Rumoured of sightings of Glam Rock legends aside, this was a great two band bill at the cool environs of Paper Dress Vintage, we almost bumped into a sleaze rock legend outside the venue, he hurried off somewhere else in Hackney. We were in time to see all the action and Micko & The Mellotronics opened there set with Autosexual that was good speedy garage glam action from Micko's Red Gibson. They then took us on a tour of the fish shop on Words that had all sorts of weird lyrics about dolphins and shrimps all being tied down with Budge MaGraw's Red Rickenbacker bass.
No one on stage was wearing a Psych Shirt, or prancing about Jack Fairy style, so this was certainly being sung about some other acid casualty, who kept asking "What we do?". Micko was clear that we have all suffered from nosey neighbours who object to us being a touch on the Noisy side of life, well they do make a hell of a racket with Jan Noble keeping a great thudding bass drumbeat going through out this tune, it got speedier. Micko asked if there were any Joe Meek fans in the audience, about half the audience yelled back yes, before they played the bands tribute to Joe's legendary studio on Holloway Road and everything that happened there, this tried its best to sound just as over produced as Joe's hits often were.
What's In A Name was for someone suffering from having too much Alan Bennett in their lives, it had an intro about adventures in lockdown. Micko took us back to growing up in the north of England for School Report and all the trouble those reports could cause, this was played rather fast and Budge and Micko seemed to be racing against each other musically. The bands murder ballad was next as Guilty was dedicated to Ruth Ellis and her evil ways, that guaranteed her place in infamy.
This show was the launch gig for Micko & The Mellotronics latest single Would You Believe It and well would you believe they played the song! it sounded great and went down a storm, of course you would. The Transformation is about being abducted by aliens and arriving on Tralfamadore or whichever alien homeland you arrive at, looking round and thinking you'd just got lucky. They closed the set by blasting through Shadow at supersonic speeds and leaving the stage to loud cheers for more.
After the break it was time for the current 5 piece line-up of late 1970's post punk legends Cult Figures, who appeared to have quite a few new young fans eager to video the bands every move, they opened the set with the title tune from the bands most recent album Between Us And Heaven with Frasier Gillespie resplendent, looking like he's a brakeman on the Santa Fe line in the 1930's, while he harmonized effortlessly with Lee Mc Fadden and Jon Hodgson. Mr Producer seemed to get a larger gaggle of phone cameras shooting the band's every move, like they believed this was a historical gig.
We then got the first of the new songs from the bands next album due out at some point in 2026, it was the brilliantly dark Music Of Fear that makes clear that Florin you're a dead man to find out why he deserves to die you may have to seek out a shaky online video, if you can't wait for the new album that is, it was a dark tale with some great guitar from Steve May, Walking Disaster was also from the next album and had a rather punchy bassline that allowed Steve and Jon plenty of room to build the riff and tune around it. Unburdened was how we all felt at the light humour between Frasier and the band, this felt like they had confessed everything and were ready to move on past all the impossibilities holding them back.
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The next new song Death Of A Thousand Cuts makes clear the distress they feel for the state of the world and the hopes being dashed for the next generation, the twin guitars sparked off each other. I Remember was introduced as being one of the first songs John Hodgson wrote for the band way back when, it sounded great with Stuart Hilton's drums really powering it along. Frasier started to introduce Sitting Target as not being about anything, well apart from a Sitting Target the title repeated and repeated, it got more forceful and the guitars that bit more intense.
Rose Bucket was the next new song, I couldn't quite figure out if that should have been Bouquet in praise of the bands favourite English Opera singer. Dangerous Boy had the patented vocal harmonies with everyone apart from Steve joining in on the harmonies, as well as what looked like rehearsed dance moves from some of the younger members of the audience. After more comments between Fraser and Lee in between songs they were singing about Praying To God like the atheists they seem to be, this sounded a bit like Out Of The Grey era Dream Syndicate in the way the guitars worked.
They closed the set with a Privilege all about certain peoples sense of entitlement to be able to continue playing great shows in cool venues, or the way our rulers believe they are above or beyond the laws they apply to the rest of us. Paper Dress Vintage went a little nuts when they threatened to leave the stage, so they were persuaded to play an encore that opened with Lunatic Friend you know the sort, who goes on and on about obscure bands from the late 70's that you simply should have heard of, or something like that. Rapide 40 Slideout was then played like the hit it should have been and was great fun.
The place then erupted in cheers to keep them onstage for one last song that I manage to claim in my notes was called Edd No One (Nolan) it of course was Zip Nolan the closest tune they had to a hit, with great guitars before they finally said good night properly.
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