POP WILL EAT ITSELF + INTERROBANG‽ – CHALK, BRIGHTON 10.5.24
It’s been 882 days since I last reviewed Pop Will Eat Itself and so after a last minute gig swap, I headed on down to Chalk in Pool Valley to see if the lads still have it! I was due to catch punk stalwarts Chelsea performing in Lewes, but other colleagues stepped in for that one (Review HERE).
Pop Will Eat Itself formed in the West Midlands back in 1986 and in the following decade they had some great chart success, with hits including ‘Def. Con. One’, ‘Can U Dig It’, ‘Wise Up! Sucker’ and my fave a cover of Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s ‘Love Missile F1-11’. In 1996 they called it a day, only to briefly reform in 2005 and now have been back together since 2010 and they have gone down a storm at Festivals and sold out shows around the country including the Indie Daze Festival 2015 and 2016 as well as the Rebellion punk festival in Blackpool in 2022. The current Pop Will Eat Itself lineup are Graham Crabb (original drummer, later co frontman/vocalist and main songwriter), Richard March (original member and later Bentley Rhythm Ace), original member Adam Mole (keyboards), Brighton based vocalist Mary Byker (Gaye Bykers On Acid, Apollo 440), drummer Cliff Hewitt (Apollo 440) and bassist Davey Bennett (This Burning Age).
The half dozen lads take to the Chalk stage for the second time tonight, having opened up their Chalk account back on 11th December 2021. Tonight is at least their twelfth live performance in Brighton having previously turned up at Patterns (and Escape Club), Concorde 2, Stanmer Park, Top Rank Suite and The Richmond (RIP). Tonight we were served no less than 20 tunes across their 82 minute set which ran from 8:32pm until 9:54pm.
The expansive stage certainly benefitted dual vocalists Crabb and Byker who made very good use of covering its width whilst delivering their lines, both sensibly aided via cordless microphones. Stage right (our left) was Adam Mole sporting his trademark headwear and who, when given the chance, somehow manages to balance himself on the A-frame of his keyboard stand. A keyboard that is often picked up and the sticker messages on it are thrust towards the eager punters. On certain numbers he switches to second guitar. There’s a laptop in his vicinity as well. To Mole’s left (our right) is the dreadlocked-ever smiling bassist Davey Bennett. To the centre-rear of the stage on the small high-rise is stixman Cliff Hewitt who also has a laptop to hand. Completing the lineup on stage left (our right) is guitarist Richard March, who has a slight Monty Oxymoron (of The Damned fame) look about him. There’s a backdrop behind Hewitt which shows slides throughout the set, commencing with one titled “PWEI Resolution Chart 2023”. Either side of the drums are two sets of ten bulb vertical lights that add to the concert’s enjoyment. Both myself and my colleague, photographer Sara-Louise Bowrey, are camped at the very front and behind us a mass of dancing bodies of various ages who are getting off on PWEI’s uplifting beats.
They open with a couple of numbers from 1990’s ‘Cure For Sanity’ album, these being ‘The Incredible P.W.E.I. vs. the Moral Majority’ and ‘Dance Of The Mad Bastards’. So far so good, Bennett’s bass immediately in front of us is sounding gorgeously rumbly, and Crabb and Byker are rapping nicely too. The uplifting beats continue with ‘Everything’s Cool’ from 1994’s ‘Dos Dedos Mis Amigos’ album. This sees Mole trade in his keys for his guitar for that all in rock sound. After 1989’s ‘Not Now James, We’re Busy…’ (from ‘This Is The Day…This Is The Hour…This Is This!’ album), things were taken up a notch with the arrival of crowd favourite ‘Karmadrome’ which is from ‘The Looks Or The Lifestyle?’ album from back in 1992. Crabb puts his megaphone to great use and it all feels a tad like the Beastie Boys. After ‘R.S.V.P.’ and ‘Get The Girl! Kill The Baddies!’ they graciously gave us ‘Chaos & Mayhem’ (from 2011’s ‘New Noise Designed By A Sadist’ album), which is arguably their most punky tune, and no wonder they were offered to play Rebellion three years ago as this would have gone down a storm with its “’Cause I’m a jumped-up punk generator; Chaos and mayhem instigator; Don’t like to work, I just like to dream; Ain’t gonna sing “God Save The Queen” chorus. Amazingly though, they didn’t play it as part of that night’s performance! Opportunity missed lads!!
“We like the music, we like the disco sound…hey!” signalled the beginning of their classic ‘Can U Dig It?’ which as you would guess was very well received by the packed crowd. The decent tunes kept coming with the arrival of ‘There Is No Love Between Us Anymore’ with its wicked scratching sample at the beginning. Thus far The Poppies had played tracks from their 1989 to 1994 heyday, with the only exception being 2011’s ‘Chaos & Mayhem’. Some folk might be under the wrong impression that PWEI are trading in the past and not moving forward with any new decent material…Wrong! Cue the arrival of the unreleased speedy tune ‘Bruiser’, which has been kicking around their live sets for a year now, so isn’t it time they released it? It even featured a cameo appearance on vocals by Mole. This wasn’t their only newbie as after the urgent police sirened ‘PWEI-zation’ and Madchester meets Roma ‘Touched By The Hand of Cicciolina’, they gave us the unreleased ‘Disco Misfits’ which features some rather decent urgent drumming from Hewitt, and is a tune that sits very nicely within their quality set.
Take out time was now upon us with the arrival of the classic earworm lyrics “Get me Big Mac, get me fries to go”, it could only be ‘Def. Con. One’, complete with Mole’s ‘Crazy Horses’ (The Osmonds) keyboard riff, and a joyous crowd bounced away! The main set closer of ‘Bulletproof!’ came next, after which they left the stage for around a couple of minutes, giving the punters enough time to give their vocal chords a good airing. Before we knew it, they were back and would give us a quartet of other numbers, beginning with ‘Ich Bin Ein Ausländer’ which Byker referenced saying “No-one likes a racist!”. Their third and final new track was next and was dedicated to British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood (1941–2022) and is titled ‘Vive Le Rok’ and no doubt a homage to her groundbreaking ‘Vive Le Rock’ t-shirt range from the second half of the 1970’s. A range that no doubt my partner Jordan Mooney (1955–2022) would have assisted in making back in the day, on account of her working in Vivienne’s ‘Sex’ shop on the Kings Road. In fact when PWEI last played here at Chalk on 11th December 2021, Jordan was with me, but a mere 113 days later she was gone!
The Poppies signed off this evening with the classic ‘Their Law’, which they co-wrote with The Prodigy and this benefitted of a fantastic depth of all-round sound and was for me just about the choice track of the night. In conclusion PWEI still rock!
Pop Will Eat Itself:
Graham Crabb – vocals, drums, keyboards, programming, guitar (1986–1995, 2005, 2010–present)
Richard March – bass, guitars, keyboards, programming (1986–1996, 2005, 2017–present)
Adam Mole – guitars, keyboards, programming, piano (1986–1996, 2005, 2018–present)
Cliff Hewitt – drums, keyboards, programming
Mary Byker – vocals, keyboards, programming (2010–present)
Davey Bennett – guitars, bass (2010–present)
Pop Will Eat Itself setlist:
‘The Incredible P.W.E.I. vs. The Moral Majority’ (from 1990 ‘Cure For Sanity’ album)
‘Dance Of The Mad Bastards’ (from 1990 ‘Cure For Sanity’ album)
‘Everything’s Cool’ (from 1994 ‘Dos Dedos Mis Amigos’ album)
‘Not Now James, We’re Busy…’ (from 1989 ‘This Is The Day…This Is The Hour…This Is This!’ album)
‘Karmadrome’ (from 1992 ‘The Looks Or The Lifestyle?’ album)
‘R.S.V.P.’ (from 1994 ‘Dos Dedos Mis Amigos’ album)
‘Get The Girl! Kill The Baddies!’ (from 1992 ‘The Looks Or The Lifestyle?’ album)
‘Chaos & Mayhem’ (from 2011 ‘New Noise Designed By A Sadist’ album)
‘Can U Dig It?’ (from 1989 ‘This Is The Day…This Is The Hour…This Is This!’ album)
‘There Is No Love Between Us Anymore’ (from 1987 ‘Box Frenzy’ album)
‘Bruiser’ (unreleased)
‘PWEI-zation’ (from 1989 ‘Very Metal Noise Pollution’ EP)
‘Touched By The Hand of Cicciolina’ (from 1990 ‘Cure For Sanity’ album)
‘Disco Misfits’ (unreleased)
‘Def. Con. One’ (from 1989 ‘This Is The Day…This Is The Hour…This Is This!’ album)
‘Bulletproof!’ (from 1992 ‘The Looks Or The Lifestyle?’ album)
(encore)
‘Ich Bin Ein Ausländer’ (from 1994 ‘Dos Dedos Mis Amigos’ album)
‘Vive Le Rok’ (unreleased)
‘Wise Up! Sucker’ (from 1989 ‘This Is The Day…This Is The Hour…This Is This!’ album)
‘Their Law’ (The Prodigy cover)
linktr.ee/popwilleatitselfofficial
Support this evening came in the form of Interrobang‽ who are an angry motorik loop-driven post-punk rock three piece, based in Leeds and Brighton, which includes Dunstan Bruce from Chumbawamba on vocals, Stephen Griffin on guitar and Neil Turpin on drums. They formed in 2012 with a vision to create something that speaks to the generation who grew up in the shadow of punk. This was (surprisingly) my debut encounter with the trio who describe themselves as “an agitpunkfunkstorm. An angular assault course of taut techpop. Agonised surging urgency vigour and vim. Pulsating present intense intravenous interrobang. We’re totally wired, can’t you see?”
For those of you who don’t know, and that included me, according to the dictionary the interrobang ‽ is a non standard punctuation mark used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of the question mark and the exclamation mark. A sentence ending with an interrobang asks a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or asks a rhetorical question. I hope that clarifies where the band’s name comes from.
The lads certainly know how to make an entrance this evening for their 35 minute 10 song set which ran from 7:34pm until 8:09pm. A half dozen of these songs are to be found on their eponymously titled ‘Interrobang‽’ album which was first released in March 2018. Their performance had an air of an arty happening as opposed to a normal style concert. From the very off only Turpin was on the stage, having twiddled a few knobs to get the electronic beats kicking in before he sat himself behind his drumkit. Suited and booted Bruce and Griffin were in fact behind the crowd, each with a megaphone to their mouths in order to splurt statements at us and each other whilst swiftly moving in between the punters. They gained access to the stage via a strategically placed chair next to me. This entrance tune being ‘Emergency!’ and they had certainly got everyone’s attention. Well when I say everyone, I mean those that are present, as to be honest, the venue at half seven was more empty than full, which is a shame really, for the band and also for those that weren’t able to get here on time!
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Interrobang‽ and as was said during the opening sequence of Gerry Anderson’s ‘Stingray’ “Anything can happen in the next half hour!”. And musically it certainly did as Interrobang‽ offer up a melting pot of musical delights from a range of not often mixed genres and beyond, which are textured with autobiographical lyrical onslaughts from the Northern (BIllingham, County Durham) middle-aged Bruce in the form of militant rants. Song two listed on the setlist as ‘My Name Is’ begins with the spoken line “My name is Dunstan Bruce and I’m a 63 year old man”, and then Turpin gives the bass drum and cymbals a good seeing to, whilst Griffin plays around with the electronic knobs, which reminded me of The Orb, but with a Northern vocal twang. The first of the six tracks from their only album was next, this being ‘Are You Ready People?’, which saw Griffin swap the knob twiddling for some plucking on his guitar. The dynamics had therefore changed and so were now more entrenched into post-punk vibes and as the tunes came at us, I could hear nods to Half Man Half Biscuit, The Fall, Gang Of Four and others of that ilk, but having said that Interrobang‽ are very much doing their own thing. An example being mid set where Bruce gives us a poem. They went from light-hearted to hard-hitting and brutally honest within moments. Bruce is here now and he certainly does have a lot to say. I can’t see him fading away anytime soon and I wished that they just got out and played more gigs and released further material. Interrobang‽ were well worthy of their opening slot tonight and I would like to see them in the flesh again!
Interrobang‽:
Dunstan Bruce – vocals, tambourine, shaker
Stephen Griffin – guitar, electronics, backing vocals, tambourine
Neil Turpin – drums
Interrobang‽ setlist:
‘Emergency!’ (unreleased)
‘My Name Is’ (unreleased)
‘Are You Ready People?’ (from 2018 ‘Interrobang‽’ album)
‘Defiance’ (unreleased)
‘Do You Remember?’ (from 2018 ‘Interrobang‽’ album)
‘Music Of The Gross’ (from 2018 ‘Interrobang‽’ album)
‘Dilettante’ (unreleased)
‘Love It All’ (from 2018 ‘Interrobang‽’ album)
‘Breathe’ (from 2018 ‘Interrobang‽’ album)
‘Am I Invisible Yet?’ (from 2018 ‘Interrobang‽’ album)
Hey Nick, thanks for the review. I’d be interested to know how PWEI’s sound and vocal quality was like? I was put off going as really badly out of tune vocals and sound on videos I’ve watched over the last decade.