Following the scrum for all of the limited edition Record Store Day vinyl, it was time for some free music upstairs at Rough Trade. We popped down to hear what they had on offer.
First up is South Korean four-piece Say Sue Me, and in a week where Morrissey has sadly opened his mouth, it’s nice to be reminded about the good things from the jingly jangly mid-80s, namely the music. The first two thirds of the set could easily have found a home on the NME C86 compilation. They say that playing in Rough Trade “makes me feel like a real rock ‘n’ roller” before they launch into a track that has more of an earlier ‘80s new wave vibe to it. They underline their influences as they close their set with two tracks from their Record Store Day covers EP - Beginning To See The Light by The Velvet Underground and Dreaming by Blondie. It’s all beautifully twee but not too twee and where so many bands these days seem to be so serious and studied in everything they do, Say Sue Me actually seem to be having fun.
Next up is Tax The Heat and, despite being named after a Beatles’ lyric, they have more of a ‘70s/80s rock sound. All That Medicine has a Led Zeppelin style riff while Animals shares more than just a similar title with Def Leppard. On the hottest day of the year, the singer is wearing a velvet jacket - he’s probably so hot that if his heat was being taxed then the treasury would be very happy indeed.
Nottingham’s You Want Fox officially release their debut album six days later but have some copies for sale on Record Store Day. They are very excited about this fact, “we’ve got our record for sale downstairs in the store, next to Bowie!” They run through their “hits”, Shades Of Grey, Bad Girls and a censored version of Ex-Boyfriend (censored due to the number of kids in the audience, although it’s great that the kids are here rather than at Disney On Ice) There are some occasional fluffed lines or missed cues but that’s because Natalie is planning her second major release of 2018 and has a touch of baby brain.
Another two-piece up next, Lancaster’s The Lovely Eggs and singer/guitarist Holly and drummer/husband David have just released their fifth album This Is Eggland. The set leans heavily on their newer tracks such as Wiggy Giggy and I Shouldn’t Have Said That. Holly is keen to know “who’s camped out all night to get the records? You nutters!” before deducting Dickhead to those people who have already put their RSD hauls on eBay. Harsh but very fair. Their lo-fi sound perfectly rounds off the first half of Rough Trade’s Record Store Day celebration.
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