BILLY NOMATES – RESIDENT, BRIGHTON 20.5.25
It was a sold out, full house here tonight at Resident Records with a long line already stretching down Kensington Gardens when I arrived, there will be no front row seat for me today so I’ve played tactics to be further up the signing line afterwards by taking up position by the pilar towards the back of the store which still affords me a good view.
We are here tonight to celebrate and get a taste of Billy Nomates third album release ‘Metal Horse’ (available HERE) that came out just a few days ago on the 16th May. For those that don’t know Billy Nomates is a stage name chosen by Victoria Ann Maries after turning up to a gig on her own and having it thrown at her as an insult, it should be noted that off stage Victoria/Billy is simply known as Tor, an abbreviation of Victoria. Anyhow enough about the names, let’s get into the music.
Billy Nomates arrived and took position on the mini raised stage at the front of the shop, “Hello Brighton, how are you doing, thanks for coming out tonight and buying the album, I’m Billy Nomates…..I hope you know that or you are in the wrong place” she also introduced the band musicians with her tonight Liam on drums and Mandy on a lovely white Fender jazz bass guitar. And with no further ado we were straight into the first song of an 8 song set, all of which are on the new album.
The first song was ‘Metal Horse’ a fantastic opener, a nice mellow start, Billy’s voice is just so so good, the song had some additional backing track instruments (I think) such as a keyboard, unless there was one tucked away out of my view as I couldn’t actually see the drummer or bass player behind the shelves. It was a grand song; I couldn’t help but feel it could be a James Bond movie theme, it really had that vibe. Who knows maybe one day that will happen, Billy certainly has the talent for it.
At the end of the song Billy addressed the applauding crowd “Well the album is out and we’ve got some t-shirts for sale at the back at the end…. don’t feel obliged, but London were pretty useless, surely you’re better than them”, laughter ensued and we were into the next song ‘Nothin’ Worth Winnin’, this one had a real dancy beat to it and some synth work, Billy danced along whilst singing, the song ended with a fruit machine sound paying out, which made Billy chuckle and every cheered.
Billy jokingly said the next song was “PLAAAAAANS”, in a shouty sudden way, exclaiming that’s how she always introduced it. It was ‘Plans’, this one had a lovely throbbing bass line throughout and various retro sounds and synth, making it feel like it was from a carefree era, the song itself is a love song to love. After Billy proclaimed “Thank you so much, we were having a blast playing that, my heart is going” in reference to her dancing whilst singing.
The next song was ‘Dark Horse Friend’ in which Hugh Cornwall features on the album, Billy relayed us the story “It was a magical ending for me, when a musical hero walks in and says I’ll do that and you think f*ck I didn’t even ask, it was incredible”. The song itself was a slower and more darker sounding tune compared to the others so far, but no less enjoyable, Billy encouraged us all to sing along to the chorus with her. Both Liam and Mandy sang backing vocals during the song while Billy sang, which really added to it.
After the next song ‘Gas’, Billy asked “Anyone doing anything nice this evening?”, “Buying a t-shirt I hope” said Mandy, and they proceed to have a mock conversation about T-shirts, with Billy asking how much they might be, as Mandy went to reply, Billy interrupted “Wow, that is a bargain” creating a huge laugh. Whilst this was going on, Mandy had passed over a microphone stand and acoustic guitar to Billy. Billy joked “We are humanizing ourselves doing our own tech”. This song ‘Strange Gift’ was sung purely by Billy on her own whilst playing the acoustic guitar, wonderful stuff. She wisely passed the stand and guitar back afterwards knowing she would be on the dance again very shortly, whilst it was handed over a conversation was had about going to the arcades before the gig and playing basketball games.
The penultimate song of the set was ‘Override’, this had a real Cure like bass line running through it, Billy was back to dancing whilst singing.
When Billy announced it was time for the last song, everyone booed as we all wanted more. “Sorry, it’s not my fault, I’d play longer….don’t blame us, blame the promoters! We would love to do more, but it’s just a teaser, you can buy a ticket to our show at Chalk this autumn where we will do loads more stuff. We might even bring a horse, but that depends on if you buy a t-shirt though, no t-shirt, no horse”. The final song was ‘The Test’, one that will be very familiar to all having been the first single released from the album. A rousing, journey song, a perfect end to a perfect evening. Billy really pulled it out of the bag tonight, looking radiant and happy, it was a full bodied performance and everything ran perfectly. Just imagine how good a full show will be at Chalk later this year.
It was a huge pleasure to meet Tor afterwards during the signing; she signed my cassette and CD and noted the 2021 tour t-shirt I was wearing. I also had brought along a couple of other items which Tor happily signed, her 2025 Mary & the Hyenas play soundtrack and a rare Tor tape she put out in 2023, Tor seemed very appreciative that I’d bought them and said making that Tor album really kept her going and the money raised from it then enabled her to make this third album. Billy Nomates plays Chalk on 28th September 2025, get yourselves along and buy that album beforehand. Tickets for the Chalk gig are on sale now and can be purchased HERE.
Billy Nomates:
Billy Nomates (aka Tor) – vocals, acoustic guitar
Mandy Clarke – bass guitar
Liam Chapman – drums
Billy Nomates setlist:
‘Metal Horse’
‘Nothin’ Worth Winnin’
‘Plans’
‘Dark Horse Friend’
‘Gas’
‘Strange Gift’
‘Override’
‘The Test’
