SPIZZENERGI + JOHNNY MOPED – PATTERNS, BRIGHTON 5.5.23
Almost a year on from their memorable performances at ‘The Official Jordan Mooney Charity Memorial Concert’ at the Concorde 2, local promoters Black Rabbit Productions & Pogo Events Presents have tonight successfully brought back none other than Spizzenergi and Johnny Moped to once again perform live in Brighton. This time around the artists are appearing at Patterns and this evening’s events have been highly anticipated by those fans in attendance.
Spizzenergi is the band centred around the extravagant London-based vocalist Spizz. Throughout the years, the band has had a lot of names, from Spizzoil and Spizzles to the somewhat lengthy Athletico Spizz 80, but the music has always remained the same, a mix of punk’s energy and the futuristic vision of its singer, a man still hoping the future will deliver us from the miserable present.
The first ever UK Indie Singles Chart appeared on 19th January 1980 and the number one single that week was a mere 2 minutes and 17 seconds in length and had been released on Rough Trade Records in December 1979 and it stayed put for a further six weeks – that record being ‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’ by Spizzenergi. What a fabulous milestone for the band! No-one will ever be able to take that away from them!
Spizz himself is exactly what the music industry needs – a real eccentric, but loveable character! There’s just something very British about Spizz’s psyche. Battling on in his own inimitable style and not taking a blind bit of notice of what anyone else thinks. His amount of eccentricity within our British society overall is equally balanced in proportion with his vast courage, his mental vigour and his genius. I can’t understand why he isn’t based in bohemian Brighton, where he would no doubt reside within a folly or something similar.
Nowadays, Spizz and his eclectic Sputnik-esque crew consists of Luca Comencini (guitar), Ben Lawson (bass), Phil Ross (guitar) and Alan Galaxy (drums).
Their most recent releases are the singles ‘Christmas In Denmark Street’ in 2020, followed up with a cover of David Bowie’s ‘Valentine’s Day’ in 2021, both singles mixed by Bowie’s long-time producer Tony Visconti.
Johnny Moped was described by Billy Childish as thus: “Johnny Moped had all three ingredients necessary for maximum rock ‘n’ roll: amateurism, mayhem and humour… Essential punk rock!”.
Few bands on the Damaged Goods roster are loved as much as Johnny Moped. One of the original ’77 punk bands, they were at the heart of the London punk scene, regulars at the Roxy Club, and highly regarded by both fans and their peers.
Their ranks famously included Chrissie Hynde, who went on to have a successful career with the Pretenders as well as a solo career; and Captain Sensible was also in Johnny Moped, prior to becoming famous with the Damned. In fact, Captain Sensible came back and played with them again for the aforementioned ‘The Official Jordan Mooney Charity Memorial Concert’.
In 2006 the ‘Johnny Moped Bootleg Tapes Vol 1 & 2’, a compilation of rarities was unleashed. Since then, the revitalised band released a studio album in 2016 called ‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’, closely followed by a reissue of their 1978 classic ‘Cycledelic’.
2019 saw the band release ‘Living In A Dream World‘ 7″ single on a choice of three different colours. The track was taken from their ‘Lurrigate Your Mind’ album.
If you have 77 minutes to spare, then quite possibly one of the best things that you can do is to watch the funny and often moving 2013 film, ‘Basically, Johnny Moped’ which gives an in depth account of one of UK music’s great lost treasures. It’s still rated as 7.4 on IMDb and can be found on Netflix.
Johnny Moped have recorded sessions for Marc Riley’s BBC 6Music show and have also played tours around Europe, which were followed by a string of dates in the UK supporting long-time associates The Damned – Read the Brighton & Hove News review of the Brighton date HERE.
The current lineup consists of remaining original members, Johnny Moped and Slimy Toad, joined by Rock ‘n’ Roll Robot (Rob from CASE) on guitar, Jacko Pistorious on bass, and drummer Marty Love (following the departure of Dave Berk).
In addition to Billy Childish’s statement above, I would simply like to add that you can sum up (the band) Johnny Moped by referencing the minor hit single by Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias…..‘Heads Down, No Nonsense, Mindless Boogie’. It does what it says on the tin! Thus when Johnny Moped took to the Patterns stage at 7:41pm, down in front of Slimy, Robot and Jacko there were no banks of foot pedals, just the one each, and no changeovers of guitars or bass. It’s God honest R’n’B rock’n’roll punk all the way through to the end of their 61 minute set at 8:42pm.
Whilst I’m referring to timings, it was worth bearing in mind that this is a double-header gig and so both acts would be performing for around an hour. It would have been beneficial for Johnny Moped to have been given a 7:30pm slot instead of 7:40pm. The venue was pleasingly packed with punters of all ages, from 20 to 70, for the beginning of the Johnny Moped set. By going on at 7:30pm would have averted the anxiety in the Spizz camp, as to whether they could make a swift changeover and begin their set on time. As it turned out, they DID make it and even began a minute early, but still erred on the side of caution by dropping their terrific ‘No Room’ single…Gutted or what!
We were camped at the front Stage left, crowd right) and immediately in front of me was cap and sunglasses wearing Rock ‘n’ Roll Robot on his Gibson SG guitar. To his right (our left) was Paul Halford aka Johnny Moped, who, as ever, was donning his trademark studded leather jacket. I bet that’s seen many interesting things down the years! He had the sniffles during the first few songs of the set and I was getting worried as to whether he was able to carry on. He exhausted his supply of tissues in his jeans pockets, but thankfully the longer the set went on the better he became. Clearly not allergic to his loyal fans then!
Next to Johnny Moped was Jacko Pistorious on his Fender Precision bass, who was proudly sporting the band’s t-shirt as well as a skirt, no doubt for ‘ventilation’ purposes! On the far end (stage right, our left) was Slimy Toad, who was in charge of his Fender Telecaster. He was wearing his trademark knitted red headgear which is something akin to no doubt found in WI meetings across the land. Being wool, it’s hot, and so after a few numbers it was discarded. ‘Ventilation’ was also the order of the day with Slimy as well. To the rear of the stage, and very much the driving force of the unit, is stixman Marty Love.
The quintet rattled through no less than 18 tunes, although, due to time constraints (there you go, should have been 7:30pm start!), they had to drop their penultimate number, which was their debut ‘No One’ single from back in 1977. Shame!
Tonight’s tune selection therefore spanned from 1978, instead of 1977, and ran right up to 2019. You know the beautiful thing was that they all sounded in the same mould, thus it was nye on impossible to ascertain what decade each track came from. That’s part of their appeal. For the more mature punters, it was the sound of their youth still being played today, and for the youngsters, it was a case of dependable music that they could enjoy and go home and investigate. There were three generations of fans here this evening and looking around, they were all equally enjoying themselves.
Highlights for the set for me were, 2016’s decent punk rock sounding ‘Ain’t No Rock ‘n’ Roll Rookie’ (from ‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’ album); 1978’s hard ‘n’ fast ‘Panic Button’ (from ‘Cycledelic’ album); 2016’s ‘Simon Can’t’ (also from ‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’ album), which had an almost disco beat; ‘Bert Bullet Head’ (‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’ album) with its T.Rex ‘Bang A Gong (Get It On)’ similar riff; their 1978 “singalong number” ‘Darling, Let’s Have Another Baby’ (from ‘Cycledelic’ album) which was Jordan Mooney’s earworm tune; ‘He’s Got It’ (‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’ album) which starts rather like the Sex Pistols ‘Belsen Was A Gas’ courtesy of Robot’s riff; and finally 2019’s ‘Black Witch Climax Blues Band Genetic Breakdown’ (from ‘Lurrigate Your Mind’ album), the riff of which wasn’t far off The Clash’s version of ‘Police And Thieves’.
In conclusion then, it’s fair to state that Paul Halford aka Johnny Moped isn’t the best singer in the world at the moment, in fact far from it, but to be honest, that doesn’t really matter as the bloke’s a cult hero!
Johnny Moped:
Paul Halford aka Johnny Moped – vocals
Slimy Toad – guitar, backing vocals
Rock ‘n’ Roll Robot (Rob from CASE) – guitar, backing vocals
Jacko Pistorious – bass
Marty Love – drums
Johnny Moped setlist:
‘Catatonic’ (from 2019 ‘Lurrigate Your Mind’ album)
‘No Way Back’ (from 2019 ‘Lurrigate Your Mind’ album)
‘Living In A Dream World’ (from 2019 ‘Lurrigate Your Mind’ album)
‘Ain’t No Rock ‘n’ Roll Rookie’ (from 2016 ‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’ album)
‘VD Boiler’ (from 1978 ‘Cycledelic’ album)
‘Panic Button’ (from 1978 ‘Cycledelic’ album)
‘Hey Belinda!’ (from 2019 ‘Lurrigate Your Mind’ album)
‘Simon Can’t’ (from 2016 ‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’ album)
‘I Believed Her Lies’ (from 1991 ‘The Search For Xerxes’ album)
‘Bert Bullet Head’ (from 2016 ‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’ album)
‘Wee Wee’ (from 1978 ‘Cycledelic’ album)
‘Hiawatha’ (from 1991 ‘The Search For Xerxes’ album)
‘Darling, Let’s Have Another Baby’ (from 1978 ‘Cycledelic’ album)
‘He’s Got It’ (from 2016 ‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’ album)
‘Black Witch Climax Blues Band Genetic Breakdown’ (from 2019 ‘Lurrigate Your Mind’ album)
‘Real Cool Baby’ (from 2016 ‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’ album)
‘Incendiary Device’ (from 1978 ‘Cycledelic’ album)
‘Little Queenie’ (from 1978 ‘Cycledelic’ album)
‘Hard Lovin’ Man’ (from 1978 ‘Little Queenie’ single)
More on Johnny Moped HERE.
And now onto the Spizzenergi set that, as I mentioned earlier, began at 8:59pm. This consisted of 15 tunes that spanned from 1978 right up to a brand new number that isn’t even released yet.
As this quintet took to the stage, the first thing I noted was that guitarist Phil Ross wasn’t actually weaning any face paint as he had done on the last few occasions that I’ve witnessed the band. It makes him look like The Joker in Batman.
Then I studied Spizz’s attire, and as usual he was wearing eight little LED ring lights on his fingers of differing colours, these were individually ceremoniously thrown into the crowd for souvenirs for eight lucky fans part way through their set. Spizz was also wearing a pair of goggles with blue LED lights on the side, the punk version of Orbital’s I guess. Around his waist was his scrolling green light LED belt, and just in case we weren’t aware which one he was, he was sporting a black t-shirt with the words “Spizzenergi Singer”. As you would expect Spizz was centre stage!
In front of me was Italian Luca Comencini, who coincidentally was also playing a Gibson SG guitar (as had The Moped’s Robot earlier). He was sporting a red and black Spizzenergi t-shirt. Over the other side of the stage (and next to Spizz) was Phil Ross on his Fender Telecaster guitar, and on his right (our left) was Ben Lawson, who last year informed me that he “had an unusual Japanese manufactured bass that he has had for the past 25 years and that he had done some work on it and brought it back to life”. To the rear was drummer Alan Galaxy, who quietly and efficiently gets on with the job.
Tonight was yet another tight set from the outfit that never really fails to entertain the crowd. Spizz is very much an entertainer and throws in one or two gimmicks, which usually involve pulling large flags from his trousers. Tonight, this included an adapted version of the Star-Spangled Banner flag during its intro riff prior to launching into ‘Soldier Soldier’, which was song five and the best of the set thus far.
After this tune we were given a treat in the form of newbie ‘The Death Of The Free Man’ which Spizz informed us had only been played live twice before. It benefitted from a slow glam rock style intro which was followed by the catchy chorus “Uh Ow Uh Ow The Death Of The Free Man”. The number speeds up only to slow down again and at the end of the tune, Spizz held up another flag, this one was black with white writing, that being the title of the song. It was a decent number, and I was wondering what other goodies the outfit is working on, more of similar vain I hope.
The 2014 ‘City Of Eyes’ single was up next, which benefited from Ben’s rumbly bass parts. As the number was closing Spizz let off a confetti cannon. For ‘Red And Black’ (the colour of Luca’s t-shirt), his guitar riff was in the same ballpark as the Sex Pistols version of The Monkees 1967 ‘(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone’ hit. Alan’s drumming on this number was notable as well. This has been the best version I have witnessed of this track thus far.
After the nostalgia of the 2020 ‘Christmas In Denmark Street’ single, Ben gave us much bass riffage (as synth replacement) for Roxy Music’s ‘Virginia Plain’, which Spizz had originally recorded for the ‘Soldier Soldier’ single. As ever ‘Clocks Are Big’ segued into the 1979 ‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’ masterpiece, which I still haven’t got bored of. Spizz’s retro ray gun was out for the final number, ‘I Fought The Law’, which was originally by The Crickets but made famous by The Clash, and Phil handed over his microphone to fans for them to sing a few words from the tune.
The time was 9:55pm and there would have been time for ‘No Room’ after all, or even the 2021 cover of David Bowie’s ‘Valentine’s Day’, or ‘Amnesia’ the B-side of ‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’ single or maybe the Athletico Spizz 80 ‘Central Park’ single or even ‘Spock’s Missing’ the B-side of ‘No Room’.
Spizzenergi:
Spizz – vocals
Luca Comencini – guitar, backing vocals
Ben Lawson – bass, backing vocals
Phil Ross – guitar
Alan Galaxy – drums
Spizzenergi setlist:
‘6000 Crazy’ (Spizzoil cover) (from 1978 ‘6000 Crazy’ single)
‘Mega City 3’ (Spizzenergi 2 cover) (from 1982 ‘Mega City 3’ / ‘Work’ single)
‘Shallow End’ (from 2020 ‘Christmas In Denmark Street’ single)
‘European Heroes’ (Athletico Spizz 80 cover) (from 1980 ‘Do A Runner’ album)
‘Star Spangled Banner’ / ‘Soldier Soldier’ (from 1979 ‘Soldier Soldier’ single)
‘The Death Of The Free Man’ (unreleased)
‘City Of Eyes’ (from 2014 ‘City Of Eyes’ single)
‘Here Come The Machines’ (from 2017 ‘Here Come The Machines’ single)
‘Red And Black’ (Spizzoil cover) (from 1979 ‘Cold City : 4’ EP)
‘Christmas In Denmark Street’ (from 2020 ‘Christmas In Denmark Street’ single)
‘Virginia Plain’ (Roxy Music cover) (from 1979 ‘Soldier Soldier’ single)
‘Clocks Are Big’ (Athletico Spizz 80 cover) (from 1980 ‘Do A Runner’ album)
‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’ (from 1979 ‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’ single)
(encore)
‘The Model’ (Kraftwerk cover) (from 1998 ‘The Model’ EP)
‘I Fought The Law’ (The Crickets cover) (from 2015 ‘Live’ DVD)
In 1980, someone scrawled ‘SPIZZ80’ on the bus-shelter by the floral clock; it was there for years…..
Great review and I loved it last night. Living in a Dreamworld by Johnny Moped is one of my favourite songs of recent years and as for Spizz, crackers but always great to watch. Soldier Soldier is a true classic of it’s time to me. Excellent gig, hope they play together again down here soon.