Rachel Stamp return for this valentines day special gig just under 3 years since they last played the Underworld and 2 years on from when their last show was cancelled due to Robin Guy being diagnosed with Cancer, thankfully he has fought and beaten cancer while continuing to tour drumming for Sham 69 among others.
First on is Laurie Black who is a Punk Comedienne who plays comic songs on a Korg synth and a drum machine, She opened with the highly ironic A Love Song that had some great puns within it as well as some deceptively simple synth playing.
Her Punk CV was full of the ironies of having a first class degree in music and having won no end of prizes and still finding it hard to earn enough money to get by reasonably.
She then unleashed the incredible bass notes on her synth to herald in Alien her piece about not being normal or fitting in, which at a Rachel Stamp show makes her one of the gang, it was very funny and damn that bass really shook the room.
She then did a piece from her Edinburgh show Space Cadette that once she had told us she painted herself green for the show the lighting guy turned all the lights green which was very cool and made us smile some more.
Next she did a thing about making Moonshine that didn't steal the tune from Hardcore Superstars song on the same subject but instead had some cool squiggly synth sounds on it.
She closed her set with Alcolove song that had a good sing along bit and everyone joined in her ode to the joys of getting blind drunk and doing stupid stuff it was a good end to a cool and funny set, she'd be great to see in the afternoon at a festival.
After the break suddenly DJ Belle Star put on the Rachel Stamp theme for the band to slowly emerge onto the stage and slowly launching into I Like Girlz that sounded like they were every bit as great as ever with David Ryder Prangley sporting some fabulous shades and a fur jacket looking effortlessly glamorous.
Monsters Of the New Wave got everyone singing along even more and damn it still sounds great with Shaheena Dax giving us her finest sex kitten synth routine. Brand New Toy had a great solo from Will Crewsdon and the usual powerhouse never a dull moment drumming from Robin Guy who was as energetic as he always is.
David told us that the Witches Of Angelholm was written about some Swedish girls he knew and it sounded magnificent as they slowed things down just a touch so we could get every word David was singing.
Then we got one of the only songs about VD that I know of that everyone sings along too like they want there very own Pink Skab, like it might be a good thing and well it does sound like they had fun getting it and well it might be a sign of True Love that was next or maybe not either way just about everyone was singing along to all the songs by this point.
|
I Wanna Be Your Doll was a total rampage and I'm sure lots of the audience would have gladly volunteered to be the doll of any member of the band they may even have offered to be Crucified if that qualified them, but then a song like that just rammed home how great they were sounding.
By this point David had removed his coat and in his frilly black shirt he really did look like a Superstar Of Heartache or was that Robin's job description? Do Me In Once And I'll Be Sad, Do Me In Twice And I'll Know Better really should have had a few fans with lighters in the air but these days it's more likely to be phone torches or just everyone singing with them.
They then ramped things up with Black Tambourine that still sounded just great before I finally get to song I can't figure out the title of even if I can sing along to the one that tells us all to take a hold of yourself and of course we want too.
We then all claim that I've Got The Worm and it probably had the biggest sing along chorus and how many bands fans would be happy singing along to this song that still sounds like a hit single to me. As it often is Stealing Clothes From Shelley Barrett is the slowest song of the set but still has some of the best lyrics of the set which is saying something.
Then they get everyone going with a super-hot version of Black Cherry with some nice false endings and breakdowns as we all go OOOOH Black Chcherry a good few times. Before closing the set with yet another one of the bands classic singles Hey Hey Michael you're Really Fantastic to guarantee that we would all be chanting Rachel stamp repeatedly to bring them back for an encore.
Of course they came back with David changed into a less revealing jumpsuit that the one he wore at the last London reunion show as they sang a wonderful version of My Sweet Rose. Sorry I have no idea what my notes for the second song of the encore read as, but lets face it my this point we were all having a ball and loving every moment of another great Rachel Stamp show that ended with a great amped up swagger through Calling All Destroyers there version of the T-Rex classic that was in the set even before David started playing bass in T.Rextasy it was a great close to an as ever great show from a band who really ought to be playing festivals all summer long.
|
