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Review: 'March Violets, The / Chris Catalyst'
'The Fulford Arms, York, 5th April 2014'   


-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'

Our Rating:
I was introduced to The March Violets in 1989, at the age of 14. Although I was au fait with the early recordings of The Sisters of Mercy, the tracks on the Violets’ sole LP ‘Natural History’ clearly possessed a different kind of edge, more than the obvious male / female dual vocal. And that drum machine sound! It was truly something else. As the band were defunct and largely forgotten, I never expected I’d have the chance to see them live, as I finally did at their reunion show at Leeds Met in December 2007. Even then, the idea that I might see them play in a pub 15 minutes walk from my house would have seemed improbable at best.

So, a degree of unreality to this event: billed as a ‘purple party’ and a ‘public rehearsal’, we’re talking essentially about a warm-up show, and in a setting that’s about as intimate as it gets. The Fulford Arms – run by the organiser or York’s esteemed DV8 festival – is primed, with the pump clips adapted to reference Violets songs and the atmosphere is (literally) hotting up long before the band take to the compact stage, with Chris Catalyst of Robochrist / Eureka Machines / Sisters of Mercy fame delivering an entertaining solo set. An abundance of affable banter builds a nice rapport with the eager crowd, and while sidestepping requests for Sisters songs, Chris’ collection of originals and covers is a real treat for the gathering of old (and not so old) goths who’ve arived early.

The March Violets may have a few technical issues – drum machines can be so temperamental, and its a wonder theirs hasn’t melted in the heat – and they may be a tad rough around the edges at times, missing vocal cues and the like, but when they hit their stride – which is, in fairness, for most of the set – they’re awesome. Rosie Garland’s voice is still fantastic, and hasn’t lost any of its quality over the years, and she can also boast a physique many women half her age would envy. Si Denbigh, meanwhile, is an awesome presence: he never was a technically great singer, his ability to speak, growl, holler and snarl a lyric was always a defining feature of the band’s sound, and his strength remains undiminished.

Original guitarist Tom Ashton still kicks out salvoes of fractured guitar in elegant style, while bassist /violinist Joanna Moy brings rolling thunder to the bottom end that welds itself to those thumping mechanised beats. The set-list is a well-considered 50/50 split of cuts from ‘Made Glorious’ (the band’s first and only ‘proper’ album’ and their first time around, and what’s impressive is that everything hangs together brilliantly. It isn’t that new songs like ‘We Are All Gods’ (which is awesome, once they finally get the drums to play), ‘Dandelion King’, ‘Dress 4 U’, ‘Tokyo Flow’ or ‘Road of Bones’ sound retro, so much as that songs from way back, like ‘Undertow,’ ‘Strangehead’ and ‘Radiant Boys’ still sound fierce. Moreover, the spiky post-punk sound they helped define is now influencing a whole new wave of acts; back in vogue, they surely were ahead of their time.

‘It’s Hot’ would have been a fitting inclusion in the set, as the temperature soared during the course of the set, but they did at least treat us to a blistering version of ‘Crow Baby’ and a wonderfully breezy ‘Walk Into the Sun.’

‘Grooving in Green’ may not have sounded quite as unhinged as on record, but ‘Radiant Boys’ was a twitchy blast of apocalypse, and they seemed to really ramp things up on ‘1 2 I Love You’. Band and audience alike were clearly having a blast, there was a a rapport you can only witness in an intimate setting such as this, and they encored with a first live airing of ‘A Room With No View’ followed by ‘My Demons’, a suitably stonking ‘Snake Dance’ and a magnificently uplifting rendition of ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’. And rock it did, leaving a very sweaty crowd very happy indeed.
  author: Christopher Nosnibor

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March Violets, The / Chris Catalyst - The Fulford Arms, York, 5th April 2014