19.6.17

Toyah. Longlands Club, Middlesbrough. 10.06.17.




Saturday night at The Longlands Club. The crowd’s a real mixture but split 90/10. 10% are clearly the old punks wearing SLF / TV Smith / Clash t-shirts. People who probably remember Toyah’s appearance on Shoestring in 1979 and own the EP ‘Sheep Farming In Barnet’. 90% have probably never heard of ‘Sheep Farming….’ , probably had big perms in 1985 and love those 'Hits of the 80’s' arena gigs featuring Tony Hadley, Nick Heyward, Kim Wilde etc.
I take a quick photo of Toyah’s set list before she comes on so I’ve a record of the song order and within seconds there’s a stampede of other people doing the same. Finally Toyah and band walk on stage. Tonight it’s a ‘Proud, Loud and Electric’ show rather than ‘Acoustic, up close and personal’. Toyah and band get an extremely warm welcome from the ‘Boro crowd and she’s clearly very pleased. A huge grin rarely leaves her face all night. The hits are all played. Crowd pleasing anthems for people to sing along to. ’Good Morning Universe’, ‘Rebel Run’, ‘Thunder In The Mountains’, ‘Be Proud, Be Loud, Be Heard’, ‘I Wanna Be Free’, ‘Echo Beach’ – I’ll admit to never knowing this was released by Toyah as a single in 1987. That 90% love it. Lots of singing, lots of dancing, lots of smiling.
A cover of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’, released by Toyah with her other band The Humans slows things down but doesn’t quite fit with tonight’s set.
Amongst all this there were some great moments. A blistering cover of Billy Idol’s ‘Rebel Yell’ together with the superb ‘Neon Womb’ and ‘Danced’ from 1979’s ‘Sheep Farming In Barnet’ keep the 10% happy temporarily. As does closing song, 1980’s ‘Ieya’. But selfies? Tonight she’s got to dash for an early morning flight so to make up for the fact she won’t be around afterwards to sign things the crowd are invited to squash in at the front to take selfies whilst she sings on stage. Come on - we’re all in our 40’s/early 50’s not 14/15. And it was during the intro to ‘Danced’ thereby taking the edge off one of the best songs of the night. Plenty took her up on the offer so maybe it’s just me that has a problem with this sort of thing.
Those big mid 80’s tunes probably made Toyah sack loads of money but I get the distinct impression Toyah’s favourites are the really early songs. Released at the end of the punk era and at the peak of New Wave many a spikey topped young rebel will have had these sitting alongside their Buzzcocks/Clash/Skids 7” pieces of vinyl.
It’s almost 40 years since those really decent tracks. It’s a good 35 years since those big songs yet Toyah’s voice has lost none of its distinct sound or power.
As well as some upcoming solo shows and a few of those dreadful 80’s nights Toyah also plays two of the big punk/indie festivals – Rebellion and The Great British Alternative Music Festival. It’ll be interesting to see how she’s accepted at those.






5.6.17

The Skids + Arthur & The Invincibles. 03.06.17. Leeds Academy.



The Skids are 9 dates in to their 40th anniversary tour when they arrive in Leeds tonight. It’s a gig I’d been looking forward to since the tour was announced. I wasn’t disappointed.

The night opens with Arthur & The Invincibles, a four piece indie-punk band from Leamington Spa who hit the stage bouncing with energy. Barely pausing for breath throughout their 40 minute set singer Arthur Byrne is the perfect frontman. Eye catching, animated and constantly bouncing around he pumps out his vocals with an accompanying Sid Vicious stare. Great rhythm in the form of thumping drum beats and heavy bass lines from Tom Gedney and John Priestly together with catchy guitar riffs from Keir Sayce all add up to a band that hold your attention and get your feet moving.

Four track ep Cash, Gold and Radio Controlled – Volume 1 is played in full. Listen to ‘The Reaper’ ‘Rock Paper Scissors’ or ‘Party For Two’ and it’s a guarantee you’ll be singing along after the first listen. Melodic guitar intros suddenly exploding into full on noise is the name of the game. But it’s noise with an infectious beat. Indie-punk it is. It’s also poppy-punk in the best possible way. Arthur and The Invincibles – another band that makes you realise there is decent music around for the youth of today. 



Arthur and The Invincibles

Arthur and The Invincibles

Arthur and The Invincibles

Arthur and The Invincibles

Arthur and The Invincibles

Arthur and The Invincibles

Arthur and The Invincibles

Arthur and The Invincibles





I'd heard good things about recent Skids shows. Friends who saw them in Holmfirth and Manchester earlier in the week raved about them. But I wasn't prepared for just how good the Skids would be. Reforming for their 40th anniversary the band is now made up of Richard Jobson, original bassist Bill Simpson, drummer Mike Baillee who joined the line-up for their third album ‘The Absolute Game’ and guitarists Bruce Watson (Big Country) and his son Jamie.

Tonight the Skids are on fire. It’s a perfect set drawn from the first three albums. Opening with the anthemic ‘Animation’ the crowd are with the band from the start. And it’s a band that are clearly having an absolute ball. Jobson, despite his claims that he might end up in A&E due to the enthusiasm and energy being put into the songs, looks great. A superb frontman constantly jumping around, ‘dancing’ in his trademark way just like he did all those years ago. He owns the stage, never still and with a voice that brings back all the classic songs as if you had heard them for the first time just yesterday. Bruce Watson’s guitar playing matches perfectly those trademark licks of original member Stuart Adamson. Backed by the super tight rhythm section from Baillee / Simpson and additional guitar and backing vocals from Jamie Watson the Skids have rehearsed these shows to a faultless precision.

The hits are played. ‘Working For The Yankee Dollar’, ‘Masquerade’ (Jobson’s favourite Skids song), ‘Charade’. Enormous songs with those unforgettable, catchy, get in your head and don’t let go guitar riffs. The bass intro to ‘Into The Valley’ before the band, and the crowd, erupt into one huge bouncing mass of energy never fails to raise the adrenalin levels.

‘Of One Skin’, ‘Melancholy Soldiers’, ‘The Saints Are Coming’, ‘Circus Games’. All delivered flawlessly. Anthems that could fill stadiums.

Early classic ‘Charles’ still sounds great after 39 years. ‘A Woman In Winter’ has the crowd joining in with complete enjoyment and enthusiasm. A real highlight. And of course ‘TV Stars’ is blasted out as part of the encore much to everyone’s delight. New song ‘A World On Fire’ bodes well for upcoming album ‘Burning Cities’ and hopefully the possibility that this won’t be a one off tour but the first of many.
Tonight the Skids are superb. Passionate, energetic, powerful. There’s still time to see them on this tour and I recommend that you do. They also headline Rebellion Festival in August and The Great British Alternative Festival (Skegness) in October where they will dominate both events.




The Skids

The Skids

The Skids

The Skids

The Skids

The Skids

The Skids

The Skids

The Skids
The Skids