Shoegaze supremos Slowdive woo Brighton audience

SLOWDIVE + TOOTHPASTE – CONCORDE 2, BRIGHTON 12.12.18

After an absence of a massive 22 years, the 5th May 2017 was a groundbreaking day for arguably the UK’s leading shoegaze outfit, Slowdive, as what seemed as right out of the blue, they dropped their self-titled fourth studio album.

This new Slowdive 46 minute 8 tracker was a welcomed breath of fresh air for the British music buying public as they purchased it in sufficient numbers to enable the album to be catapulted straight into the Top 20 albums chart. Extraordinarily, this was the five pieces first taste of dizzying chart success, with only their debut album ‘Just For A Day’ denting the Top 40 at No.32 back in 1991.

‘Slowdive’ the album was a big hit amongst the shoegaze fraternity and indeed further afield where it won the accolade of being ‘Album Of The Year’ at the A2IM Libera Awards and was voted No.3 in the Exclaim! Canadian Magazine Top 20 Pop & Rock Albums of 2017.

Slowdive’s original releases were put out on the legendary Creation Records label which was founded in 1983 by Alan McGee, Dick Green, and Joe Foster. It was one of those inspirational labels that had a keen eye on the happening music of the time and also boasted acts including Primal Scream, The Jesus And Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine amongst their ranks. Clearly McGee and his mates were ahead of the game and although they secured a long line of critically acclaimed releases, these didn’t necessary convert to cash in the bank. The upshot being that they were gobbled up by the Sony empire and ended up signing some band called Oasis.

Slowdive’s studio album discography only extends to a mere 4 platters of juicy vinyl – ‘Just For A Day’ (1991), ‘Souvlaki’ (1993), ‘Pygmalion’ (1995) and the aforementioned ‘Slowdive’ (2017) , but having said that, everyone of them is a corker and you can hear untold nods to the Slowdive sound in many of today’s up-and-coming young shoegaze bands.

Slowdive are one of those critically acclaimed bands who has influenced a whole musical generation with their eye watering – ear buzzing sounds. They have earned the credibility and so they easily sold out the Concorde 2 in Brighton this evening, despite their lack of chart success. Which just goes to prove that because music is in the charts doesn’t mean that it will last or be remembered like our Slowdive friends who originally hailed from Reading, Berkshire.

Slowdive’s personnel are Rachel Goswell (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Neil Halstead (vocals, guitar), Christian Savill (guitar), Nick Chaplin (bass guitar) and Simon Scott (drums). There is a massive clue to how the bands all encompassing swirling sounds are created, when you realise that tonight that some of the tunes from their fourteen song set are performed in harmony by no less than three guitars and a bass hitting your ear holes at the same time. There was indeed a decent slab of guitar waggling during the most enjoyable performance.

I spied some fans standing with their eyes firmly closed shut as they let the layers of music hit their bodies as they flew away with the sounds to another world. The regular dual-harmonies worked a treat and could be likened to aspects of the work of the Cocteau Twins or ‘I’m In Love With A German Film Star’ by The Passions.

Tonight’s Slowdive performance was my first and it was very much as I had expected, these five mysterious people virtually let their music do all the talking, with hardly any audience engagement. They came, the played, they conquered!

We all enjoyed their set and Slowdive thankfully enjoyed our company as they have posted “Thankyou Brighton, you were lovely” on their social media.

The only slight complaint was after they had finished performing, a roadie took away the setlists that the fans were screaming for. Interestingly enough, he had forgotten to whisk away the drummers and so now it proudly sits in my collection (see below).

Tonight’s Slowdive setlist reads:
‘Slomo’ (found on 2017 ‘Slowdive’ album)
‘Slowdive’ (found on 1990 ‘Slowdive’ debut EP)
‘Catch The Breeze’ (found on 1991 ‘Catch the Breeze’/’Shine’ debut single & 1991 ‘Holding Your Breath’ EP & 1991 ‘Just For A Day’ debut album)
‘Crazy For You’ (found on 1995 ‘Pygmalion’ album)
‘Star Roving’ (found on 2017 ‘Star Roving’ single & 2017 ‘Slowdive’ album)
‘Avalyn’ (found on 1990 ‘Slowdive’ debut EP)
‘Souvlaki Space Station’ (found on 1993 ‘Outside Your Room’ EP & 1993 ‘Souvlaki’ album)
‘No Longer Making Time’ (found on 2017 ‘Slowdive’ album)
‘Alison’ (found on 1993 ‘Outside Your Room’ EP & 1993 ‘Souvlaki’ album)
‘When The Sun Hits’ (found on 1993 ‘Souvlaki’ album)
‘Sugar For The Pill’ (found on 2017 ‘Sugar For The Pill’ single & 2017 ‘Slowdive’ album)
‘Golden Hair’ (found on 1991 ‘Holding Your Breath’ EP) (Syd Barrett cover)
(encore)
‘Dagger’ (found on 1993 ‘Souvlaki’ album)
‘40 Days’ (found on 1993 ‘Souvlaki’ album)

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Support tonight came from a London indie four-piece strangely called Toothpaste, who were Amol Prabhu (vocals/guitar), Daisy Edwards (bass), Sami Parisis (drums) and Jack (guitar) and they are of a dreampop nature and clearly were influenced by Slowdive.

Understandingly they went down well with the sold out crowd as they performed several tunes including their recently released ‘Bedtime’ track, which incidentally to me had a drumming sound rather like Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting’. In fact, I felt that their compositions are drumming lead and Sami was doing a good job. Although, someone had better point out to the good-looking charismatic Mr Prabhu that possibly saying “We are Toothpaste” six different times during their set, might be a tad overkill. Having said that, they were a polite bunch and have posted “If you watched our set this evening we are eternally grateful, we had a blast and hope you did too”.

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