SALAD + HOPS – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 16.4.23
Tonight is the first time that I’ve seen Salad for twenty-six years, and I’m very much looking forward to it. However, first up at The Hope & Ruin we have Hops to contend with. That’s not Hops the brewing ingredient, but Hops the band. Hops are Brighton based and describe themselves as “Alt-rock”. I would say that’s a tag that doesn’t really do the band justice, as their music, whilst definitely rock, is probably too imaginative and inventive to be classified further within the genre.
There is certainly something unusual about Hops. They are apparently led by a robot called M1lo, who is positioned at the front of the stage. Non-believers would possibly describe him as a cardboard box with lights inside atop a mic stand, but I fear that would be a dangerous position to take. Let’s just graciously welcome M1lo to the review and leave it at that.
M1lo isn’t the only unusual thing about Hops. They have no bass player as such. The bass parts are played on a baritone guitar. Thus for the first song they have three guitarists, but that is where any comparisons with Lynyrd Skynyrd end. They do rock fabulously though, and there is some very impressive lead guitar. The instrumental passages throughout are really exciting. The band’s line-up is completed by a keyboard player.
For the second song, ‘Hyper Reality’, one of the guitarists switches to synth. This guy would appear to be something of a multi-instrumentalist as for the next song he moves to saxophone, whilst the baritone guitarist and the drummer swap places. They perform a jazzy number in 5/4 from their musical (I kid you not) ‘Mechanical Hops: The Musical’. This doubtlessly august artistic endeavour is being performed at Brighton’s Rossi Bar on Saturday night – details HERE.
Their penultimate song is described as being “very old”. To them it probably is, but I don’t think that there are many other people in the room that have heard it before. It’s choppy and biting and I’m sure that most of us would very much like to hear it again. For the final song ‘Burning Up’, the guitarist and baritone guitarist swap instruments, and an aptly fiery solo is delivered. Hops are one of the most interesting bands that I’ve seen for a long time, and I look forward to seeing them again.
Hops:
Sam – vocals, bass
George – guitar
Greg – drums, keys
Milo – keys, guitar, sax
Ben – keys
Hops setlist:
‘Batz’
‘Hyperreality (Parts 1 & 2)’
‘Five Fingers On My Hand’
‘Flaking’
‘Song 3’
‘One/Sixteen’
‘Burning Up’
Salad are one of the most glaring ‘should’ve beens’ of the 1990s. They were a great live band with awesome material, and in my humble opinion they should have been huge. Record sales were their undoing however, when such things really mattered. Their best selling single ‘Motorbike To Heaven’ reached No.42 in the charts, and whilst their debut album ‘Drink Me’ peaked at No.16, the follow-up ‘Ice Cream’ stalled at 127. I suspect that this was more due to a lack of promotion by Island Records than the actual quality of the album (which was pretty good, incidentally). The band were subsequently dropped by Island and split up in 1998.
Vocalist Marijne van der Vlugt and guitarist Paul Kennedy started working together in 2016 as Salad Undressed. The following year they changed their name back to Salad and started performing as a full electric band, releasing an album ‘The Salad Way’ in 2019. The current line-up is completed by Donald Ross Skinner (formerly the guitarist in Julian Cope’s band) on drums, and Jon Hunt on bass.
When they take the stage Marijne is wearing a Mr Nibs (the name of her rabbit apparently) T-shirt emblazoned with a message telling us to eat our greens. Salad: not just a band but a public information service as well!!! The first song, ‘Diminished Clothes’ sounds as if they’ve never been away. They’ve certainly lost none of their power, and Marijne’s voice is still a very wonderful instrument. It becomes clear early on that this show is not about oldies or nostalgia, and Salad are very much a current, functioning band. Second song is ‘The Selfishness Of Love’, a single from 2018. Marijne plays more keyboards than I remember, and it’s easy to forget what an integral part of the band’s sound her keyboards are.
For ‘Granite Statue’ Marijne strikes some statue-like poses, before ‘In The Dark’, which was written before the pandemic, but is about learning something new, and comes from their 2019 album ‘The Salad Way’. Apparently during lockdown Marijne learnt to play the clarinet. Unfortunately she doesn’t play it tonight. ‘Details’, another single from 2020 is apparently about Marijne being annoyed with guitarist Paul Kennedy. ‘Your Face’ is a love song, and is another newer song from 2019’s ‘The Salad Way’.
Next we get to ‘Your Ma’. For those who may be unaware of this song, it is about a teenage boy (Marijne tells us: “let’s just say he’s seventeen”) having an affair with his friend’s mother. Marijne describes the song’s subject matter as “wildly inappropriate” and wonders “what was I thinking”. They were different times Marijne, different times. It’s still a spectacularly good song though. It probably wouldn’t be released as a single A-side today though.
‘Name Drops’ is from the much maligned ‘Ice Cream’ album. It was written in 1991 and sounds oddly Beatle-ish, especially in terms of the chords used. ‘Things In Heaven’ is a more recent single from 2020. Marijne now lives in Brighton and the video for ‘Things In Heaven’ was filmed on Rottingdean beach. The song was apparently written after Paul Kennedy had a head injury. Another ‘Ice Cream’ song is ‘Yeah Yeah’, which is apparently a drinking song. I either didn’t know that, or I’d forgotten it. Better give it another listen!
Another new song is ‘I Didn’t Know You’d Gone’, which was released as a single last month, and is about not realising that your girlfriend has left you. My other half calls me ‘Mr Oblivious’, but I don’t think even I would be that oblivious!!! We get an even newer song in the form of ‘Where I’m At’, which has yet even to be recorded. The minor and 7th chords used give it a vaguely slow country feel, although the choppy choruses have an almost reggae feel.
We hit the home straight with ‘Man With A Box’ (Marijne tells us: “you’ll like this one”) and then ‘Drink The Elixir’, for which they’re joined by guitarist Dan Cross. That’s the end of the main set. They don’t bother leaving the stage though. They just turn their backs on us until we clap loud enough for them to turn back again. Fair enough!!! The encores are ‘Motorbike To Heaven’ (dedicated to our esteemed photographer Cherie Elody!) and ‘Kent’, which was the title track of their first EP from 1993. This is dedicated to an audience member who actually lives in Kent. Apparently Marijne is going to sign his forehead with indelible ink after the show.
I had hoped that Salad would still be a good live band, but I was delighted to find that they were not resting on their laurels and had a good chunk of newer material to present to us. Nearly half of the set originates from the last six years, which is a very positive state of affairs. They remain a vital and vibrant band with plenty still to say. So, could we have some more gigs please?
Salad:
Marijne van der Vlugt – vocals, keys
Paul Kennedy – guitar
Donald Ross Skinner – drums
Jon Hunt – bass
Salad setlist:
‘Diminished Clothes’ (from 1993 ‘Diminished Clothes’ single)
‘The Selfishness Of Love’ (from 2018 ‘The Selfishness Of Love’ single)
‘Granite Statue’ (from 1995 ‘Drink Me’ album)
‘In The Dark’ (from 2019 ‘The Salad Way’ album)
‘Details’ (from 2019 ‘The Salad Way’ album)
‘Your Face’ (from 2019 ‘The Salad Way’ album)
‘Your Ma’ (from 1995 ‘Drink Me’ album)
‘Namedrops’ (from 1997 ‘Ice Cream’ album)
‘Things In Heaven’ (a 2021 single)
‘Yeah Yeah’ (from 1997 ‘Ice Cream’ album)
‘I Didn’t Know You’d Gone’ (a 2023 single)
‘On A Leash’ (from 1994 ‘On A Leash’ EP)
‘Where I’m At’ (unreleased)
‘A Man With A Box’ (from 1995 ‘Drink Me’ album)
‘Drink The Elixir’ (from 1995 ‘Drink Me’ album)
(encore)
‘Motorbike To Heaven’ (from 1995 ‘Drink Me’ album)
‘Kent’ (from 1993 ‘Kent’ EP)
BONUS REVIEW:
SALAD – HMV, BRIGHTON 16.4.23
Prior to their Hope & Ruin performance, Salad had announced that they would be playing an exclusive acoustic instore gig in HMV Brighton (Churchill Square Shopping Centre) at 12 noon on the same day and that admission was free, thus our photographer Cherie Elody went along to check them out before shooting their concert in the evening.
Salad formed in London in the early 90s and still is fronted by a TV presenter/model Marijne van der Vlugt. They were quickly picked by the legendary Island Records and they secured support slots with the likes of Blur. They are now back on the case!
As you would expect, Salad were today situated towards the back of the HMV record store, with the famous Jack Russell terrier, Nipper, featuring as a familiar backdrop.
There was a good turnout of attendees who were happily enjoying this Sunday lunchtime show, which took place whilst the store remained open. Most of the punters had turned up especially for this performance as they were patiently waiting whilst the band sound checked. Their numbers were also bolstered by a few shoppers who decided to check what was going on.
This lunchtime Salad performed 5 songs, beginning with ‘Being Human’ from the 2018 ‘Good Love Bad Love’ album, a number that they didn’t play later on at ‘The Hope’. Next up were two tunes from their 2019 album ‘The Salad Way’, these choices being ‘In The Dark’ and ‘Your Face’.
Their performance was stripped down, but not acoustic, and it was loud enough to block out the noise from the store and shopping centre, and therefore fully engage the audience.
Their penultimate number was their new single ‘I Didn’t Know You’d Gone’ which I guess was the band’s main reason for playing live for us. They ended with their 90s track ‘Drink The Elixir’ found on their ‘Drink Me’ album.
Salad invited us all to join them for their later gig at The Hope & Ruin that evening, and informed us that that show would have a different sound, partly as it their full sound and of course it was going to be a longer set.
This lunchtime, they sounded brilliant! They were so full of joyful energy and showed us how well they gel as a band, and how much fun they still appear to be having performing these songs. This instore gig certainly succeeded in building anticipation for their headline gig tonight!
Salad:
Marijne van der Vlugt – vocals, keys
Paul Kennedy – guitar
Donald Ross Skinner – shakers
Jon Hunt – bass
Salad setlist:
‘Being Human’ (from 2018 ‘Good Love Bad Love’ album)
‘In The Dark’ (from 2019 ‘The Salad Way’ album)
‘Your Face’ (from 2019 ‘The Salad Way’ album)
‘I Didn’t Know You’d Gone’ (a 2023 single)
‘Drink The Elixir’ (from 1995 ‘Drink Me’ album)
