VLURE + SHRIMP EYES – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 24.8.23
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again…“It’s fair to say that the Brighton & Hove News Music Team are always thrilled to witness Vlure (stylized as VLURE) when they come to town as their music and shows are simply fantastic! We have caught them on a number of occasions and the energy in the room on each occasion has been something very special indeed!”.
So when VLURE posted… “Grassroots venues are the lifeblood of this whole industry. Without them, none of the rest of this would tick. Without them, this band would not exist. We have partnered with The National Lottery @tnluk + @musicvenuetrust for a #UnitedByMusic Summer underplay tour in England & Northern Ireland. It will be shining a light on these important spaces. We’re running it back to small venues, it’s going to get sweaty. New music, new merch, new stage show. Get it sent”….We knew that we seriously had to attend their Brighton gig of their select 8-date #UnitedByMusic tour.
The venue of choice was The Hope & Ruin in Queens Road. Here is a venue that has constantly been on the frontline for up-and-coming talent over the past decade or so. It’s inconceivable to think that both Adele and Dua Lipa have graced the first floor stage on their way up to superstardom. I was present at the front of the Dua Lipa show on 17th January 2016 and even then sensed that she was going to “Be The One” and going places judging by the way she strutted across the stage side-to-side. She certainly had the stage presence even then!
Someone else with stage presence is vocalist/frontman Hamish Hutcheson. Yes he IS Scottish, very much so! We initially observed his demeanour during a support slot appearance in Brighton at Chalk on 18th March 2022 and was described as thus…… “This evening at Chalk their set commenced at 7:29pm with a poem from a colleague of theirs who stood not on the stage, but on the back of the crowd barrier. This set the tone for frontman Hamish Hutcheson’s in-yer-face performance as he too addressed the crowd with his enthusiastic barrage of Glaswegian burrs during their seven song 30 minute set. Thirty minutes being the ideal time in which to lay down the gauntlet for the evening and to flag up that 30 minutes will be all they will need in order to gain a whole host of new VLURE fans, not just tonight but when they return to Brighton in May for The Great Escape.
Hamish is the ideal charismatic person to have out front. You can’t help taking your eyes off of him. His performance is edgy and you don’t quite know where he is going next as he patrols the crowd barrier from left to right. Could this be the new Joe Talbot? Hamish’s bandmates not only look the part, but they sound the part too! To me, it’s a wonderful conglomeration of SCALPING, The Ninth Wave and The Murder Capital rolled into one, with added KLF and mid 1980’s to early 90s synth and an industrial EBM vibe”.
But VLURE (who formed back in 2018) aren’t all about Hamish, as many folk that have witnessed a VLURE live performance will bear witness! At times, almost on an equal par is fellow Glaswegian Conor Goldie, who is in charge of drumpad presets with keys and two small electronic units, as well as a trio of guitars. It is Conor that sneaks on stage six minutes before the band commence their compact 8 tune set at 9:48pm in order to push the button that sets off the loud backing tape of Prodigy rave style material. I’m not sure what these tracks were, and have an inkling that they may have even been made by the band, but it’s fair to say that the six minutes of bangers primed the sold out crowd for what was about to hit them!
Completing the quintet are the quiet trio of Conor’s brother Niall Goldie (obviously also from Glasgow), who is on Fender bass duties; as well as keyboardist Alex Pearson, who is from Reading and the only female in the outfit, and offers up backing vocals as well as adding in my favourite parts of the VLURE sound via the Moog Grandmother, Roland Juno-DS, and mini Korg synths; and completing the unit is Carlo Kriekaard originally from The Hague in the Netherlands on drums and laptop duty.
The set kicked off with Hamish stating “Brighton…It’s been a while!” and they launched into two cuts from their 2022 5-track 12” ‘Euphoria’ EP. The first of these being ‘Heartbeat’ which witnessed Hamish moving forward and standing on the front speaker unit in order to get up close and personal with the already converted tribe gathered in front of him. The second track was ‘Show Me How To Live Again’ and during this Hamish whipped up the punters even further, in between adjusting his microphone effects unit.
Hamish instructs us that the next number is their “new single” and it signifies the arrival of March 2023’s ‘This Fantasy’, which is certainly euphoric to say the least and one that seriously needs to be added onto their own Bandcamp page with their other material, instead of just being on Spotify and Soundcloud etc. Their previous single, which dropped in January 2023, was given an outing next and this can be located on their Bandcamp page, this being ‘Cut It’, which I have to divulge was for me a true highlight of their short and sweet 36 minute set… more on that shortly!
‘Cut It’.….does indeed cut it…big time…on the account of its heavy electro punk EBM synth backing beat courtesy of Alex no doubt. It has an added air of The KLF with Hamish’s vocals being likened to that of Bill Drummond’s. Not sure that Bill would have made a few Kung Fu moves before any of their hits, as did Hamish at the start of this. But as Master Po once said “Seek first to know your own journeys beginning and end…But in this seeking, know patience.”
For selection five, the unreleased ‘Heaven Sent‘, Hamish forewarned us that there would be some audience participation required and that we were to turn on our torches on our mobile phones and wave them high towards the sky. The lyrics “So touch the sky with me now, we will never die” were delivered and we thrust our phones aloft and energetically waved them around. After which my dear friend Kate turned to me and divulged that the whole concert was just like an uplifting religious experience! Whereas Hamish informed us that this was the very first time that they had asked the crowd to do this and he was impressed with the positive energy in the room. I’m certain it won’t be the last, so fans attending the remaining tour dates, you have been primed!
Next up was the first VLURE track that I can recall ever hearing, this being their post-punk electronically-soaked debut single ‘Shattered Faith’ from back in March 2021. Hamish meant business and his vest was discarded as was Conor’s. Hamish bellows “I’m nobody’s son” as Alex adds the North African/Arabesque sounding backing vocals, which falls within the remit of ‘My Name Is Ruin’ by Gary Numan – An artist that would surely love VLURE and should have them as support on his next major full UK tour after the acoustic one. This was arguably one of the tunes of the night, and we even all had to crouch down on the floor and bounce up again when directed. A popular crowd participation trick being much used by artists at present and one I first discovered online whilst enjoying Confidence Man’s ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)‘ at ‘Splendour In The Grass’ festival at North Byron Parklands, Wooyung, New South Wales, Australia back in 2017.
VLURE then dedicated the next number to Maxi Jazz, this being their rendition of ‘God Is A DJ’ by Faithless. For this, Hamish introduced a Celtic brother originally from Ireland but now Glasgow based, this being Rhauri Brannigan from The Big Day, a quartet born out of the ashes of Fabric Bear. The Brighton & Hove News reviewed Rhauri and his chums from The Big Day when they played The Prince Albert on 10th November 2021 – Read our account HERE. So with Conor able to leave his workstation on stage right (our left) as Rhauri Brannigan was essentially filling in for him on guitar and keys, Conor was able to move forward to the front of the stage with Hamish and the topless duo certainly showed us how religiously uplifting this tune can be.
Right then lovely punters who attended this concert, it’s maybe wise not to literally assume that everything that Hamish and his bandmates tell you as the be-all-and-end-all, but to take it with a pinch of salt. When we were informed that ‘This Is Not The End’ was to be their final number and they kindly thanked us for coming to the gig and supporting this local venue and local music scene, before both Hamish and Conor heading off into the crowd for some joint vocal action and close crowd bonding, you really need to heed the title of the song…. ‘This Is Not The End’. So when the band whizzed off stage at 10:24pm after only 36 minutes, didn’t anyone previously see the curfew times on the entry door downstairs? It said 11pm. So on conclusion of this number, it might have been ideal to stand your ground and shout “one more song” and clap your hands and stamp your feet, as the quintet were only outside at the merch stall, and certainly would have re-entered the room in order to perform the proposed track ‘Euphoria’ for the encore of their 45 minute set. Shame, we missed out here!
Let’s hope that VLURE return to Brighton pretty soon and that the keen punters stand their ground for an encore. You know it makes sense especially as they are a band very much on the up!
VLURE:
Hamish Hutcheson – vocals
Conor Goldie – guitars, synths
Niall Goldie – bass
Carlo Kriekaard – drums
Alex Pearson – synths, keys
Rhauri Brannigan (as guest) – guitars, synths
VLURE Setlist:
‘Heartbeat’ (from 2022 ‘Euphoria’ EP)
‘Show Me How To Live Again’ (from 2022 ‘Euphoria’ EP)
‘This Fantasy’ (a 2023 single)
‘Cut It’ (a 2023 single)
‘Heaven Sent’ (unreleased)
‘Shattered Faith’ (a 2021 single)
‘God Is A DJ’ (Faithless cover)
‘This Is Not The End’ (unreleased)
Support this evening came from the expanding ranks of London based Shrimp Eyes, who are an act we have thus far not covered. Their set was only two minutes shorter than the headliners and ran from 8:43pm until 9:17pm. The Peckham based four-piece now currently consists of Joseph Goody, Guy Middleham, Didzis Jurgelans and latest recruit (of two months) Leila Mitwally. Although I’m led to believe that the outfit are now also seriously thinking of expanding further and calling on the services of a second guitarist….get your CV’s in early! Alternative indie pro-DIY rockers, Shrimp Eyes, have slowly been building their name and ranks prior to and after the lockdowns and have thus far been featured on Spotify’s ‘Hot New Bands’ playlist, BBC Introducing, 6Music, Radio 1 and have even charted ‘Top 10’ on Amazing Radio.
The equipment of choice at The Hope & Ruin is VLURE’s drumkit which has added Roland effects panel and a separate tambourine as bolted on additions; there’s a Fender Mustang bass along with a dozen foot pedals which are put to great use (via white socks!) throughout the performance; there’s a Fender Stratocaster guitar; and finally a compact Korg keyboard. Vocals during their eight song performance came in the form of more often than not dual vocals from Leila and Joseph.
The quartet open their set with the unreleased ‘Grow And Decline’ which has the real vibe of the Sugarcubes post punk jaunty rhythm and plucky bass. It’s an encouraging start. Song two is the slightly more hip swinging 2021 single ‘Beat Of Time’, which is still joyfully jaunty. After this we had the 2022 single ‘Fits And Starts’, which had some New Order sounding guitar work over a Bauhaus bass sound with the dual vocal delivery. Another pleasant tune, although this did end somewhat abruptly, as did a couple of others throughout the set. The unreleased (and quite possibly future single) ‘Side Quest’ was selection four and sound wise there was more than a nod to The Primitives in music and vocal delivery. The best tune thus far. The 2020 single ‘Straight Up’ was another shared vocal number which chugged along nicely, but not as good as ‘Side Quest’. Another as yet to be recorded song came next, this being ‘Sunshine Shadow’, which benefited from a heavier instrumental break half way through, and might well see the light of day over the coming months.
They move onto their new single ‘Adventures’, which Leila flags up as being available on download, but not yet on physical. In fact, none of their material is as yet in actual tangible hold and study in your hand stuff! I feel a 4 track 7” EP coming on guys! ‘Adventures’ has a heavy rock bass riff with sweet joint vocals atop. During this number bassist Guy briefly shook a tiny as yet unseen cowbell shaker. They depart with ‘These Lips’ which is a drumming led number courtesy of Didzis, with decent echoey U2 style guitar work from Joseph and Joy Division style bass from Guy. Clearly this is a band that is evolving and adjusting their position as they move on post-Covid and I think that a trio of the live version endings will need to be tidied up in order to get to where they want to be. Hopefully they will get onto the South Circular Road and up Sydenham Hill to the Croydon Flyover onto the M23 and A23 to Brighton again real soon, so that we can have another live encounter.
Shrimp Eyes:
Joseph Goody – guitar, vocals
Leila Mitwally – vocals, keys
Guy Middleham – bass
Didzis Jurgelans – drums
Shrimp Eyes setlist:
‘Grow And Decline’ (unreleased)
‘Beat Of Time’ (a 2021 single)
‘Fits And Starts’ (a 2022 single)
‘Side Quest’ (unreleased)
‘Straight Up’ (a 2020 single)
‘Sunshine Shadow’ (unreleased)
‘Adventures’ (a 2023 single)
‘These Lips’ (unreleased)
