Eighteen months ago, en route to see Sisteray in Camden, The Blinders emerged, covered in face paint and blew our world apart. This past Saturday, North London's Nambucca beckoned us to see the jangle psyche of the Lacuna Bloome. Enter stage right, Sad Boys Club.
It's notable how much of gang Sad Boys Club look. The singer a pop icon, the bass player inevitably throwing shapes and the rest looking great but, more importantly, have a steely look of defiance. Cross one of them and you will regret it!
The pop hooks across this set, are so good that, in a parallel universe, Madonna is stabbing her record label execs for not securing these songs for her! New single 'Silverlined', indebted to The Cure, is sure to soundtrack the new romantic story lines of Stranger Things and Glow. On 'American Spirit', they echo former Fierce Panda Label greats The Crookes as they turn emotion amps up to eleven.
So, when the inevitable lazy journalists of the broadsheets announce “there's no more guitar bands” or wail about how “pop used to matter”, throw Sad Boys Club in their face. Thoughtful, credible pop music didn't begin with The Smiths and die in the mid-nineties. It lives and breathes in great risk taking bands like Sad Boys Club.
*Image courtesy of Jon Mo Photography / TW: @jonmophoto / http://jonmophotography.co.uk/