Blonde Ambition!

Fringey spent this Saturday evening checking out The Long Blondes as part of 'Now Stand Tall - Icons Of The New Sonic Generation' ( the pretentious title for a 'boys in bands' photo exhib at the Spitz by Dean Chalkley).

But the only blonde hair seen tonight was the bad bleach job of NEILS CHILDREN singing chappie John Linger. At their best they're like a punked up Cure, at their worst they just make a god awful banging boring racket. I'm hoping that the tunes I liked were recent ones and indicative of an upswing in talent and ability. I think I liked them, even if they do look faintly ridiculous.

Then was the turn of the ladies (yes I know there are two entire boys in the LONG BLONDES and one even writes some of the songs, but really, do they actually count?). They launch straight into ‘Appropriation (By Any Other Name)’ and show exactly why everyone says they are so bloody good, in fact practically every song is a proper spikey indie pop tune. In Kate they have a fantastically sulky, sarky front woman, who can be feminine/sexy without the usual annoying flirty grimaces, pouting and eyelash flutters that can alienate half the audience. - (yes I'm talking about you Hot Puppies and Gin Palace!) - I’m liking The Long Blondes a lot, their website says they’re playing Lancaster Library in May. Brilliant.

The gig finished around midnight, but we wanted even more! So we thought it would be a good idea to hop on over to Frog, at the Meanfiddler. I hadn’t been there in over a year, and then it was to see the sublime Futureheads. This time round we got an indie super club, rammed with bused in 'Essex indie', - and the YOUNG KNIVES, who were not as good as we’d been led to believe. But they do look funny though don’t they? And I do like the slight mentalness of that ‘Decision’ song.

Still it was quite good going for a Saturday evening. Anyway I’m off now to buy me a couple of pencil skirts, neck scarves and stock up on the eyeliner.

Luce said: