One-line gig reviews for (mostly) April

This month featuring: a wodge of 80s nostalgia, a trip to Manchester to see one of my very favourites, and a last minute chance to see one of the rarest shows in town.

Princess Julia, Electric Ballroom, Camden, 7 Apr – It wasn’t going to take much to get this crowd worked up and excited but they played absolute bangers.

Pet Shop Boys, Electric Ballroom, Camden, 7 Apr – I’ve been lucky enough to see Pet Shop Boys in this venue before, and also when they played the London Astoria in 2002, so I have seen them in small venues – but not doing a show like this: b-sides, fan favourites, some real tear-jerkers. Really packed and claustrophobic for me at times, especially with the odd crosspatch near us being dicks about things, but I’ve seldom been so happy to get a last-minute shot at something on Twickets.

Blinded By Passion, The Fiddlers Elbow, Kentish Town, 19 Apr – My friend Emma is in this band, fronted by Jordi Vision, which she told me in advance was “gothy synthy punk” and she was not wrong.

Tom Speight, Chinnery’s, Southend-on-Sea, 27 Apr – Pleasant enough singer-songwriter type affair, but he really excelled at working a crowd – very much a warm-up guy rather than a support act.

Haircut 100, Chinnery’s, Southend-on-Sea, 27 Apr – I was right down the front for most of this next to the speaker stack which had the pro of guitarist Graham Jones mugging for the camera and carefully showing me the chords he was playing when he spotted I was keenly watching his fretboard, and the con that I was deaf in one ear the following day despite having earplugs in. Ho hum, you live and – in my case – fail to learn. They played nearly all of Pelican West and a smattering of songs from a forthcoming new album which stick closely to their original formula of rapid rhythm guitar, funky bass and brassy toots.

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The Youth Play, Albert Hall, Manchester, 1 May – Fairly straight down the line post-punk with a smidge of shoegazing and a lovely moment when the singer pointed out that the next song was written about his brother, who had flown all the way from Mexico to see them at this show.

Desperate Journalist, Albert Hall, Manchester, 1 May – I thought they had a slightly harder edge to their sound here, and it is always a joy watching people who don’t know them widen their eyes when they are in a support slot and Jo Bevan properly stretches her lungs for the first time.

Ist Ist, Albert Hall, Manchester, 1 May – They are a perfectly cromulent band with a couple of right bangers in their repertoire, who have a fiercely loyal and heavily merched-up fanbase but, if you dropped me in the middle of one of their gigs blindfolded and told me it was Interpol or the Editors playing a set of b-sides I’d never heard before I wouldn’t disbelieve you.

As an aside, the Albert Hall is an amazing venue, although the gents are about three miles from the stage and you have to go via a route that is like being Danny in the corridors of The Overlook Hotel.

You can browse the full archive of one-line gig reviews here – a slowly expanding record of long walks to the loo, damaging my hearing, and checking out what music my mates are making – but mostly a record of excellent life decisions.

Last time out I wrote about stumbling into a gig that seemed more like a yoga retreat, some young punks who had a mighty good crack at covering Chappell Roan, and being roasted at some length by comedian Jordan Brookes (pictured below).

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