experience altogether, despite consisting of four ex members of The Fall. Recently released debut album, ‘Part 2’, is full of catchy, garage pop songs with real attitude.

They open with Lay Of The Land, a Fall song from over 30 years ago that’s given a whole new sound by Brix Smith Start’s voice. This is followed by a set that consists of most of ‘Part 2’. ‘Feeling Numb’, ‘Valentino’, ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, ‘Teflon’, ’Pneumatic Violet’, ‘Something To Lose’, ‘Damned For eternity’, ‘LA’, ‘Hollywood’. That’s 9 of the 11 tracks delivered live tonight. It’s a great performance. Songs full of catchy hooks, melodic yet raw punky pop. Smith puts everything she’s got into every song. Snarling, smiling, pounding round the stage, giving the six strings of her Rickenbacker hell as, together with other ex-Fall members Stephen & Paul Hanley (bass & drums) and Steve Trafford (guitar) plus Jason Brown (guitar) we’re treated to driving rhythms, jangly guitars, post punk and a voice that thankfully never descends into incoherent slurs. Some of these songs are covers of old Fall songs – ‘Feeling Numb’, ‘LA’, ‘Deadbeat Descendent’, ‘US 80’s 90’s’ together with encores ‘Totally Wired’and 'New Big Prinz'. Done without MES they’re so much better. More focussed, more anger, more energy, more power, more noise, more enjoyment. This is a band that knows where they’ve come from and probably knows what’s going to happen next. Something that I doubt happened in their previous incarnation.

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Brix & The Extricated

buzzcocksfan

29.10.17

Theatre Of Hate, Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons. Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 28.10.17.

16.10.17

Brix & The Extricated + The Filthy Tongues. Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 14.10.17.

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