WHEN word of much-cherished South London quintet The Maccabees’ decision to call time on their career hit in the summer of 2016, the outpouring of love for the band, both then, and at their sold out farewell gigs the following year, had rarely been matched. So, it is understandable that seven years on, the birth of 86TVs has warmed many a heart needing to plug a White-shaped hole in their musical nourishment...
This new incarnation contains, not two, but three Whites to boot - with younger brother Will (holding things down on bass) joining Felix and Hugo in the mix.
Supplemented by former Noisettes’ drummer Jamie Morrison’s propulsive and animal-like beats, on this evidence, the four-piece could soon be nestling in many a new heart before too long.
In town to promote their debut EP, You Don’t Have To Be Yourself Right Now, they initially treat a packed Thursday night crowd to a number of cuts vying for position on their forthcoming long-player.
Days Of Sun and the impressively textured Pipe Dream both point to bright things to come and cause much amusement with the White brothers as to how some of the crowd know the words to as-yet-unreleased material.
Felix works the crowd brilliantly, returning regularly to front row fanatics to appease their calls for material off the EP, so by the time he introduces the tracks which have been released and aired on stations like 6Music, they are lapped up voraciously.
Guitarist Hugo, sporting a cut-off band merch T-shirt, shows his tender side on the woozily beautiful Dreaming, before their best-known song (and perhaps the most joyously uplifting of the last the year) - Higher Love - is aired and Felix’s call for ‘vertical arm movements’ is readily accepted.
It is the refrain on the EP’s title track ("You don’t have to be yourself right now, just give it time - you’ll work that out"), which proves the most affecting though. Times are undeniably tough for so many at the moment, so the solace to be taken from tender lyrics like this can’t be underestimated.
It’s probably no coincidence they are named after an I Am Kloot song - another band who understood how to express the frailties of the human condition through music so deftly.
Family White - it’s good to have you back.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
