This was a great 3 band bill at the Hope & Anchor were strangely the act I've been seeing live for the longest, over 25 years, Tom Spencer is on first, he was playing solo rather than with any of his previous or current bands that include The Yoyo's, who I saw at The Rock Garden back in the 90's, or The Loyalties, The Professionals or Roogalator etc.
Tom opened his acoustic set with a slightly ragged version of Carry Me Home the old Roogalator/Loyalties classic, Tom was soon apologizing for any mistakes, as he was unaccountably playing stone cold sober for the first time, that made singing Home From Home the old Yoyo's tune a bit more difficult as it needs the drunken swagger.
While he poked a little fun at Paul Cooks current summer job in Generation Sex, before a nice sparse version of Oh You Silly Thing that he usually sings with The Professionals. While he may have moaned about being straight, he was still up for a little bit of Kerb Crawler to get things good and sleazy.
Bad Baby kept things good and sleazy, before a slightly haphazard take on Kick Down The Doors as Tom made clear how hard he finds it to play it straight and sober, as he almost bawled Hey You Shooting Star. He then closed with a cool version of Johnny Be Better that left us wanting more, while also looking forward to seeing Tom back in The Professionals soon.
We missed seeing Continental Lovers at Rebellion as they clashed with Long Tall Texans and Frenzy among others but have wanted to see them again for a good while now. The line-up has changed a bit since I last saw them at The Finsbury last year, this time Joe Maddox and Rokket Rik are joined by Ben Webster and Keri Sinn in the band's current line-up.
They opened with Masquerade a great sleazy trash punk anthem, as they lived up to the bands current glam trash image. Continental Lovers was speedy as they never stopped moving all over the small stage, they really need some more room.
As ever Take That left me wondering what Gary Barlow ever did to Joe to make him write this brilliant witty song that had some glorious guitar mangling and great poses. The Girl appears to have done something to upset them, still at least she'll never be forgotten as this song celebrates her. It Really Doesn't Matter was next in this whirlwind of a set full of swagger and a certain down at heart charm, that was made more poignant as Joe had pointed out that all of the band volunteer as Samaritans and this song was about one tough phone call.
Joe then introduced Wedding Song as having been commission by Beelzebub himself for one of his terrible bands, still Simon Cowell notwithstanding, this is now a glam rave up to drive him to distraction. Waste My Time is my guess at the next song, not that they wasted anytime as this was speedy and full throated as Joe really went for it.
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Saint Joan is the bands brilliant anthem in praise of Saint Joan of Jett and her never ending influence on cool rock, punk and glam bands. Out Of My Head is hopeful for how many of us felt by this point in the set, as its pin sharp guitars cut through everything. They then got all nostalgic for the charms of Dale Arden as Ben Webster tried to seduce her with his guitar solo like he was Ming The Merciless incarnate.
They closed the set with a super nifty singalong version of Jetboy the old New York Dolls classic that just left us wanting more Continental Lovers, the sooner the better.
Soon enough on came Desperate Measures NZ who we last saw at Rebellion almost a month ago, they opened with Scars that allowed Eugene Butcher to really start working the room to get us all going, as Gaff's guitar started to fry on The Rich-Tual.
Lost Angels was dedicated to Trixie Tassels who recently lost her battle with cancer and had performed at many shows promoted by Eugene over the years, this was a poignant as they got. Judging by the state of my notes I was worse for wear by the time they took on what I guess is Sublime Destruction?
Eugene then took us back to his youth for 1984 a song he wrote back in Christchurch about how he thought the end was nigh as James Sherry tried to destroy everything with his drums. The apocalypse was on the way on World War 3.
After all the doom it was time to get a bit more romantic as Eugene tried to convince us he's the kind of lover to deliver Flowers At Your Door, they then chose to celebrate the Seven Sisters road that was about a mile away from the Hope & Anchor, the roads two key Rock venues are now a church and a hotel sadly. The then took us Back To The Rat that had a brilliant solo from Gaff before Eugene told us they were going to sing about some Animals as they launched in to I Wanna Be Your Dog that was a perfect cover to close a great Friday night punk rock gig.
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