JOPY + LEMONSUCKR + KING OF MAY – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 27.2.25
Local label Goo Records certainly seem to have their finger on the pulse when selecting lineups for their new music showcase events. The current installment was held this evening at the unique Green Door Store in Brighton and featured a trio of rising stars!
Headliners for tonight are the rather wonderful Jopy who last year released their terrific 12” purple vinyl ‘Planet Zombie’ EP. Back then they played a show at Brighton’s Hope & Ruin on the day of its release. We were in attendance and seriously blown away by the glam punk sound and rousing post-punk riffs with frantically infectious choruses, being thrown at us by this rising Brighton based three-piece led by songwriter Jo Parnell (she/her) on lead vocals and guitar, plus Clown Baby (they/them) on bass and Louis Relf (he/him) on drums. We had seen Jopy a few times prior to this and it’s fair to say that their live performances get better every time. For their ‘Planet Zombie’ release show Jopy were sharper and more polished and confident, without compromising their raw energy and sense of fun which creates that special live music experience. Would they match this level this evening for the release of their brand new ‘Twisting’ single which dropped today – Listen HERE.
Also on the bill at the Green Door Store tonight were London (Elephant & Castle) based King Of May who are a five piece who recently dropped their ‘Oh Mistake!‘ EP which is loaded with whip smart punk pop gems with hooks galore.
Completing the night’s entertainment were former Guildford but now Brighton based Lemonsuckr who were formerly known for a brief time as Rugrat. Two of the Lemonsuckr ranks are also in Owners Club, who themselves are very much on the rise, thanks to their intense, rabble-rousing, shabby suited mash up of alt-punk guitars and glacial electronics. Last October Lemonsuckr dropped their ‘Rarity Jacket’ single.
Opening proceedings this evening fell to King Of May who comprise of Connor Lang (vocals), and his new chums Tim Moffett (guitar), Fabián Cortez (guitar), Tom Pinsent (bass) and Harry Hayes (drums) and as far as I can recall tonight will be our debut encounter with them.
Connor opened up his King Of May recorded material back in 2020, when he gathered together a handful of tunes that had been hanging around for the previous four years, and these came out as ‘I’ll Weave A Lei Of Stars For You’ EP. Wind the clocks forward to summer 2023 and Connor and his new found friends dropped their ‘Promise’ single and by spring last year, their ‘Babylon’ single had also dropped, and the aforementioned ‘Oh Mistake!’ EP was unleashed last December. This brings us nicely up-to-date and tonight the quintet grace the stage at 7:52pm and offload nine compositions, we are in their presence for 34 minutes until 8:26pm.
The lads commence with a couple of yet to be released numbers, these being ‘Hanging Of The Line’ and ‘London Array’. It’s evident that they are already a very tight outfit with decent amounts of Rickenbacker shaking and Fender guitar action! It’s seriously toe-tapping stuff and although the tunes initially sound in the realms of the Rolling Stones, that sound doesn’t remain the same. As the tunes come and go, including their 2023 ‘Promise’ single and ‘The Answer’ from the ‘Oh Mistake!’ EP, I hear slight nods to The Clash in their material. ‘Tarot Cards’ which is also found on the ‘Oh Mistake!’ EP, is their next selection and this is their quietist yet and initially sounds not far from Jonathan Richman, but then as the beats increase and the track gets louder, we have moved into The Libertines territory. King Of May are going down very well with the punters!
The unreleased ‘A Love That Has No Name’ comes next and the Rickenbacker lead guitar certainly comes into its own. It then occurs to me that these would be an ideal choice for ‘The Great Escape’, although sadly they have missed this year’s deadline. The beat is then picked back up again with the rockin’ blues vibes of ‘Clarion’ (from the EP) and penultimate tune ‘Telegraph Hill’. They bid their farewells and leave us with last year’s ‘Babylon’ single. It’s been a melodically varied set and Connor certainly has a good stage presence and his enthusiasm is contagious.
King Of May:
Connor Lang – vocals
Tim Moffett – guitar
Fabián Cortez – guitar
Tom Pinsent – bass
Harry Hayes – drums
King Of May setlist:
‘Hanging Of The Line’ (unreleased)
‘London Array’ (unreleased)
‘Promise’ (a 2023 single)
‘The Answer’ (from 2024 ‘Oh Mistake!’ EP)
‘Tarot Cards’ (from 2024 ‘Oh Mistake!’ EP)
‘A Love That Has No Name’ (unreleased)
‘Clarion’ (from 2024 ‘Oh Mistake!’ EP)
‘Telegraph Hill’ (from 2024 ‘Oh Mistake!’ EP)
‘Babylon’ (a 2024 single)
You can’t keep a great band down and this is evidently the case with newly christened Lemonsuckr. They originally operated under the guise of ‘Liquorice’ and then ‘Rugrat’, but had to swiftly drop the name quicker than handling hot coals. A similar course of action had to be taken by Madrid outfit Deers, and they became Hinds…so clearly that didn’t affect their success, and I truly hope this is mirrored by Lemonsuckr.
In 2023 Rugrat unleashed their debut EP, ‘Public Humiliation’, and this was followed last year by their ‘Rarity Jacket’ single. As mentioned above, two guys from Lemonsuckr’s ranks are also in Owners Club, an outfit we reviewed at The Hope & Ruin on 30th November 2023 and we concluded our account of their set thus: “I have to say that there is little or nothing to fault about this band, and believe me, as a reviewer I usually find something! They’ve got good material, they’re a really good live band and I’ll definitely be seeing them again”.
Interestingly enough, after having thoroughly enjoyed Lemonsuckr’s 27 minute 7 track set this evening, which ran from 8:44pm to 9:11pm, I could easily apply the above quote to them! This evening the band are Guy (vocals and tambourine), Ollie (guitar), Oscar (guitar and vocals), Matt (drums and electronic presets) and their rotational bass player tonight is Jake from Bryony Dunn and The Forest. They commence their performance with ‘Dead Disco’ which has an Arabic vibe on the guitar front and some cowbell action and chugs along very nicely thank you. Their second tune is even more urgent, but still bouncy, it’s their ‘Rarity Jacket’ single, and already Lemonsuckr are going down a storm! The punters are seriously locked-in to this sound and it’s great to watch so many souls in a packed room having so much fun. The gauntlet has seriously been thrown down to tonight’s headliners for sure!
Matt’s drumming is absolutely superb, none more so than on tune three, ‘Instant Kinks’ which also benefits from a preprogrammed backbeat and overall sounding not that far away from Killing Joke’s ‘Follow The Leaders’. ‘Show Me The Money’ follows and this is a slower affair but still with the solid drums. There was a trio of tunes delivered after this, these being ‘H.E.A.T’, ‘Circadian Rhythm’ and ‘Rugrat’ and overall I’d have to say that these were the highlight of my whole night, with the increased beats and very urgent deliveries and foot pedal action as well as the cowbell on the go. I think Guy was saying “tango, tango, tango” at one point and during this part, I thought to myself that it was worth heading out from home simply just to hear this section of the tune! The lads seriously rocked and fans of earlier Fontaines DC, Vlure, False Heads and sadly missed Priestgate, must add them to their “must see live” lists. I need to see Lemonsuckr again as soon as I can!
Lemonsuckr:
Guy – vocals and tambourine
Ollie – guitar
Oscar – guitar and vocals
Matt – drums and electronic presets
Jake – bass
Lemonsuckr setlist:
‘Dead Disco’
‘Rarity Jacket’ (a 2024 single)
‘Instant Kinks’
‘Show Me The Money’
‘H.E.A.T’
‘Circadian Rhythm’
‘Rugrat’
We were pleased to learn that Jo from Jopy had written some new absolute bangers and that we may well get to hear these newbies, as well as the brand new ‘Twisting’ single that dropped today, as part of this evening’s 43 minute 12 tune set, which commenced at 9:35pm and concluded at 10:18pm. As the proud owner of their 12” ‘Planet Zombie’ EP on purple vinyl, you could say that I’m enamoured with this young trio. It now appears that the word is out since we originally caught them last June and this evening’s event appears to be a sold out affair, or failing that maybe just a handful of tickets left, as by the time the trio hit the stage we are all packed in like sardines and anticipation is high.
The band are introduced by Tony from Goo Records, who were the label that put out their EP and without further ado Jo Parnell (vocals/guitar) and sporting The Clash ‘London Calling’ album t-shirt, Clown Baby (bass) and sporting a Black Flag logo t-shirt, and Louis Relf (drums) kick off with ‘Graveyard Romance’ (from the EP). It’s clear from the off that Jopy are back with a vengeance and the crowd are very much up for it. Jo then informs us that they will next be performing one of the brand new tunes, this being ‘Whack-A-Mole’ which was written about the game of the same name. It has a beach surf vibe and is another corker added to their repertoire. We learn that tune three, ‘Ka Ka Killer’ (a 2023 single) was penned regarding transphobia and it benefits from a guitar riff very similar to David Bowie’s ‘Modern Love’, for which Jo rocked on out! The second newbie comes next and it’s called ‘Monster’ and it’s another decent rockin’ tune. ‘Planet Zombie’ is the next selection and this has an almost heavy rock intro before heading into T.Rex territory. Jo unleashes even more energy whilst playing this and the crowd feeds off of it, and things are going very well indeed.
It’s all about cannibals on ‘Head Hunters Pub And Grub’ and this sees the crowd bouncing more than previously and tonight’s version is indeed a great rendition. The brand new ‘Twisting’ single is up next and its intro beat reminds me of Slade’s ‘Coz I Luv You’, before this tune gets down and durrty. Jo then tells us it’s now time for the third of the three new tunes, it’s ‘This House is Haunted’ and it’s another decent song with full on fast action guitar and drums and has the vibe of early Generation X. The next three are from the EP, beginning with ‘Birdwatching’ which has chords that remind me of The B-52s ‘Give Me Back My Man’, and this is followed by ‘Honey The Vampire’ which is initially a slower rockabilly style number until it frenzies out at the end; and concluding the trio is the retro sounding guitarwork of ‘Purchase No.3’. I noticed that during this set there were less Jopy trademark vocal wobblings than on previous encounters, which was a shame. However, after this tune, the band rewarded us with one unplanned encore track, this being their 2023 surf actioned ‘Headshot’. The crowd afforded the trio with almost deafening applause in order to receive this encore tune and the band dutifully delivered…yet again!
Jopy:
Jo Parnell (she/her) – vocals/guitar
Clown Baby (they/them) – bass
Louis Relf (he/him) – drums
Jopy setlist:
‘Graveyard Romance’ (from 2024 ‘Planet Zombie’ EP)
‘Whack-A-Mole’ (unreleased)
‘Ka Ka Killer’ (a 2023 single)
‘Monster’ (unreleased)
‘Planet Zombie’ (from 2024 ‘Planet Zombie’ EP)
‘Head Hunters Pub And Grub’ (from 2024 ‘Planet Zombie’ EP)
‘Twisting’ (a 2025 single)
‘This House is Haunted’ (unreleased)
‘Birdwatching’ (from 2024 ‘Planet Zombie’ EP)
‘Honey The Vampire’ (from 2024 ‘Planet Zombie’ EP)
‘Purchase No.3’ (from 2024 ‘Planet Zombie’ EP)
(encore)
‘Headshot’ (a 2023 single)
