SLOWDIVE + WHITELANDS – BRIGHTON DOME 16.2.24
It’s fair to state that Slowdive have seemed to have inspired countless thousands of bands via their distinctive, and yet perfect, combination of dream pop and shoegaze songs, and yet they themselves have only released a handful of long players since their initial formation in Reading back in 1989, and yet many would argue that they are the true originals.
It’s peculiar, that over the decades, some bands that back in the day appeared to be cast as simply indie bands and on the fringes of the music factory, have gone on to be truly recognised for their worth and picked up by sons and grandsons, daughters and granddaughters of the original followers – These include Joy Division, Cocteau Twins, Gang Of Four, The Jesus And Mary Chain and Slowdive. The throwaway poppers have been found out and the true class have found their way through.
With the first trio of albums, ‘Just For A Day’ (No. 32 in 1991), ‘Souvlaki’ (No. 51 in 1993) and ‘Pygmalion’ (No. 108 in 1995), Slowdive had cast their mark, but only after a six year stint (1989-1995), they went their separate ways. They being Rachel Goswell (vocals, guitar, keyboards, tambourine), Neil Halstead (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Nick Chaplin (bass), Christian Savill (guitar) and Simon Scott (drums). But then like a bolt out of the blue they were all suddenly back in 2014 and continuing on the case, with the eventual arrival of their self titled fourth LP.
This new Slowdive 46 minute 8 tracker was a welcomed breath of fresh air for the British music buying public as they purchased it in sufficient numbers to enable the album to be catapulted straight into the Top 20 albums chart, peaking at No.16. ‘Slowdive’ the album was a big hit amongst the shoegaze fraternity and indeed further afield where it won the accolade of being ‘Album Of The Year’ at the A2IM Libera Awards and was voted No.3 in the Exclaim! Canadian Magazine Top 20 Pop & Rock Albums of 2017.
Slowdive’s original releases were put out on the legendary Creation Records label which was founded in 1983 by Alan McGee, Dick Green, and Joe Foster. It was one of those inspirational labels that had a keen eye on the happening music of the time and also boasted acts including Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine and the aforementioned The Jesus And Mary Chain amongst their ranks. Clearly McGee and his mates were ahead of the game and although they secured a long line of critically acclaimed releases, these didn’t necessarily convert to cash in the bank. The upshot being that they were gobbled up by the Sony empire and ended up signing some band called Oasis.
Slowdive are now back on the road again and are touring in support of their latest album ‘Everything Is Alive’, (find it HERE) which was released on 1st September last year and peaked at No. 6 in the UK Album Charts. This new record began with Neil Halstead in the role of writer and producer, working on demos at home. Experimenting with modular synths, he originally conceived of ‘Everything Is Alive’ as a “more minimal electronic record.” Slowdive’s collective decision-making ultimately drew the group back towards their signature reverb-drenched guitars, but that first concept seeped into the compositions. “As a band, when we’re all happy with it, that tends to be the stronger material,” Neil quoted. “We’ve always come from slightly different directions, and the best bits are where we all meet in the middle”. The convergence of five unique characters has made the sound. “Slowdive is very much the sum of its parts,” Rachel Goswell added. “Something unquantifiable happens when the five of us come together in a room.”
‘Everything Is Alive’ is dedicated to Rachel’s mother and Simon Scott’s father, who both died in 2020. Its unique the album’s alchemy subtly embodies both sadness and gratitude, groundedness and uplift. It spans psychedelic soundscapes, pulsating 80’s electronic elements and John Cale inspired journeys. It lands immediately as something made for the future and their influence on forward thinking musical artists continues to prevail. In fact during tonight’s 15 track 90 minute set, (from 9:02pm to 10:32pm) it’s impossible to tell which songs were released back in 1991 and in 2023, such is their timeless sound. Tonight is the opening night of the tour and from here they head on off to London, Birmingham, Norwich, Liverpool, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Manchester.
After the support band (see below), the sound was richer, louder and more in depth, which was most pleasing. As usual no songs were introduced (other than 1993’s ‘Alison’) and banter with the audience was kept to a bare minimum. They open with ‘Shanty’, the first of four selections from their 2023 ‘Everything Is Alive’ album. The synth intro is swirly which peaks my attention, but that’s not the only thing that peaks it! In fact, this other peak continued right through tune two ‘Star Roving’ from 2017’s ‘Slowdive’ album. This being that the venue house lights were still left on! This was most unusual and after this wall of noise track had concluded, hundreds of punters shouted for the lighting to be extinguished. Even Rachel asked! They were eventually turned off, but kept on coming on a few times during the performance. I’m not sure what was going on here but it was bloody annoying!
My annoyance was immediately curtailed with the arrival of my favourite ever Slowdive tune, this being 1991’s ‘Catch The Breeze’ from their ‘Just For A Day’ debut album. It was magnificent and the epileptic style flashing white stage lights heightened one’s senses….big time! Nick Chaplin was doing his best at being Peter Hook with his low slung bass as they continued with the slower intense ‘Skin In The Game’ from the new LP. Musically this strangely reminded me of certain OMD tracks. I didn’t expect to be referencing this tonight, but it was another enjoyable listen. The dreamy echoey guitar intro of 1995’s ‘Crazy For You’ was upon us and was followed by ‘Souvlaki Space Station’, which has the inclination of feeling that it should be played at 45rpm instead of 33, but the few dub style notes offset this. The double keyed melody of smooth newbie ‘Chained To A Cloud’ was a pleasant listen, after which we were served the drumming led timeless ‘Slomo’, found on 2017’s self-titled release. After a slight false start, the quintet were now giving us the New Order-esque jangly guitar ‘Kisses’ from the new LP, which was a decent choice.
‘Alison’ from 1993’s ‘Souvlaki’ album was introduced by Neil as “an old song” and for this he sounded a tad like Barney of New Order. The quiet intro of ‘When The Sun Hits’ from the same album, doesn’t give any indication of the explosion in sound that is to arrive minutes later, and it’s straight into full distortion mode with set closer ‘40 Days’ also from ‘Souvlaki’. A justifiable selection for tune before the encore, which featured a trio of numbers, the first being the echoey U2 outro style guitarred of ‘Beautiful Day’ with ‘Sugar For The Pill’. The performance then became the most sedate of the night as Neil guitar soloed on ‘Dagger’, where you could have heard a pin drop. Rachel eventually joins him as do the others…quietly. They signed off with their long cover of the Syd Barrett tune ‘Golden Hair’ from their 1991 ‘Holding Your Breath’ EP. The backdrop displays a facial image of Syd during the song, which cheekily morphs into Sid James and back again…what a ‘Carry On’. This track has another quiet guitar intro and builds from there. With Rachel’s vocal delivery over she leaves the stage and waits in the wings as her bandmates build the hypnotic shoegaze sound whilst bathed in blood red lighting. In a nutshell…They came, they played, they conquered!
Slowdive:
Neil Halstead – vocals, guitar, keyboards (1989–1995, 2014–present)
Rachel Goswell – vocals, guitar, keyboards, tambourine (1989–1995, 2014–present)
Nick Chaplin – bass (1989–1995, 2014–present)
Christian Savill – guitar (1989–1995, 2014–present)
Simon Scott – drums (1991–1994, 2014–present); guitar, electronics (2014–present)
Slowdive setlist:
Intro tape: ‘Deep Blue Day’ (Brian Eno tune)
‘Shanty’ (from 2023 ‘Everything Is Alive’ album)
‘Star Roving’ (from 2017 ‘Star Roving’ single & 2017 ‘Slowdive’ album)
‘Catch The Breeze’ (from 1991 ‘Catch the Breeze’/’Shine’ debut single & 1991 ‘Holding Your Breath’ EP & 1991 ‘Just For A Day’ debut album)
‘Skin In The Game’ (from 2023 ‘Everything Is Alive’ album)
‘Crazy For You’ (from 1995 ‘Pygmalion’ album)
‘Souvlaki Space Station’ (from 1993 ‘Outside Your Room’ EP & 1993 ‘Souvlaki’ album)
‘Chained To A Cloud’ (from 2023 ‘Everything Is Alive’ album)
‘Slomo’ (from 2017 ‘Slowdive’ album)
‘Kisses’ (from 2023 ‘Everything Is Alive’ album)
‘Alison’ (from 1993 ‘Outside Your Room’ EP & 1993 ‘Souvlaki’ album)
‘When The Sun Hits’ (from 1993 ‘Souvlaki’ album)
‘40 Days’ (from 1993 ‘Souvlaki’ album)
(encore)
‘Sugar For The Pill’ (from 2017 ‘Sugar For The Pill’ single & 2017 ‘Slowdive’ album)
‘Dagger’ (from 1993 ‘Souvlaki’ album)
‘Golden Hair’ (from 1991 ‘Holding Your Breath’ EP) (Syd Barrett cover)
Outro tape: ‘An Ending (Ascent)’ (Brian Eno tune)
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Support on the tour comes from Whitelands, which has morphed out of a solo project from Hayes teenager vocalist/guitarist Etienne Quartey-Papafio, with the addition of Michael Adelaja on lead guitar, Vanessa Govinden on bass and Jagun Meseorisa on drums. I thought that they informed us that they have been together for 7 years, but that’s quite surprising judging by how young the quartet look. They are set to drop their debut album, ‘Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day’, via Sonic Cathedral next week, (23rd February) and tonight’s 31 minute set consists of tracks from this release.
The quartet stroll on stage from our left (stage right) and take their positions. They stand there for a few seconds until the clock hits 8pm and they commence their set to a shamefully third full venue. There’s a backdrop to the rear of the stage that hosts many swirling images. As they begin to play their opening number ‘How It Feels’, to us sitting upstairs, the sound levels appear off and Etienne’s vocals are hidden in the mix and Jagun’s drums are totally dominating. However, our colleague Louis Sevette was standing downstairs by the front right (house left) speakers and his account of the sound quality was different, as in it was all OK. Half way through their performance, we upstairs noticed that the levels had been corrected.
Back on the songs front and with the David Bowie meets The Cure meets Slowdive sounding ‘How It Feels’ under their belts, they continue with another mellow tune in the form of ‘Born In Understanding’ which floated along nicely. Choice three was ‘Setting Sun’ with its Smiths style jangly guitar work. ‘Cheer’ follows, this has a more shoegaze sound which I found reminded me of some Horrors material. With the venue steadily filling up and their audience applause increasing, Whitelands offloaded ‘The Prophet And I’, which was a more upbeat tune and this was reflected in the vocal delivery. It has a New Order style jangly guitar sound as well. By now the sound levels for us were spot on and I found myself enjoying this track more than those before. However with the arrival of ‘Tell Me About It’, another jangly foot tapping number, things were looking even more encouraging and this became my choice song of the set. That is until they signed off with ‘Now Here’s The Weather’, which conjured up a ‘How Soon Is Now?’ Smiths vibe to me. Their reward….a really decent size applause at the culmination of their set. Yep, the punters that weren’t still in the bar, enjoyed them. If you fancy checking out their debut LP then head on to their Bandcamp page HERE.
Whitelands:
Etienne Quartey-Papafio – vocals, rhythm guitar
Michael Adelaja – lead guitar
Vanessa Govinden – bass
Jagun Meseorisa – drums
Whitelands setlist:
‘How It Feels’ (from 2024 ‘Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day’ album)
‘Born In Understanding’ (from 2024 ‘Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day’ album)
‘Setting Sun’ (from 2024 ‘Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day’ album)
‘Cheer’ (from 2024 ‘Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day’ album)
‘The Prophet And I’ (from 2024 ‘Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day’ album)
‘Tell Me About It’ (from 2024 ‘Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day’ album)
‘Now Here’s The Weather’ (from 2024 ‘Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day’ album)
