Brighton’s very own electronic duo Fruity Water have announced that they will be performing a set at the Concorde 2 in Brighton on Sunday 29th May 2022. They will be playing live at ‘The Official Jordan Mooney Memorial Charity Concert’ in order to celebrate the life of the famous punk rock and fashion icon that sadly passed away last month.
The Charity Concert will run from 2pm until 11pm and will feature no less than 12 specially selected music groups who were either friends of Jordan’s or were bands that produced music that she loved. The proceeds from ticket sales will be going to Cats Protection and the Music Venue Trust.
Already confirmed for this event in addition to Fruity Water are Gaye Bykers On Acid, The Monochrome Set, Johnny Moped, Spizzenergi, Peter Perrett, Jamie Perrett, DITZ, Bootleg Blondie, AK/DK, The Pink Diamond Revue, and Monakis.
Purchase your tickets from the Concorde 2 website HERE.
Jordan met the Fruity Water guys on more than one occasion and enjoyed their company over a few Gin and Tonics. She also witnessed (and enjoyed) Fruity Water performing live last August when they were headlining at the Green Door Store. Here is the account of their performance that night……
FRUITY WATER – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 25.8.21
The Green Door Store in Brighton are certainly posting their concert notices thick and fast these days. One of their free entry events that came to the attention of the Brighton & Hove News Music Team featured Brighton-based dreamy electro-pop duo Fruity Water, who were going to be performing a summer psyched out treat. It would be rude not to attend, so off we went……
Having been a fabulously warm day, myself and Jordan Mooney leisurely made our way to the Lower Goods Yard below Brighton Train Station and grabbed ourselves some liquid refreshment which should have been ‘fruity water’, but we went a little stronger and purchased a Crabbies and a double Gin & Tonic and made our way outside the Green Door Store to lap up the very last rays of sunshine before heading back inside.
It was time for Fruity Water to take to the stage. The duo consists of Adam Bell on guitar and Smalan Moleman on keyboards and they refer to themselves as “just a couple of lads making some dreamy electro-pop”. It really doesn’t get any more complicated than that. We have had the fortune to have caught these lads playing live around Brighton over the past few years and they have never failed to deliver in their own unassuming way.
This evening there was ample use of their two Yamaha keyboards and Novation by Smalan, which were nicely topped off by bittersweet lyrics and poppy harmonies (and post-rock influenced guitar playing) from Adam, who as always was sporting one of his trademark hats.
The duo were performing three of their 50 minute six song set, for only the second ever time, having debuted them just twelve days earlier at their Rossi Bar performance, but this was my first encounter with the new material.
The guys hit the stage a full 18 minutes earlier than planned (at 9:42pm to be precise) which was a great surprise. This allowed them to sneak in an extra unplanned track, ‘Water The Plants’, at the beginning of their set. The song was a full nine minutes in length and certainly laid down their marker for the rest of their set. This chugging beat monster of a tune was to me an amalgamation of the guitarwork of The Cure and The Smiths meets (dare I say) Dire Straits. It took me back to the 1989 vibe of Electronic, which comprised Bernard Sumner of New Order, ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, and guest vocalist Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys.
Next up was ‘Telephone Song’ which is the opener from their 2020 nine track Big Salad ‘Fuzzy Orange’ album, with its amalgam of New Order meets Orbital break mixed in pseudo Caribbean style Dr Who beat. This was followed by new number ‘Big Bomb’, which again sounds like the Electronic supergroup mixed with Adam’s vocals in the style of Barney from New Order, mixed in with Edwyn Collins of Orange Juice as well as Peter Perrett from the Only Ones.
Next up, “computer says no!”. The first of several brief new software crashes on the laptop. The free version software package previously used was fine and then Smalan upgraded and invested £350 in the ‘proper’ one and now it crashes at every gig! Cue ambient ‘filler’ guitarwork from Adam.
Problem sorted until next time and then “boom boom boom boom” and we are back on track with another New Order sounding song in the form of newbie ‘Heart Beats’. This was followed by another recent composition titled ‘1234’. I was half expecting Dee Dee Ramone to spurt out those numbers, but no, it was the turn of Smalan on vocals for the modern jazzy beat number which evolved into a great dance beat.
Fruity Water had saved the best for last in the form of ‘Bye Bye Me’ from their 2017 ‘Wasted Summer’ single. This is a banging choon that is overlain with frantic fuzzy echoey guitar from Adam. It was hypnotic and awesome and rightly so got the biggest cheer of any song on the night! The euphoria on stage concluded at 10:32pm. However, for myself and my girlfriend it continued for many hours after as the duo had certainly delivered…BIG TIME!
Fruity Water have suddenly since lockdown became a vastly improved outfit and one I look forward to seeing live on many more occasions!
Fruity Water can be located on Bandcamp.
Fruity Water setlist reads:
‘Water The Plants’
‘Telephone Song’
‘Big Bomb’
‘Heart Beats’
‘1234’
‘Bye Bye Me’
