THE ATOM JACKS + THE MANDELBROT SHAKES + LANCY & NEE – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 24.10.21
Sunday evening’s can arguably sometimes be a bit of a downer as the threat of heading back to work looms heavy over your head. What is required is a really decent pick-me-up and myself and several others were thinking along the same lines as we noted that a trio of rather interesting acts were appearing at The Prince Albert in Brighton this evening.
The impending doom will most certainly be averted tonight as the trio of selected acts on the bill are The Atom Jacks, The Mandelbrot Shakes and Lancy & Nee. None of which I had ever seen live before. This was to be an all new aural experience for me. Pint of ‘Burning Sky’ in hand I shimmied on up to the first floor concert room and was openly welcomed by the event organiser Letty. So far so good!
The first act of the evening, Lancy & Nee, were taking to the stage bang on 8pm.
Now here is something a little different and clearly this London based duo consisting of Simon from the UK and Tina from Colorado are thinking outside of the box when it comes to a musical act as they were offering up a resurrection and celebration of the ethereal delights of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood. Tonight is only their second ever gig under this guise, having recently opened up their live account in Leytonstone on 22nd September.
Although Tina and Simon are clearly in character tonight, it turns out that they are also actually members of the Oh! Gunquit quintet, who are purveyors of kaleidoscopic modern garage. They were last in Brighton when they live streamed their performance from The Pipeline on 21st May. But fear not my friends as you can catch them live in the flesh when they rock on up to The Con Club in Lewes on Saturday 27th November – more on that later!
Back to tonight and Lancy & Nee were enlightening us with their eleven song swinging country pop music set that lasted for 36 minutes. Simon had become Nee, errr sorry Lee, by wearing a dark wig and (mostly) stick on moustache. Whereas Tina as Lancy (aka Nancy) was wearing 1960’s figure hugging clothing in homage to the Miss Sinatra look. They stood side-by-side and were jointly on vocals, and Nee was on guitar, whilst Lancy tapped away at her tom toms and at times brought out her cornet and maracas.
There is most certainly an amateurish allure with this couple. An allure for instance I have for Jonathan Richman. It’s a warming feeling of safer, less complicated times, almost as though it’s your continual childhood. Their toe tapping retro vibe wants to make you get on your horse and ride off into the Arizona Desert.
Yes they played ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ (which was their encore tune, demanded by the punters, a couple of which were handed Lancy’s maracas and joined in) but sadly there was no ‘Bang Bang’. They left the stage at 8:36pm. This was a good start to proceedings.
Lancy & Nee setlist:
‘Summer Wine’
‘Lady Bird’
‘Sundown, Sundown’
‘Sand’
‘Big Black Smoke’
‘Hey Cowboy’
‘Sugar Town’
‘Some Velvet Morning’
‘Jackson’
‘Got It Together’
(encore)
‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’
After a break of only 16 minutes, it was the turn of the second of three acts to take to the Prince Albert stage this evening. This was another boy-girl duo that came in the form of The Mandelbrot Shakes. This Brighton based punk blues duo are going from strength to strength with a stream of live shows now under their hat. They play trash punk blues two minute bangers about love, betrayal and what to do if your dog is nicked.
Hot from their performance two nights ago at The Bees Mouth in Hove, The Mandelbrot Shakes are Derbyshire born Letty Wells (who has many interesting tattoos) on drums, vocals and witty banter and on guitar is her hubby Jules who hails from Bath.
They are quite a busy pair as Jules is also the drummer for The Hoodniks trio who offer up B-52 esque riffs with Dick Dale twang. Wife Letty is their bassist too. The Brighton & Hove News Music Team covered their performance at the Green Door Store last year – Read our review HERE. Letty also plays bass for Thee Dagger Debs who make good old-fashioned pub-rock ‘n’ roll. They will be joining Oh! Gunquit at The Con Club in Lewes on Saturday 27th November – more on that later!
At 8:52pm The Mandelbrot Shakes took to The Prince Albert stage tonight and performed an uplifting 27 minute set. Jules was in charge of his rumbly guitar and gaffa tape and Lotty was sat behind the drumkit and in charge of the vocals and crowd communication. Letty has a powerful voice and is clearly a big personality to boot. She brought smiles to the audience in between tunes with her charming quick witted Chesterfield banter. Here is a person that you most certainly would like to share a few pints with.
Their ten song set which ended at 9:19pm was full of decent raw toe tapping surf rock beats that certainly disposed of the Sunday night blues. See what I mean by watching and enjoying another recent concert performance HERE.
Check out their Bandcamp page HERE.
The Mandelbrot Shakes setlist:
‘Big Old Case’
‘Losing My Way’
‘Got Nothing’
‘Gonna Get You’
‘Your Love’
‘Siren’
‘Shake It’
‘Wasted’
‘In My Head’
‘Better Run’
www.facebook.com/themandelbrotshakes
The headline act tonight are The Atom Jacks who are Jamie on guitar (he), Sam on drums (he) and Lin on bass (she). They offer up the intriguing nuclear surf from the bunker. This Chichester trio have now based themselves in Brighton, and recently blew the roof off Worthing Surf Festival as much deserved headliners, now they are entertaining at The Prince Albert with their live show of surf rock instrumentals.
The trio dressed in all white hazmat jumpsuits with their surnames on (Hewitt, Hoare and Gasper) take over the stage, just 13 minutes after The Mandelbrot Shakes vacated it. I must say I do enjoy swift turnarounds, just enough time to get rid of the last pint and purchase another one.
This was the Brighton & Hove News Music Team’s second viewing of this distinctive trio, having reported on their performance at The Pipeline on 29th February 2020. Our report then read as thus:
“First up this evening were The Atom Jacks who are a relatively young West Sussex trio based in Chichester consisting of Jamie, Lin and Sam.
Their modus operandi is thus: “Duck and cover! The Atom Jacks are a Civil Defense detachment formed to spread information to the general public on action when under atomic threat. Through music. For science and your own safety. Nuclear Power Surf. Kaboom”.
I like the way these guys roll – swingin instrumental 60’s surf beats for a brighter future. Their imagery is spot on and reminds me of my childhood days of rockets, space and burying your head in Ladybird Books such as the 1964 ‘Exploring Space’ and 1972 ‘The Story Of Nuclear Power’ (both from Achievements Series 601). There’s a Gerry Anderson feel about it as well.
Tonight they were wearing their nuclear power worker suits for protection and were witty, for example “If you’re hot in here it is because of the Plutonium we’ve planted in the room. You’ll be safe if you buy our radioactive shielded t-shirts on sale at the back of the room”. Both the guitarist and bassist went out into the crowd whilst still playing.
Up until now, they have somehow evaded our attention, despite having played in Brighton half a dozen times within the past 13 months. They are now most certainly ON our radar and so look forward to the announcement of a new Brighton concert”.
Tonight at The Prince Albert, we had the exact same unerring ethos from the trio during their 43 minute set, which commenced at 9:32pm. Again, there were no vocals, other than a few token lines delivered by formed BIMM Brighton student Jamie during their final number which was a cover of The Specials ‘Ghost Town’. Jamie’s guitar work was splendid, Sam’s drumming was on the ball and I really enjoyed watching Lin in harmony with the Revelation VI 6 six string bass. They were very good indeed! I like the 60’s spy movie music feel to their style.
At one stage Hewitt and Gasper joined the audience for some crowd interaction. Clearly they weren’t worried about picking up radiation from us. ‘Bunker Party’ is a newbie and was signalling an even higher quality of material to follow. Sam kicked off ‘Seb Tropicana Atom Dance’ with a very heavy drum sound that was akin to Bow Wow Wow and was arguably the choice track.
‘Happy Birthday’ was briefly played for someone in the audience and this was followed by the aforementioned ‘Ghost Town’. I was more than pleased that I had made the effort to leave home on a Sunday night. The night finished at 10:15pm and all the punters went away knowing that it had all been worth it.
Check out their Bandcamp page HERE.
The Atom Jacks setlist:
‘Detonation’
‘Enter The Forbidden Zone’
‘The Man From LOX’
‘Ich Bin Ein Berliner’
‘Kaitak Konnection’
‘MK Ultra’
‘Surfin’ JFK // International Espionage’
‘Fission Mission’
‘MIG Diplomacy’
‘Bunker Party’
‘Dead Man’s MIRV’
‘Seb Tropicana Atom Dance’
(encore)
‘Happy Birthday’
‘Ghost Town’ (The Specials cover)
Yes you guessed it, you can catch The Atom Jacks performing live along with Oh! Gunquit and Thee Dagger Debs at The Con Club on Saturday 27th November. Purchase your tickets HERE. See you down the front!
