P*SSYLIQUOR + SCHOOL DISCO + GLITTER P*SS + YOUNG FRANCIS – THE RICHMOND, BRIGHTON 25.10.18
Since its rebirth on 4th March 2017, this was my first foray back to the legendary Richmond Pub in Brighton for more than 20 years.
It was weird entering the establishment again tonight. It had the feeling of going back to an old house that you used to live in as a child or back to your old school. Things had indeed changed and much water has passed under the bridge and many pints pulled since then.
I went to many gigs at the venue back in the day. We would in those days go upstairs and mingle with around 200 music fans and jump around to the bands of the day. I saw many concerts there, the standout ones being by legendary Ultravox! front man John Foxx (with Louis Gordon) and punk stalwarts 999 (who incidentally are coming back to Brighton next month at the Prince Albert). It is rumoured that Nirvana and Blur played here in their early days, but I personally would need photographic evidence or gig ticket or flyer pictures, before I believed it. However, there is evidence of Radiohead (1993), the Manic Street Preachers (1991), The Lurkers (1978) and John Lee Hooker (1969) all appearing at the venue.
There’s been a hotel or inn at the site located in Richmond Place, Brighton since at least 1839 and there has been music at the venue since the early 1960’s, with arguably the buildings heydays in the 1980’s with The Zap Club’s involvement. Although those of a younger generation would site the raves that took place a decade later when the venue was known as Pressure Point.
The Richmond had reached it peak and it was then sadly on a downward spiral and it ceased to be a music venue and the legendary upstairs venue was turned into a youth hostel. I just had to go upstairs and have a peek at what it now looks like. There’s new brown doors with rooms immediately in front of you. At least the old venue is etched on my mind, I could draw roughly what it looked like even now.
The end of the road was looming in 2016, until an entrepreneur whom had been to the Pressure Point in its good old days stepped in to rescue it. The street level pub and upstairs backpackers hostel are owned by the same people and they are committed to keeping The Richmond name alive and so since 4th March last year they have continued the legacy of the place.
The opening party of The Richmond Bar on that night featured Elle Exxe and Goldaka. The venue now being at street level is these days a much more compact affair with realistically only around 80 to 100 people squeezed in, but it’s here and another option for (local) bands to express themselves and the sound quality tonight was very nice thank you. The Piranhas Four played here last year and this year Frank & Beans appeared in May.
Tonight, it was the turn of Brighton’s up-and-coming daughters of punk P*ssyliquor. These five young ladies are carrying on the groundbreaking work of The Slits from half a life-time ago, for a new younger and more understanding generation of tolerant multicultural multi-dimensional individuals.
We picked up on the punk/riot grrrl group P*ssyliquor a year ago, when our team covered their support slot for Girli, who incidentally would have also been playing at another venue in Brighton tonight, if it was not for a severe case of winter vomiting bug ‘norovirus’.
We stated in our report “The name might be a little close to the edge, but these girls really can play and performed some superb original tracks that belied their youthful years. We are sure to hear a lot more about them in them in the future”.
The P*ssyliquor current lineup features Ari Black (Vocals), Victoria Lewis Piper (Drums), Hannah Villanueva (Guitar), Lucy Priddle (Guitar) and Tallulah Turner-Fray (Bass). They met up around two years ago via their degree courses with ‘Access To Music Brighton’ and bonded over a passion for hard-core music and even harder core feminist beliefs. With an average age of around twenty years old – they have the no-nonsense and in your face approach that recalls the spirit and energy of Cosey Fanni Tutti, L7 and naturally The Slits. Together they’re fighting a cause and celebrating what it means to be a woman.
They have this week dropped their energy fuelled cheeky-fun new video for ‘My Body My Choice’ which was shot by Poppy Stokes, which you can watch HERE. This new film seriously sums up what P*ssyliquor are all about – it’s a must watch!
Expect to see their 3 track vinyl EP ‘What Of It’ land very shortly (14th December to be precise). It’s very expressive and any shrinking violets should avoid it like the plague – you have been warned!
Tonight, we were lucky enough to be rewarded the entire P*ssyliquer pure uncensored female rage repertoire as the crowd wouldn’t let the ladies get off the stage until they had completed the lot. So we had the forthcoming tracks from the new EP that in the main I can’t name here, other than the aforementioned ‘My Body My Choice’, plus awesome debut single track ‘Get Out’ and ‘Kitty Kitty’ (both of which you can buy HERE) as well several as yet unreleased compositions including ‘Pretty Good For A Girl’, ‘Meow Meow Meow Meow’ and ‘Better Than You’. There was much jolliment to be had.
Also on the bill at The Richmond tonight was School Disco, Glitter P*ss and Young Francis.
First up was German born but Brighton based Young Francis, who was a solo garage punk one man band, who simultaneously played the guitar and drums whilst singing – clever stuff! He was quite a character and wanted to involve the audience with his Stooges style set and thus his mate handed out tambourines, cymbals and drumsticks and aimable punters were encouraged to join him. This worked rather well and warmed the audience up nicely for the night.
Next up were a five-piece called Glitter P*ss, who’s personnel are Jobi Jones (Vocals), Grand Glitter (Guitar/Vocals), MacDaddy Glitter (Guitar), Tom Vom Glitter (Bass) and Vittu Glitter (Drums). These Brighton based lads are in essence loud US pre-punk noise merchants who waiver on the outskirts of filthy metal and perform the best cover of The Damned’s ‘New Rose’ that I can recall having heard. It’s worth seeing them just for that!
They were followed by Brighton’s very own School Disco trio. Who I have to laughingly convey have the biggest band name misrepresentation in the business, as you really couldn’t get as far away from Chic’s ‘Le Freak’ and Funkadelic’s ‘One Nation Under A Groove’ if you tried – nice one lads! They say they are a ‘surfing psych pop trio’ but once again, I would respectfully refute this and say they were tonight more a dirge version of heavy metal kids, who share vocal duties when they are not performing an instrumental. They had so much power and distortion coming from just three guys, it was quite amazing really.
Learn more about the bands here:
More info on The Richmond here: https://therichmondbar.co.uk/
