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August 13, 2018

SINGLE: ‘Serendipity’ – Liquid Cheeks 13.08.18

Words by Ed King / Pic courtesy of Liquid Cheeks

On Monday 13^th August Liquid Cheeks release their second single – ‘Serendipity’. Available to stream for free though Spotify, click here to listen.

Liquid Cheeks is name you’ll read on our pages again in the coming weeks, as they will be supporting The Taboo Club at our next live music showcase – at The Victoria on Saturday 29^th September. And it’s a name you should remember, as the fledgling project from Ben Ollis Gibbs and Greg Clarke is one of the most promising new musical corners of the Midlands this year.

Releasing a series of introductory singles, Liquid Cheeks launched themselves with ‘He’s a Flower’ in July – a guitar twanging stab at machismo, delivered through gritted teeth and absurd amounts of swagger, burrowing into your brain like a good earworm should. It was a solid start for the new band from two core members of the erstwhile Byron Hare – grabbing us by enough short and curlies to book them for our September showcase, where they will play their debut live set as Liquid Cheeks. Something we’re more than a little excited about. But have you got any more material I could listen to? Yeah, sure, we’ll send it over… ‘Serendipity’ is being released in August.

Remember the first time you heard Foals, or The XX. Or any band who manage to deliver something with that ineffable… whatever it is. That’s Liquid Cheeks. Self-described as ‘electro garage’, their sophomore single, ‘Serendipity’, is a masterclass in effective restraint – opening with an almost twee keyboard riff from Ben Ollis Gibbs, before a gut punch guitar and Greg Clarke’s vocals hook you into the heart of this track within seconds.

This formula stays true until a little six string tweak at around the two minute mark, giving slightly a tougher middle eight, before bringing it back with a sprinkle of the aforementioned keys and the repeated chorus – a simple two line signature that had me singing it around my kitchen after the second play. But ‘Serendipity’ is solid song writing to it’s core – a track that, just, simply, works. And there’s a deep confidence to it all, with a simple chord progression underpinning a major to minor melody that makes me feel like I’m living through the Drive soundtrack. Although not the lift scene.

Liquid Cheeks seem quite laid back about the whole thing too, which is probably where their song writing gets its confidence and strength. I guess when you’ve been working within an ensemble for a while then move into a more self-governed and directed arena, you can take a welcome deep breath.

But with two strong singles on the table and a cluster making their way through the production process, I am anything but relaxed about it all. Birmingham is due another portfolio to be proud of with Liquid Cheeks looking like a solid part of any new attention the Midlands may get. And if there’s an album of this standard in the offing… Jesus, somebody better make up a new acronym because these boys came to play.

On Monday 13^th August Liquid Cheeks release their latest single, ‘Serendipity’, through Default Man Records – available to stream for free through Spotify, click here.

For more on Liquid Cheeks, visit www.facebook.com/liquidcheeks

Liquid Cheeks will be supporting The Taboo Club at The Victoria on Saturday 29th September, as part of the next Birmingham Review live music showcase. Joining them on the bill will also be Stoke’s melodic electro four piece, Lilac Noise – playing their debut Birmingham gig. For direct event information, including links to online ticket sales, click here.

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

August 8, 2018

BREVIEW: Iron Maiden @ Genting Arena 07.08.18

Words Ed King / Pics by Eleanor Sutcliffe

It’s no secret or hyperbole that Iron Maiden fans are amongst the most loyal of the heavy metal fraternity. But seeing over 15,000 rockers donning party hats, holding balloons, and waving birthday messages to Maiden’s longest standing lead singer was a large scale surprise.

Whether you’ve followed the band from the start or jumped on with any of their 16 studio albums it’s a pretty special atmosphere tonight, as a sea of Iron Maiden t-shirts and merchandise (along with the people wearing them) stand as a living museum to the band’s 40 year career.

But there is also theatre in the air, as a packed out Genting Arena have come to see Iron Maiden play one of six UK dates on their Legacy of the Beast World Tour and were promised a ‘very special show.’ Known for ‘having fun’ with their stage sets, this could mean nearly anything with Iron Maiden, and speculation and anticipation run rife through the crowd. That and a few plastic pints of Maiden’s very own Trooper beer.

First up though is Killswitch Engage, the Massachusetts spawned metalcore five piece who are joining Iron Maiden at all of their UK dates. Opening with ‘Strength to the Mind’, the lead single from their last studio album Incarnate, it’s a pretty lively affair – with the band’s lead guitarist, Adam Dutkiewicz, jumping around like an adderall adolescence, wiping pantomime amounts of sweat from his brow, and giving head high kicks during ‘Life to Lifeless’.

After a short break, with an en masse attempt to get served… not easy with over 15,000 thirsty people, we hear UFO’s ‘Doctor Doctor’ coming over the arena’s PA system – the longstanding cue that Iron Maiden are making their way from the dressing room. Scenes from the battlefields of World War II play out on the screens at the back of the stage, with quotes from Winston Churchill being somewhat drowned out by a soundtrack of explosions and gunshots.

Then it happens… Iron Maiden launch into their set with ‘Aces High’, as what looks like a full scale Spitfire swoops in to stand as the most outlandish set piece above the stage. Someone said there might be pyrotechnics tonight, which indeed there (including Dickinson strutting around the stage with a portable flame thrower) but no one warned me about a bloody plane.

Even more pertinent in the city that made the Spitfire, with Castle Vale only a stone’s throw down the M6, it’s a simply phenomenal opener – replete with Dickinson dressed in full fighter pilot paraphernalia and the swagger of man who could probably fly the thing. I remind myself it’s the lead singer’s 60^th birthday today, then quietly question ‘what have I done with my life..?’

So the theme is ‘war’, with camo netting covering the stage and the first part of Iron Maiden’s set marching through a tracklist including ‘Where Eagles Dare’, ‘Two Minutes to Midnight’ and ‘The Trooper’. But it’s also a cherry picked selection of Maiden’s extensive back catalogue, with ‘Fear of the Dark’, ‘The Number of the Beast’, and the band’s eponymous closer from their 1980 debut album being a fitting full stop – as well as a generous hat tip to the band’s original lead singer.

The power, ferocity, and noise levels don’t falter, from Iron Maiden’s spectacular start to their three track encore which ends with ‘Run to the Hills’ – sending the Genting Arena into an almost dangerous state of hysteria.

Luckily, and making the finale almost as memorable at the beginning (…an actual plane), we are left with Monty Python’s ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ coming over the PA, creating a more subdued sing-a-long to send us all home.

Iron Maiden have enjoyed four decades as one of heavy metal’s most successful ensembles, with a gold star reputation for high octane live shows, a tireless work ethic, and a fiercely loyal crowd that will (sometime literally) travel oceans to see them. If tonight is anything to go by, with the passion and production coming off stage a clear cut above anything you would call ‘the norm’, then it’s it’s a well earned trophy.

And happy birthday Bruce Dickinson… what an unbelievable way to celebrate six decades on this planet. Let’s raise a pint of Trooper and toast to many more.

Iron Maiden @ Genting Arena 07.08.18 / Eleanor Sutcliffe

For more on Iron Maiden, visit www.ironmaiden.com

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Killswitch Engage – supporting Iron Maiden @ Genting Arena 07.08.18 / Eleanor Sutcliffe

For more on Killswitch Engage, visit www.killswitchengage.com

For more from Live Nation UK, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.livenation.co.uk

For more on the Genting Arena, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.gentingarena.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

July 19, 2018

BREVIEW: The Mothers Earth Experiment @ The Dark Horse 13.07.18

Words & pics by Ed King

I never played at the Whisky a Go Go. I was never in the house band; I was never Morrison. As much I wanted to be, mine was another time, another room. Another stage. Mine was breakbeat, rave, and those pills that had nothing to do with weight loss.

But The Mothers Earth Experiment, tonight, they get close. Close enough for me to start my review with wishes and references. Close enough to make me walk out the door and leave everything behind. Close enough, and what are we if nothing but shallow dreams. But fuck me they rock.

First up tonight though, at this particularly generous free entry Friday night gig at The Dark Horse, is The Taboo Club – the new face of Rob Lilley and Josh Rochelle-Bates, now joined by Jack Ingaglia (guitar), Ben Oerton (sax/keys) and Aiden Price (drums).

Their first live gig together, there are some rehearsal room cobwebs being dusted down tonight, and by the time ‘Bible John’ comes tumbling off stage, led by Lilley’s deep vocals, we are in a red room of sultry intent. Nestled somewhere between the low lit bourbon dive bars of Harlem and an opiate pit of six string destruction that would make the Velvet Underground blush, The Taboo Club are tapestry of genres and influences – driven by guitar, but with tinges of jazz, sax, and keys, giving the wall of sound a deep lustre.

Absurdly promising, even if I am a little biased. The Taboo Club play the next Birmingham Review showcase on Saturday September 29^th at The Victoria and we predict an interesting first time around the sun for this band – a tight ensemble with real depth. So stay alert, you listicles of music press future. More is sure to follow from The Taboo Club.

But back in the present, it’s time for Birmingham’s favourite space cadets to come in for landing. I’ve seen The Mothers Earth Experiment before, and they’re good. They’re tight. Polished psych rock. Musicians who know how to play, and who you get the feeling (I can only observe) really enjoy their time on stage together. At least I love watching their keyboard player.

But there’s something in their set tonight, and the front row, and the bass, and the shoulders that sway in that Nico kinda way. There’s something more. I’m engaged in a different way than before; perhaps it’s the blues rock, for whatever you or I make of that term. But it’s good, and a little ferocious. Two words I’m confident we all understand.

Frontman Mark Roberts pulls his face and eyes out over the crowd, as the band open with ‘Cool Down Mama’ and work backwards through their debut album. The combined exuberance of this six piece, who are probably classically trained (I have no idea but it feels like they could, or should, be) with high ideas and the balls to bring them to life, is unassailable.

I’m a little drunk and lazy as I write this (I recently adopted the stance of penning each review as soon as I get back. You know, whilst it’s ‘still fresh’. The photos on the other hand…) but I have an overwhelming urge to run across the bonnets of parked cars, or laugh. Or actually enjoy myself in public. There’s a deeper edge to The Mothers Earth Experiment tonight that I’m not erudite (sober) enough right now to adequately describe, but it keeps me in the crowd with a half jealous fix on stage. The man next to me agrees. We stop talking and watch. And dance, when the moments of tight self-control allow us.

Donald Trump would not agree. His name is mentioned more than a few times tonight, and not with compassion or without candour. But let’s face it, as we laugh at doom and the absurdity of such a close nuclear winter, the man is indeed “a cunt”. But with balloons and battle cries constantly thrown off stage we are unified at The Dark Horse tonight, on the very day that such monstrosity prepares themselves for dinner with the divine right of kings. And in a further act of general good will, The Mothers Earth Experiment have been passing out NOT NORMAL – NO OK stickers until in the room is adorned with specs of yellow and black. A wonderful sight to see; bless everyone one stage and off. Click here for more on the NOT NORMAL – NO OK campaign.

But we’re nearing the end, my only friend, and the The Mothers Earth Experiment say sayonara with a new track before heading back to the cosmos – ‘Bliss’, which builds, folds, unfolds, and explodes off stage like a grenade wrapped in a cloud. Bliss… For Spaceman 3 playing ‘Revolution’ on a particularly angry day perhaps; the shift from sweet jangles to sonic assault is almost rude… and so much fun. A startling denouement. No encore needed. Although The Mothers Earth Experiment had one planned, as the track listing I stole (it’s usually a journalist) told me was ‘Fortress’.

The rest of my night ends with random friends, strange new faces, stories of pet executions (lack of funds… ouch, you’ve got to love the fluctuating moral compass) and that unpleasant edge in Moseley I’m old enough to reference. Fuck you, I remember when this was all fields…

The Mother’s Earth Experiment at The Dark House, we give you four out of five stars, No one gets five. And I’m sure the letter you send home about this will be the talk of your family Christmas mailout. But I loved it; a great gig. And one that didn’t cost us a bean too.

So to the people of planet Earth, go out and purchase everything on The Mothers Earth Experiment merch stand and keep the world replete with good music. Also, keep Saturday September 29th free for The Taboo Club Showcase Gig with Birmingham Review at The Victoria. That is the judgement of music journalism. It has spoken. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. And considering tonight was a free entry gig, with copies of The Mothers Earth Experiment’s eponymous album being given away, I’d say it’s the very least we can do.

For more on The Mothers Earth Experiment, visit www.themothersearthexperiment.wordpress.com

For more on The Taboo Club, visit www.facebook.com/TheTabooClubUK

The Taboo Club Showcase Gig with Birmingham Review will be held at The Victoria on Saturday 29^th September. To find out more, and to be on the waiting list for when tickets are released, visit the Facebook Event Page by clicking here.

For more from Sonic Gun, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.facebook.com/sonicgunconcerts

For more on The Dark Horse, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.darkhorsemoseley.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

July 11, 2018

BREVIEW: BE FESTIVAL @ Birmingham REP 04.07.17

Words by Helen Knott / Pics courtesy of BE FESTIVAL

The backstage area of the REP is all abuzz, as audience members and performers mingle and grab drinks on another sultry evening in this most singular of summers. There’s a certain amount of trepidation as we file into The Studio.

BE FESTIVAL’s format of presenting four 30-minute shows of different genres and companies from around Europe means that you’re never quite sure what to expect. It’s safe to assume that this isn’t going to be a relaxing, safe evening watching some book-adaptation on the main stage; it’s going to be challenging, thought-provoking and sometimes difficult to watch.

Thankfully, tonight’s first performance eases us in gently. For me, contemporary dance is right up there with opera as one of the least accessible art forms. Quite often, I just don’t get it. The Czech Republic’s VerTeDance, clearly aware that this can be a barrier for potential audience members, have responded with Let’s Dance, a tongue-in-cheek ‘manual for anxious audiences’ of contemporary dance. The work’s director, Petra Tejnorová, stands at a lectern at the side of the stage, guiding the audience through warm-up techniques, the creative process and dance motifs while the dancers demonstrate… if I’m making that sound a little dry, then it certainly isn’t.

Each dancer steps up and describes an episode from their dancing journey, from the ludicrous (the disadvantages of being a female dancer with short hair) to the touching (the realisation for the male protagonist that he doesn’t have to dance in the hyper-masculine way of his native folk dances, if he doesn’t want to). VerTeDance won the 2015 BE FESTIVAL audience award, and after watching Let’s Dance it’s easy to imagine why; it is a funny, informative introduction to contemporary dance that never takes itself too seriously, while conveying a deep love of the form. I leave wanting to see the full version of the piece (tonight was just a 30 minute segment) and keen to give contemporary dance another go.

After a short break, it’s back into The Studio for Sister Sylvester’s Three Rooms, which links UK actor Kathryn Hamilton (who is here in Birmingham) with colleagues in Germany and Istanbul, over Skype. Hamilton opens the show by announcing, “On stage you can see the outline of the set for a play that we’re not going to perform tonight.”

Hearing that we’re missing out on something grabs the audience’s attention immediately. Hamilton explains that this autobiographical play, about two people fleeing war in Syria, can’t be performed because two of the actors are still unable to get visas to travel. Instead, we join the two through Skype. They show the audience their current homes and, with some visual trickery, perform a couple of scenes from the play.

At points in Three Rooms we get a rare insight into the domestic lives of individuals living through Europe’s border crisis, but on the whole it’s too unfocussed and disjointed, as Skype calls with absent friends can often feel. I’d like to understand more about the reality of the actors’ day-to-day lives spent waiting for something to happen, rather than watching them perform sections of the play, which lose their impact out of context. If the aim of the piece is to question how well technology can compensate for the physical absence of its actors, the answer is: not very well.

Next up, dinner. Having the chance to eat a meal on the REP’s main stage is a real treat, even if everything has overrun; it’s 9:30pm and I’m ravenously hungry. There’s barely enough time to shovel down the pork loin, rice and salad on offer before we’re called in to watch the next performance.

This time we’re in The Door, a smaller space, for F.O.M.O – Fear of Missing Out, by Spain’s Colectivo Fango. F.O.M.O describes the pangs of anxiety many of us feel when we see a social media post that suggests we’re missing out on something. The performance starts light-heartedly enough – a lively set of What’s App messages are projected onto the stage, then one of the piece’s female actors uses the front-facing camera on her phone to pose, pull faces and check her teeth. We start to get a hint that things aren’t quite as innocent as they seem when she starts pointing the phone between her legs… it’s uncomfortable to witness such a personal moment portrayed on stage.

Things quickly turn disturbing. Violent acts are portrayed against women, with continual filming through phone screens having a distancing effect on the perpetrators, distorting reality. In one harrowing segment, one of the female characters poses for social media photographs, before the poses become more and more frantic and out of control and she strips naked. All the while, the other performers count, slowly at first, before speeding up to the number 137, which is finally revealed as the number of Instagram followers she has.

Towards the end of the show things have reached crisis point. One of the characters confides that they know nothing about the war in Syria and asks the audience if any of us know anything either. It’s an uncomfortable feeling to be implicated in the violence being portrayed on stage. I’m sure many of us can see ourselves in the characters’ obsessions with digital communication and social media.

By this stage, things have massively overrun, so I don’t manage to see the final performance of the evening which is Control Freak by Cie. Kirkas – public transport just doesn’t run late enough. But BE FESTIVAL 2018 has offered plenty of food for thought. Let’s Dance encouraged me to open my mind to contemporary dance, and Three Rooms and F.O.M.O – Fear of Missing Out both suggested that technology, often heralded as an effective tool for breaking down geographical and political borders, can sometimes distance us from each other further.

It may have been, as suspected, challenging, thought-provoking and sometimes difficult to watch, but that’s exactly what the best art should do.

For more on BE FESTIVAL, visit www.befestival.org

For more from Birmingham REP, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

July 9, 2018

THE GALLERY: P.E.T @ The Sunflower Lounge 01.07.18

Words by Lydia Fizer / Pics by Paul Reynolds

Otherwise known as the Oven of Aural Delights, >1000°C. “Me eyebrows are comin’ off!” – Molly McDonald, P.E.T bassist extraordinaire.

P.E.T. Ah, what can I say about P.E.T? That I’m beyond excited to see them again. That they have the purest punk sound which will pierce you to the core. That they’ve chosen their favourite local bands for the lineup tonight. It’s gonna be a good one. I can feel it in my water.

This gig is special, and not just because the lineup promises greatness. Tonight is the first time that the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK campaign stickers are in action. These are part of a larger campaign working against the cases of sexual assault, violence, and misconduct which are making our local music scene unsafe. Right this moment, P.E.T vocalist Abi Whistance is scouring the venue, slapping a sticker on anyone she can reach.

If you see these stickers at a music event in the future, please wear one. Even better, order some and distribute them. We are all responsible for showing solidarity in the face of sexual aggression, and demonstrating to the perpetrators that their actions will not be tolerated. You can get the stickers and information here, and even more information about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK campaign here. As Whistance would say, “Get your hands off me, I’m not your P.E.T!”

Onwards. The first band to the stage are Flares, a babyfaced bundle of punk realness. They’re only 14/15 years old, but they are not to be underestimated. Their music is more mature than some bands twice their age.

They open with ‘Anywhere, Anywhere’ and bring a sound that hits your chest like a hammer. Their instrumentals are at once grungy and sharp. They move to the music with confidence. Flares are strong enough that covers of iconic songs are vibrant from their mouths. They get the whole room dancing to Buzzcocks’ ‘Ever Fallen in Love’, and stamp their own sound into M.I.A.’s ‘Paper Planes’. The beat keeps rolling right to the end of their final track, ‘Pastime’. They don’t put a note wrong.

Next up are The Butters Aliens. They have electric vocals from Ed Draper and an irresistible sound. The room is a mass of flailing limbs within the first minute of their set.

They smash a cover of FIDLAR’s ‘Stoked and Broke’, and I can’t help thinking that they play with unbelievable accuracy if they’re as baked as they claim. It’s so catchy. So memorable. It’s shoe-throwingly good (no, really. Shoes and hats are cast asunder. You don’t need them in hell). Later they cover FIDLAR’s ‘No Waves’. The old YouTube videos don’t do these covers justice at all; this show is leaving me blissfully broken – as Draper sings in ‘No Waves’, “I need a new body and I need a new soul”.

They set light to another firecracker, ‘Powerslide’. It makes me smile to see drummer Matt Homback briefly swap places with vocalist/guitarist Draper. Bring your drummers to the front and let them feel the love. They follow this with ‘No Name’. I’m left feeling like I need their CD for when I want to bounce around like a monkey on crack (admit it, you know how I feel).

There’s a whole load of gorgeous camaraderie between the bands tonight. They start mosh pits in one another’s honour, they write each other’s initials across their chests. Vocalist/guitarist of Miilkk, Jack Dixon, is called onto stage with The Butters Aliens to lend his exuberance. The Aliens end on an unearthly headbanging beat. Miilkk take to the stage. Drummer Fin Elwell-Jones’ facial glitter twinkles with promise.

I love it. The crowd loves it. I couldn’t have predicted this – Miilkk have a few bits and pieces on YouTube, but not enough to convey their real character. I left their YouTube account thinking The Moldy Peaches. I see them live and they turn the room into a metal party. Dixon has a classic, almost scratchy voice which takes me back to the first time I heard Kurt Cobain sing (‘Lithium’, in case you were wondering. I forget the year).

Miilkk whip out a fantastic cover of FIDLAR’s ‘Cheap Beer’, supercharging the crowd with an incredible hook. This was a cover worth screaming over (and won’t be the last FIDLAR cover of the night. Why so many songs by FIDLAR? I’m beginning to think this is a conspiracy. Maybe all the bands are actually FIDLAR in disguise. We may never know for sure).

There’s a brief moment where I think I hear bassist Harry Snell sneak a beautiful punk falsetto scream. It was so quick I might have imagined it. Snell, is it real or am I dreaming? If it is real, do it again. Bigger.

Elwell-Jones has lost his shirt by this point. He has ‘THICC DADDY’ scrawled across his chest in red. I notice it through a haze of happiness – I’m riding on bass vibrations running from my fingers to my skull. Miilkk are my favourite band so far. I’m not sure what kind of milk these guys are selling, but I bet it’s of the Clockwork Orange variety because I am tripping.

They do a cover of Dead Kennedys’ ‘California Über Alles’, causing one of the most hyperactive mosh pits of all time. The crowd gets down to the floor, thrumming like motors during the buildup. The room leaps – Dixon steps into the crowd with his guitar – they finish with a marching beat and a wail.

Miilkk launch into a string of cracking originals, including ‘Miss Tequila’ and ‘Pilly Willy’ (which is fast and furious – unlike the willy in question, presumably). They end with their newest song ‘Chinese Wine’; the chorus is the stuff that metal dreams are made of. Dixon screams with soul – I feel it in my bones.

Finally, it’s time for P.E.T. I’ve seen them before. I fell in love with them very quickly, and I’m thrilled to see them again as a headline act. Each band member is a powerhouse of sass. They’re fronted by Abi Whistance, the Ultimate Punk Dream Girl. She’s all fishnets and fiery eyes.

They hurl into the first number, ‘Internalised’, with all the force I’d ever hoped for. They have so much confidence, channeling their power and energy in every way possible. I can’t express how happy this makes me. A few months ago, a little confidence was all they needed to become practically perfect. I reckon they’ve now arrived in their most fabulous form, like a fully evolved Pokémon ready to win every battle.

They play ‘Bunnyboiler’, and bassist Rosie Jones grooves like the goddess that she is. Their cover of The Ting Tings’ ‘Shut Up and Let Me Go’ is honestly better than the original. You’d agree if you heard it. It’s hard not to be lured in by Whistance; she has the piercing voice of a punk-rock siren. A mass of crowd members clamber onto stage and stamp out the beat. They move on to ‘TV’, then finally to my favourite song of theirs, ‘P.E.T’. I really want them to record it so that I can listen to it every second of the day forever.

P.E.T are so entertaining on stage. They’re engaging. They’re cool, witty, personable… I can’t praise them enough. They prepare to cover Pixies’ ‘Tame’. Here unfolds my favourite moment so far. McDonald announces, “I went to Poundland and got some prizes. It’s a bit sh*t […] but whoever moshes the best gets a personal prize from me.” We take this challenge very seriously. The three winners each earn a medal and a lifelong invisible badge of honour. Also, glowsticks for everyone.

The whole crowd screams along to ‘Tommy’ – it’s P.E.T’s first recorded track, which you can listen to for free. It was actually written about the antics of The Butters Aliens, which gives the gig an interesting dynamic; I almost feel like I’m at an alt-family reunion/roasting. McDonald is suddenly wearing Draper’s hat, and more shoes are thrown into the air. How does this keep happening? I’m surrounded by hobbits.

They prepare to play their best known cover. McDonald cries, “Does anyone know all the words to ‘Wannabe’? Anybody can get up if they want.” A mass of crowd members get onto the stage. Together, the crowd and P.E.T give a performance The Spice Girls would die for.

For the final song of the night, we are treated to something spectacular. A song they’ve never played before. A song they’ve only rehearsed once. If I thought the energy was high before, this is a whole new level. Introducing: ‘Rich People’.

There are a series of famous names. Whistance growls, fangs bared, “Weinstein […] Morgan Freeman […]”. She comes to the edge of the stage, trembling like a bomb. “Rich people don’t dance in movies. Rich people don’t dance in films”.

I can’t convey the intensity of the performance in words. I’m afraid you’ll just have to go and see P.E.T yourself.

P.E.T @ The Sunflower Lounge 01.07.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on P.E.T, visit www.facebook.com/petbanduk

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Miilkk – supporting P.E.T @ The Sunflower Lounge 01.07.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on Miilkk, visit www.facebook.com/MIILKKBand

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The Butters Aliens – supporting P.E.T @ The Sunflower Lounge 01.07.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on The Butters Alien, visit www.soundcloud.com/buttersaliens

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Flares – supporting P.E.T @ The Sunflower Lounge 01.07.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on Flares, visit www.facebook.com/Flares

For more on Psych Productions, visit www.psychproductions.co.uk

For more from The Sunflower Lounge, including venue details and full event listings, visit www.thesunflowerlounge.com

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.