HANDS OFF GRETEL + MUMMY + THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS – NAMBUCCA, LONDON 23.11.19
After facing my own little take on ‘Trains, Tubes and Automobiles’, and making the should have been incredibly simple journey from Brighton to London into more of an endurance test, I eventually arrive at Nambucca located at 596 Holloway Road in London.
The venue has an impressive stage at the back of the room, so all those gathered therein can see what’s happening. There’s state-of-the-art sound and lighting, as well as a solid hardwood dancefloor. Since its reopening at the end of 2014, they have hosted many decent bands including Wolf Alice, Kaiser Chiefs, Slaves, Fat White Family, The Kooks, The Amazons, Wretch 32, We Are Scientists, The Wombats, The Enemy, and Electric Six to name just a few.
Sadly, by the time of my belated arrival, the nights opening act, The Midwich Cuckoos, were midway through set, but thankfully this still gave me more than enough of a taster of the band’s material.
Midwich Cuckoos are a punk band bordering on all-out metal, they’re fast, furious and have some impressive songs under their belt and it clearly shows, as they have a pretty big following in the crowd tonight. Tanzy’s vocals are the perfect combination of rawness and power, think of the Distillers, Brody Dalle meets metal queen Doro Pesch. Standouts tonight were the wild ‘Russian Doll’, and the anthemic crusher ‘Call The Nurse’ both top tunes! Check out the debut album ‘We Are Everywhere’ it’s highly recommended listening.
Learn more about this exciting band on their website www.midwichcuckoos.com
South London boys ‘Mummy‘ are up next. They are a 4-piece apparently consisting of Charlie Elliott, Invisible Frank, Donald Duckworth and Tom Cucumber.
This lot offer up attitude by the bag full, as well as big down-tuned stoner riffs and catchy as f**k hooks, which are all backed up by a wall of sound. They cruise through a mostly fast-paced punk-infused 9 song set with highlights for me the rocking ‘Busy Doing Nothing’, slow-burner ‘Hey’ and the stomping ‘Little Lamb’ which closed the set in true style. Definitely a band to keep an eye on.
Check them out on Soundcloud HERE.
I first caught tonight’s headliners Hands Off Gretel back at the Camden Rocks festival in 2017 and were one of the surprise highlights for me that year.
Hands Off Gretel formed in South Yorkshire five years ago, when the then 16-year-old self-confessed misfit front woman Lauren Tate stuck two-fingers up to the repressive school environment that trapped her and dropped out and collected like-minded individuals (Becky Baldwin (bass), Sean McAvinue (guitar) and Sam Hobbins (drums)), to join in her quest. Inspired by Hole, The Distillers, Nirvana and PJ Harvey, Hands Off Gretel quickly set about creating the perfect soundtrack of sugar-coated grunge-punk for Lauren to vent and rail against the issues of body image, mental health, celebrity, childhood and loneliness she felt enraged by, all of which were addressed from a fiercely female, unapologetic, feminist perspective.
Since the release earlier this year of the highly-rated ‘I Want The World’ album, they have toured the length and breadth of the UK, crammed in festivals, a support slot with The Wildhearts and over to Europe for shows in Germany and the Netherlands, not bad for a DIY band and now sees them return to Nambucca where they held their album launch back in March.
HOG are as I was expecting tonight, pretty damn impressive. They’re a band that oozes style and look just as good as they sound, which makes for a visual and sonic treat for the packed crowd.
Tonight, the band lean more towards 2016’s ‘Burn The Beauty Queen’, giving some of the older songs a much-deserved outing including opener ‘Queen Universe’ and early single ‘One Eyed Girl’, but this doesn’t mean that the new album is completely overlooked.
The highlight of the set for me is the almost-ballad ‘It’s My Fault’ with Lauren’s lyrics and voice sending a tingle down my spine, pure class. Others that stood out tonight was another oldie ‘Under My Bed’ which I’d not heard live before and a storming run through ‘I Want The World’.
As for others that got an airing we were treated to renditions of ‘Blame Myself, ‘My Size’, ‘Milk’ and an unforgettable ‘Kiss Me Girl’ to close the proceedings.
The band all put in fine performances tonight with Becky and Sam not missing a beat, Sean’s Impressive guitar work, grinding out crunching riff after riff and Lauren’s vocals, sugar-sweet one moment, spitting bile the next, truly a great combination.
Get and see this band now as catching them in venues this size will surely soon be a thing of the past!
Hands Off Gretel sure did enjoy this concert as they posted on social media “WOW London you blew us away, what an amazing crowd!!” Not only that, but they added the announcement of a 25-date UK tour, which thankfully includes a gig at the ever popular Green Door Store on Friday 13th March 2020. Tickets go on sale for this new Brighton concert on Friday 29th November at 10am – info HERE.
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