Yes, RACHEL STAMP are back for one more reunion gig and unlike the last one a couple of years ago, this one sold out a couple of days after the tickets went on sale. This meant the Stamp army was out in force and Nambucca was full of familiar faces, even if the crowd is no longer quite the jailbait city it once was.
They are also back with the classic line-up of David Ryder Prangley, Will Crewsdon, Robin Guy and Shaheena Dax and for anyone who doesn't know who, they are the one band I know whose members have also played with or in (deep breath)Celine Dion, the Bay City Rollers, Johnette Napolitano, Bernie Torme and Faith No More!!
They came onstage to the sounds of the queen of the blues, Miss Victoria Spivey getting all lascivious and libidinous on us and opened with Brand New Toy. They sounded exactly as they did back in their heyday in the mid to late 90's!! They were also playing about a mile or so away from where I first saw them in the old Falcon in Camden before it burnt down. Interestingly, that place was a similar sized venue to Nambucca.
Do Me In flashed by with DRP shimmying in his black mesh, rather revealing cat suit while spitting the words at us with relish and ready to amp things up on Superstars Of Heartache. That had, I think, the first use by Shaheena of whatever bass effect she had on her keyboards. It made the whole room vibrate and was covered in the shards of Wills guitar solo.
After DRP had stepped into the audience for a photo with his brother, they launched into I Got The Worm. It was always a favourite and they just blew through it with Robin as ever performing the hell out of his drums, but he needed to be on a much higher riser so we could see all of what he was up to.
Someone called DRP "Dave." Will described that as being "a rookie mistake" as you can call him anything but don't call him Dave!! You'd better Take A Hold Of Yourself after that and just enjoy the twisted glam punk of it all as soon enough you will be in love with a Dead Girl once more and shaking your Black Tambourine just like Davey-Boy does. As the set progresses, the banter in-between songs increases and gets funnier as DRP starts singing all sorts of snippets of disco and pop classics so that Will can get his Gretsch ready to show us what True Love sounds like.
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Pink Skab is of the highlights as ever and with some of the band's best lyrics ("Now I'm nailed to your bedroom wall and I've only got myself to blame") they were also opening up and adding false endings. I Wanna Be Your Doll had the place going madder than they already were. Ladies and Gents saw DRP and Shaheena singing alternate verses while she traded keyboard stabs with Will's guitar mauling over some spectacular drumming from Robin that saw DRP putting his Bass back on for the outro.
The Agony was anything but, before they finished the main set with their first hit My Sweet Rose. This had some introductions and the odd false ending to leave us all wanting more.
After a short while they were back up and opened with just about the proggiest thing they ever recorded - Star Birth In The Triffid Nebula. It was followed by a stellar version of Stealing Clothes From Shelley Barrett, before things then went up a notch for Dirty Bone before wrapping up the first encore with a long version of Black Cherry that had about 4 or 5 false endings and a solo each of them and everyone in the place singing "OOOOHHH BLACK CHERRY!!"
They left to another huge roar from the crowd and while some of us stood and clapped on, a few people left too soon as they then returned and finished the evening with a great version of Hey Hey Michael You're Really Fantastic and a promise to be back next year with new material. This can only be a good thing as they are still one of the best Glam punk bands you'll ever see live.
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