Under The Influence Presents...

The Long Blondes

The Lamp, Thursday 20th March 2008

It's been almost a year since the Long Blondes were in Hull. Their last gig being in a well kitted out Welly Ballroom, which, I think was probably one of my favourite and most looked forward to gigs of the year. It was early in the year and I was steaming through a fury of 'Someone to drive you home' on repeat in my car for about 3 months previous to them playing the club. I even bought myself a T shirt, which is very fussy of me and for that one gig I was like a screaming child at a Take That concert singing along to every word who probably deserved a bloody good slap but we're all allowed to get a little excited now and again aren't we? They didn't dissapoint as they played a fantastic set. It’s always a bonus when one of your favourite bands can pull off an even better performance live and that's just what the Long Blondes did, reassuring my faith in them as each song was tight, energetic and seeing Kate in person strutting her stuff on stage just like I do when I’m listening to ‘em in front of the mirror was just electric. Definately ticked all the right boxes.

The Long Blondes appeared later in the year at the Leeds Carling Weekend, I was in the same excitable mood but then again everyone is when your drunk and sunburnt at 3 in the afternoon after 2 previous days on the drink and when your about 200 meters away from the stage the best you can do to enjoy a live band at Leeds is to prance around with your bag of wine singing along like a twat. They played more or less the same set as they did at The Welly Club but I loved them at Welly so I loved them just as much in the West Yorkshire sunshine.

My face lit up when I heard they were coming back again, even more so when I heard that they were down sizing in venue and playing at The Lamp this time around, a much more intimate gig (just as long as you make sure you get yourself to the front otherwise your buggered if you wanna see). The gig had sold out 2 weeks after it was announced, which made me wonder why on earth they didn’t play a bigger venue but apparently the Blondes were touring a fair few smaller venues this time round and wanted it that way so who am I to argue.

I might deserve a slap on the legs for not watching the support band, they sounded good from where I was at the bar but I was conserving all pushing to the front energy for when the Blondes took to the stage.

For a gig that was Sold out, it didn’t look very sold out to me, but then again I guess they base tickets on how many people you can fit in the stage area rather then the in the bar itself, which is probably the best way to do it. After a quick pint and a fag the Blondes were on. I was only a few rows from the front and could see perfectly so wasn’t going to try and push any further like many annoying others.

They started their set with their new single, ‘Century’, which gave old fans a taster of what the new album was about to include. They’ve gone for a much more funky disco sound with their upcoming album, with plenty of keyboard, and electronic sounds. Front woman Kate seemed a lot different since the last time she was in Hull, she’d gone from a Long skirted, long haired Vintage princess to a short haired Brody Dalle lookie likie. She’d lost loads of weight too, not that she ever needed too. Vocals were spot on and she still spoilt the audience with some of her classic electric moves.

The set mainly included songs off their new album apart from the 2 off, ‘Someone to drive you home’, which really got the crowd bouncing, even though they went back to being morbid fucks once the old favourites had been played. One girl was stood right at the front with a face like a slapped arse the whole way through, concentrating more on not spilling her lar de dar glass of vino rather then enjoying some quality unheard Long Blondes, people like that should be made to stand at the back to make room for actual fans. Static fans aren't real fans. Rant over, people like that just annoy me.

It was brilliant to hear the Blondes playing some new tunes, and from what they played the new album sounds even better than the last. Dorian (the dude on stage) had swapped his guitar for a sampler for a fair few more of the songs on this album and even threw in the sound of a Banana shaker in one of them. They’ve stepped up a disco notch but still threw a few in with that same sexy guitar sound that I’ll be looking forward to dancing in the clubs too very shortly!

Like all gigs, it seemed to all be over too quickly, but with fresh Long Blondes tunes in my head their new album (out April) had already been sold.

Hot and bothered I went outside for a cigarette to cool off and breathe some, ‘fresh’ air. Only to hear a group of young ‘uns crowded round saying how shit the gig was with comments like, ‘I only new 2 songs, that was shit’, ‘I’m so disappointed I’ve been looking forward to this gig all week’. I felt like giving them a good slap around the legs and sending them home to Mother. If you wanted to hear all your old favourites then you should have gotten out your nappies earlier and come to last years gig, Jesus Christ, keep up. You can’t expect a band to play the same set for over a year and to be honest if I heard them play, ‘Once and never again’ (the all time classic) one more time I probably would have thrown up. Some new fresh Long Blondes was just what the doctor ordered, quite frankly after over a year of listening to the same Long Blondes tunes I was getting a little bored but after their performance at Lamp, faith was truly restored and I'll be looking forward to a brand spanking new album and sound in April.

Visit their Myspace

Visit their website