Britpop icons Echobelly have been on the road recently, and we were there to see them at Chinnerys in Southend. Supported by Keeley, they were playing as part of the burgeoning Indie Cult Club.
*all images courtesy of Harvey Oscar Brown (@oscrvisual)
For bands like Echobelly, it can be tricky to negate the past. Southend was no different, with endless chatter for small pockets of the room. What those people forgot about the past, though, is Sonya Madan is a badass frontwoman who takes no prisoners. Her beguiling stage presence and telling said people “to shut the fuck up” was met in equal gratitude from the loving faithful.
Madan, at times, is utterly mesmeric. Arms aloft, gliding slowly across the room to ‘If The Dogs Don’t Get You, My Sisters Will’ as Glen Johnsson’s guitars trip with a thick psychedelic fog. There is something beautifully theatrical about their partnership. Madan’s vocal is devilish, enticing you into Johnsson’s spell, which can’t be undone.
This dynamic blossomed further on ‘Scream’ and set closer ‘Dark Therapy’, the former providing a real pin-drop moment. The pain and anguish oozing from the howling guitars was palpable. ‘Dark Therapy’s all these years on, still has the same emotive hypnotic power. The sliding guitars and Madan’s reflective and empowering vocals rise and tumble with breathtaking magnificence.
Although the set mainly contained the protracted art of their canon, in ‘In Great Things’ and ‘King of the Kerb’, they have two of the bona fide great singles of the 90s. Instinctive, sexy, and of their time, they transport you to a time when the art-rock scene of 1994 was blossoming in Camden. Images of debauchery at Blow Up club nights and record deals being signed in the Good Mixer rush to the forefront of elder minds becoming carefree once again.
Thirty years on since their debut album, Echobelly show no signs of slowing down creatively. Long may they reign.