THEATRE OF HATE + DAVE UNDERHAND – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 20.4.22
Tonight at The Prince Albert near Brighton Station, Theatre Of Hate finally got to perform tracks from their latest album ‘Utsukushi-sa (A Thing Of Beauty)’ which dropped two years ago. After the Covid-enforced delay, the band were here this evening on date 6 of 10 of the UK tour.
In September the band will be flying out to the old U S of A in order to spread their message on a tour with The Mission and Chameleons. That’s certainly some bill, let’s hope the trio have the same idea for the UK next year!
This popular Brighton pub (‘The Albert’) was absolutely rammed this evening. But that is to be expected as I reckon that Kirk Brandon and his boys could have sold out the venue two or three times over. We were fortunate to be able to get in! It was sardine central there, but thankfully the venue had installed a brand new air conditioning unit, so the temperature was just right.
Support was originally meant to come from Derek Forbes & The Dark. You may recall Scottish bassist Derek from the early days of Simple Minds from 1978 to 1985. However, I saw a recent photo of one of Derek’s eyes and it appeared that the blood vessels had possibly burst. I wish you well sir!
So stepping in at late notice was Dave Underhand with his Squier guitar. His solo set began at 8:25pm and ran for around half an hour.
In 1980, Kirk Brandon formed Theatre Of Hate from the ashes of heralded punk band The Pack. Joining Kirk was Stan Stammers along with Luke Rendall, plus old school friend Steve Guthrie and Canadian born John “Boy” Lennard, who revolutionised the band’s sound with his haunting sax lines.
Theatre Of Hate’s debut double-A-side single, ‘Original Sin/Legion’, topped the independent chart in 1980, and their debut studio album ‘Westworld’, released in 1982, was produced by none other than Mick Jones from The Clash and held the number one position for an amazing 21 weeks. The single taken from the album, ‘Do You Believe In The Westworld?’ has become an anthem and is still widely played in clubs and on international radio, as well as featuring on numerous compilation albums.
Supporting the likes of The Clash and Ian Dury led to Theatre Of Hate headlining major venues across the UK and Northern Europe.
Sadly, Theatre Of Hate called it a day in 1982, with Kirk taking Stan forward to form Spear Of Destiny. The band has resurfaced over the years to play some very special shows.
Having been asked to join The Damned for a massive show at London’s infamous Roundhouse in December 2014, the band once again joined the fray. A short set of dates around the London anchor show attracted rave reviews, as did a 6 night sold out run in December 2014. Then in 2015 they made two short jaunts across the UK in April and December both sets of dates wowed large crowds.
During touring in 2014 and 2015, the band constantly recorded at Oxygen Studios in Manchester, the first new studio album in 30+ years ‘Kinshi’ was released on October 14th 2016. The 12 new songs were simply stunning and on 9th November 2018 eager fans were served ‘Sensou’ from the band. As stated above their latest platter ‘Utsukushi-sa (A Thing Of Beauty)’ arrived two years later.
Back to this evening and bang on 9:30pm and the ‘Where Eagles Dare (Main Theme)’ rang out of the speakers. The side door opened and on walked the quintet who were ready to do business for the next 90 minutes!
The quintet consists of magnetic frontman Kirk Brandon, with assistance from the ever present Stan Stammers on Fender Jaguar bass, with Spear Of Destiny member Adrian Portas on Gretsch guitar (formally of New Model Army), Chris Bell who was the original Spear Of Destiny drummer (as well being on the stix for the Thompson Twins and Gene Loves Jezebel) and Clive Osborne (from The Dynamite Band) on saxophone.
They opened with the first of two numbers from their excellent ‘Kinshi’ album, that being ‘Black Irony’, the other being ‘Day Of The Dog’. Surprisingly sandwiched in between these two was their debut single ‘Original Sin’ from 1980, which I would have guessed at being an encore track, but I guess that this did allow Kirk to have an early outing with his unique raised hands dance.
The ever present ‘63’ song followed, with its wonderful rumbly bass work from Stan. This is a staple diet of TOH live gigs and thank God it is. Song five (‘Solace’) was the first of a handful of tunes found on the latest ‘Utsukushi-sa (A Thing Of Beauty)’ album. The other four were ‘A Thing Of Beauty’, ‘Pariah’ (which sounds it could have been released in 1982 – happy days!), ‘Girl’ and ‘You Can’t Stop What’s Coming’.
The ‘Rebel Without A Brain’ single B-side ‘My Own Invention’ from 1981 was given an outing next, with walking Cosh Boy advert Stan giving his bass’ A string a good old working out and Clive’s saxophone break was a corker too. Kirk’s vocals were also particularly strong during the track as well. But the vocals went into overdrive for ‘Rebel Without A Brain’.
Not to be left out, Adrian’s low slung guitar intro for ’Conquistador’ was a set highlight, as was Chris’ tribal drumming on following numbers ‘Poppies’ and ‘Pariah’. Incidentally, on ‘Pariah’, Kirk swapped his trusty guitar (which has “Kirk” emblazoned on it in two places) for a Fender for the one number.
The final number of the main set was ‘Propaganda’ which highlighted the harmony between the animated Stan with his rumbly bass and Chris with his tribal drumming – terrific stuff!
For the first of three encore tunes, Chris took to the stage and earnt his drum solo on ‘Omen’, and the lads shortly joined him. The penultimate number was ‘Incinerator’ which can be found on the 1981 ‘Nero’ single. This stated Stan was their “punk rock disco number” and he wasn’t wrong either. Think Killing Joke’s ‘Pssyche’ and you are in the right zone. They closed with the timeless ‘Do You Believe In The Westworld?’. The last notes of this finished bang on the 11pm curfew. Such professionals!
Tonight was always going to have mixed feelings with me as on 9th November 2018 at the previous Theatre Of Hate Brighton concert – which took place at Patterns – I properly met ‘The Queen of Punk Rock’ Jordan Mooney for the first time. We got on rather well. This led to a true friendship which developed into so much more. We became partners and now she has left us all.
Theatre Of Hate setlist:
‘Black Irony’ (from 2016 ‘Kinshi’ album)
‘Original Sin’ (from 1980 ‘Original Sin’/’Legion’ single)
‘Day Of The Dog’ (from 2016 ‘Kinshi’ album)
‘63’ (from 1982 ‘Westworld’ album)
‘Solace’ (from 2020 ‘Utsukushi-sa (A Thing Of Beauty)’ album
‘A Thing Of Beauty’ (from 2020 ‘Utsukushi-sa (A Thing Of Beauty)’ album)
‘My Own Invention’ (from 1981 ‘Rebel Without A Brain’ single)
‘Eastworld’ (from 1982 ‘Eastworld’ single)
’Conquistador’ (from 1982 ‘Westworld’ album)
‘Poppies’ (from 1981 ‘Live At The Lyceum’ cassette)
‘Pariah’ (from 2020 ‘Utsukushi-sa (A Thing Of Beauty)’ album
‘Girl’ (from 2020 ‘Utsukushi-sa (A Thing Of Beauty)’ album
‘Rebel Without A Brain’ (from 1981 ‘Rebel Without A Brain’ single)
‘You Can’t Stop What’s Coming’ (from 2020 ‘Utsukushi-sa (A Thing Of Beauty)’ album
‘Freaks’ (from 1982 ‘Westworld’ album)
‘Judgement Hymn’ (from 1982 ‘Westworld’ album)
‘Legion’ (from 1980 ‘Original Sin’/’Legion’ single)
‘Propaganda’ (from 1982 ‘Do You Believe In The Westworld?’ single)
(encore)
‘Omen’ (from 1993 ‘Ten Years After’ album)
‘Incinerator’ (from 1981 ‘Nero’ single)
‘Do You Believe In The Westworld?’ (from 1982 ‘Westworld’ album)
For more Theatre Of Hate information, visit: www.kirkbrandon.com
