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April 27, 2018April 27, 2018

THE GALLERY: Mallory Knox @ Mama Roux’s 24.04.18

Words by Yasmine Summan / Pics by Eleanor Sutcliffe

Mallory Knox have returned from their brief hiatus to shed any doubt or dismay, as they charge through the UK on their self-titled tour of 2018 – joined by JUDAS and Dead! Playing a series of more ‘intimate’ shows, the now four piece band are back on the road for six dates throughout April, ready to rock out until they tear the whole room apart from Brighton to Glasgow.

Tonight is Mama Roux’s turn, as Birmingham hosts the penultimate gig before Mallory Knox close out their tour at the Bodega in Nottingham. JUDAS are first to kick in, and whilst I enjoy their typical indie rock style of stripped down, guitar riffs, and continuous drum set loops – that shifts attention onto the ‘tom toms’, bringing an elevated, pop element to their music – the harmonies are scathed by off-pitch, out of tune rhythms and a lackluster vocal range from lead singer, John Clancy.

The man clearly appears to be trying his hardest, but rather than having his vocals crisply cut through thin air they crunch into the microphone and even become inaudible at times. Although JUDAS maintain a vivacious stage energy throughout their set and gain quite humbling crowd engagement, albeit with sadly off par vocal ranges that somewhat scorn their talents and on occasion left me to painfully cringe.

Bursting through the doors of the mainstream industry to alight the new age of rock and roll, Dead! dominate as the main support act – immediately blowing the roof clean off the Mama Roux’s. Bordering between alternative/punk rock, Dead! omit the typical nonchalant, wild and chaotic personality of 70’s rock in their performance. Whilst screeching guitar riffs burn through every strum of the finger, heavy kick drums create a low thumping rhythm to head bang to – alongside Alex Mountford’s enthralling vocals that cling to every corner of the room.

Dead! strategically play slower verses that intensely build into high energy, fast tempo choruses, with mosh pits opening up left, right and center. Pandering to the crowd with fan favorite songs (as Sam Matlock shreds his guitar solo to ‘Enough, Enough, Enough’ whilst balancing on Louis Matlock’s drum kit, in true rock and roll style) I feel that their set list underwhelms their talents. Their performance tonight is perhaps mellowed out for Mallory Knox’s crowd, but songs like ‘Off White Paint’ and ‘Enemy’ hold an evident absence during the show.

But now it’s time for the headline act, playing one of their first live shows since the departure of vocalist Mike Chapman in February this year. And there’s no messing about from tonight’s crowd, with fans practically diving onto the stage as Mallory Knox kick in with their new single, ‘Black Holes’. Bassist and now vocalist, Sam Douglas, captivates the room as he rushes onto the stage, blaring his gnawing bass riffs with every burning strum. Moving as one body, the room responds and elevates into chaos, as everyone jumps around and seemingly quite literally loses their minds.

Bouncing around the room, Mallory Knox perpetuate boundless stage energy, with guitarist, Joe Savins, leaning into the crowd to sing along with fans. Radiating a humble nature, Douglas and the rest of the band thank everyone for coming out – with the now front man even delving into his personal life, to openly admit he is struggling but the fans are helping him through.

As off the wall moments of insanity among the audience sway through the show, including lots of crowd surfing and mosh pits, the momentum of the set moves like a rollercoaster. And whilst their track list tonight also features fan favorites, including some of their best hits such as ‘Beggars’ and ‘Better Off Without You’, upon reaching the forth song the show mellows out almost too drastically.

The pace set by their lively start takes a seriously low drop as Mallory Knox reach the middle of the set, picking up with a few newer tracks towards the end. But the ball begins to properly (rock and) roll again when they brake through with ‘Wake Up’, sending the Mama Roux’s back into uproar once more. Since the departure of Chapman, Mallory Knox appear to be shedding their 2013 alternative rock cage – one that has arguably overshadowed their sound for years – and are advancing into heavier rock, incorporating lower riffs and fast tempo beats. It does feel that Mallory Knox’s newer singles, ‘Livewire’ and ‘Black Holes’, gain popularity from the audience as they drive the band’s creative direction into new horizons, possibly paving an exciting future for the band’s sound.

It’s clearly been a tough time for Mallory Knox since the recent departure of their long-time vocalist, Mike Chapman. And whilst they power through their performance tonight, I’d argue that the band are still not fully rehearsed or together since this event. Moments of vulnerability, unknowingness, and confusion peak through their performance – as microphone stands fall over mid-song, off-time rhythms weave through their guitars, and Douglas’ voice strains itself to reach the capabilities that Chapman could.

I respectably applaud Mallory Knox for continuing with this tour despite all odds, and there are clear moments were their talents shine through. But perhaps a more sensible response would have been to postpone the tour until the band were fully ready to perform without Chapman. In fact, their unsparing mistakes tonight only emphasise the absence of Chapman, leading some including myself to think ‘would this happen if Mikey were here?’

Reflecting on tonight’s show, Mallory Knox are clearly trying as best as they can to make ends meet; plunging into a year-long hiatus would realistically have only tarnished their popularity and most likely upset fans, so the band have pushed through despite their recent loss – one that has clearly impacted their live performances.

And whilst they may still be finding their footing as a four piece, shreds of their former glory did flutter through their set, especially with Douglas’ heightened confidence when performing new tracks. I feel that with time this band will be back on their feet again.

Mallory Knox @ Mama Roux’s 24.04.18 / Eleanor Sutcliffe

For more on Mallory Knox, visit www.malloryknox.com

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Dead! – supporting Mallory Knox @ Mama Roux’s 24.04.18 / Eleanor Sutcliffe

For more Dead!, visit www.theinternetisdead.co.uk

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JUDAS – supporting Mallory Knox @ Mama Roux’s 24.04.18 / Eleanor Sutcliffe

For more on JUDAS, visit www.wearejudas.com

For more from Kilimanjaro Live, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.kilimanjarolive.co.uk

For more on Mama Roux’s, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.facebook.com/mamarouxs

April 20, 2018

BPREVIEW: Mallory Knox @ Mama Roux’s 24.04.18

Words by Eleanor Sutcliffe

Mallory Knox will be performing an intimate show in Mama Roux’s on Tuesday 24^th April as part of their spring UK tour, with support from Dead! and JUDAS.

Doors open at Mama Roux’s from 7:30pm, with tickets priced from £20 (plus booking fee) – as presented by Kilimanjaro Live. For online ticket sales click here. To visit the gig’s Facebook Event page, click here.

Following main stage performances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, and the independent release of their latest track ‘Black Holes’, Mallory Knox are proving themselves a force to be reckoned with.

Building up their fan base since the release of their debut UK album, Signals, back in 2013, the band have slowly but surely climbed their way to the top of the UK alternative rock scene. Just under a year later and the release of their sophomore album, Asymmetry, landed them at No16 in the UK Album Charts and secured them a host of performances with bands such as Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens – as well as an independent UK tour that saw them sell out London’s Electric Ballroom two nights in a row.

This continued to peak when Mallory Knox were announced for both the Slam Dunk Festival and the iconic Vans Warped Tour –with the band’s last studio album, Wired, released in March 2017 and reaching both No1 on the UK Rock & Metal Album Charts and No18 on the UK Album Charts.

Committed to carving out their own niche in the UK music scene, Mallory Knox have spent years developing their sound – just listen to the differences between tracks such as ‘Oceans’ and ‘Sugar’ if you don’t believe me. And boy, has it paid off. Their commitment to experimentation without straying too far from the path has resulted in the band becoming a favourite with rock and metal fans across the UK.

Although this time, it could be slightly different. The seemingly sudden departure of Mikey Chapman has lost Mallory Knox their unique vocals. Although from what we’ve heard of ‘Black Holes’, Mallory Knox’s co-vocalist and bass player Sam Douglas seems more than ready to take the reins.

Playing it safe with a string of intimate shows across the UK this spring, coming to Mama Roux’s in Birmingham on Tuesday 24^th April, it’s just exciting to see what Mallory Knox have in store for us next.

‘Black Holes’ – Mallory Knox

On Tuesday 24^th April, Mallory Knox play at Mama Roux’s with support from Dead! and JUDAS – as presented by Kilimanjaro Live. For online ticket sales click here. To visit the gig’s Facebook Event page, click here.

For more on Mallory Knox, visit www.malloryknox.com

For more Dead!, visit www.theinternetisdead.co.uk

For more on JUDAS, visit www.wearejudas.com

For more from Kilimanjaro Live, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.kilimanjarolive.co.uk

For more on Mama Roux’s, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.facebook.com/mamarouxs

March 16, 2018

BREVIEW: Phil Wang @ The Glee Club 11.03.18

Words by Helen Knott

Phil Wang emerges on stage at The Glee Club to the strains of ‘Kung Fu Fighting’, setting the scene for an evening where the influence of his East Asian heritage is never too far away.

During this 90 minute show, titled Kinabalu – named after the highest mountain in Malaysia, Phil Wang covers a multitude of topics, from Chinese New Year, to his aim to die a hero’s death, to his dislike of scary movies (which he dismisses as “a purely western privilege” as no one needs to watch scary movies in Syria). Wang‘s on-stage persona is of a 28-year-old man who is probably not quite as cool as he thinks he is. He may equate buying lube with being a true adult, but he’s buying it in Waitrose and he’s not happy about the high price.

The set is littered with brilliant gags (personal favourite: “You ever done a fart so bad you lose a bar on the Wi-Fi?”) but Wang is most compelling when he concentrates on serious issues. His heritage – he’s half Malaysian, half British – gives him a strong voice on subjects such as Brexit, colonialism, and racism. Wang may have lived in the UK for his entire adult life, but he maintains an outsider’s point of view: for example, he feels more comfortable being patriotic than his British-born friends because he knows what it’s like to live somewhere without the things we take for granted. In short, “You can drink your tap water!”

Wang’s section on Brexit may include some fairly straightforward quips (“I voted remain, as you can tell by my vocabulary”) but it comes through the filter of his childhood in Malaysia, which was part of the British Empire. He argues that globalisation, which brought his parents together and Wang to the UK, came about because of entities like the British Empire. Therefore, in his eyes it’s not a wholly negative period of history, for Malaysia at least. He suggests that the EU is “the first empire built by peace instead of war”, and he’s disappointed that the British public rejected it. It’s interesting stuff, and a take on Brexit (a subject that no comedian seems to be able to avoid at the moment) that is genuinely fresh on the stand up circuit.

Despite the show’s focus on Phil Wang as an entity – his family, his career, his relationships – you get surprisingly little sense of Wang the man. He still has his guard up, often referring to himself in the third person and continually punning on his own surname for a cheap laugh. The only part of the show where it feels like you see the authentic Phil Wang is when, after a section about his girlfriend, he admits that they split up a month ago but he hasn’t bothered to change his material. It’s a fleeting feeling however, as the newly-single Wang quickly turns it into a hammy call-out for groupies.

As a show, Kinabalu is a little too long and doesn’t have much of an overarching thrust – it really just peters out at the end. But when you have jokes as good as Phil Wang, it doesn’t matter too much. Although on his next tour I’m hoping for maybe fewer lube stories and more insightful political analysis.

For more on Phil Wang, visit www.philwang.co.uk

For more from The Glee Club venues, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk

March 8, 2018

BPREVIEW: Phil Wang @ Glee Club 11.03.18

Words by Helen Knott

Comedian Phil Wang brings his fourth stand-up show, Kinabalu, to Birmingham’s Glee Club on Sunday 11^th March.

Doors open at the Glee Club from 7pm to 7:30pm, with the show scheduled to start at 8pm. Minimum age of entry is 14, with tickets are priced at £12 plus booking fee. For direct show information, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

At the time of writing, Phil Wang is in the midst of an unlikely controversy. Apparently, in a yet-to-be-aired edition of the BBC’s TV favourite Room 101, Wang nominates Hollywood heartthrob Tom Hiddleston to be sent to the infamous room – the place of pet hates. A pretty solid choice you might think, but Hiddleston’s fans (the ‘Hiddlestoners’) are not amused. Wang is getting some serious stick on Twitter.

I’m sure that he doesn’t mind too much. Wang’s comedy often crosses the boundary into things it’s probably not okay to say out loud. He’s not one to beat around the bush on sensitive issues like race or sex or colonialism. Wang’s upbringing – he lived in Malaysia until he his mid-teens before moving to the UK – means that he gets away with a lot of it; he’s allowed to say that the British Empire isn’t all bad, because he has experienced life living in an arm of the British Empire firsthand.

It also means that Wang has ready-made ‘otherness’, something that many other comedians work to manufacture. His name is a perfect distillation of this: he’s half British, half Malaysian, and consequently feels like he doesn’t completely fit in anywhere. This is reflected in his material, and means that Wang can tell us plenty of insightful things about British attitudes to race from an outsider’s point of view.

Phil Wang will be performing his fourth solo show, Kinabalu, which has been solidly picking up four star reviews since it debuted at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. This performance is part of an extended UK tour, which began at the end of 2017, and has featured a number of sold out shows. This backs-up Wang’s burgeoning TV career, including appearances on Have I Got News for You, Live at the Apollo, and Comedy Central’s Roast Battle, hosted by Jimmy Carr, in which beat fellow comedian Ed Gamble.

If it seems like Wang’s career is going pretty well for someone still in their mid-twenties, it should come as no surprise when you look back at his teenage years. He was performing stand-up sets before university and actively targeted a place at Cambridge so that he could be a member of the famous theatrical society Cambridge Footlights (previous members include Douglas Adams, Stephen Fry, Richard Ayoade and John Oliver). Alongside a degree in Engineering, Wang became president of Footlights and won the Chortle Student Comedian of the Year award. This is clearly a focused and ambitious man.

So far, that ambition, coupled with his unique point of view on British and East Asian culture, are making for a winning combination. Let’s just hope that the Hiddlestoners don’t get him.

Phil Wang – Live at the Apollo

Phil Wang brings his Kinabalu stand up show to the Glee Club (B’ham) on Sunday 11^th March. For direct show information, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk/performer/phil-wang

For more on Phil Wang, visit www.philwang.co.uk

For more from the Glee Club venues, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.glee.co.uk