Trust your instincts.
A tip off from Ian (Damaged Goods) on Facebook yesterday leads me to the tiny (rammed) basement of the Rossi Bar in Brighton this evening. It only took me around 10 seconds of seeing their video to realise I needed to be here tonight. That voice! Reminiscent of namesake Amelia from Talulah Gosh (she sang at our wedding, you know!), The Popguns (my own true drunken loves from Brighton in the 90s), a touch of Cilla (Sixties Cilla, not bleedin’ Surprise Surprise) and the Lily Allen album I adored upon moving to Brisbane… and backed by another voice, equally as evocative, harmonious and fun-loving… and backed by a handful of ‘lads’, all choppy and clearly in love with the same straight ahead 60s pop and late 70s punk records that I too am in love with.
Ten seconds, serious. Try it for yourself.
Oh man! Trust your instincts. Tonight is so much F.U.N. Never mind the fact that 90 per cent of the time it feels like I am crashing a private party (the joint is rammed, and everyone knows everyone except for me), this is one of those nights when everyone is high on life and music and the joy of sweet, sweet harmonies and melody, and the knowledge that this is one of those nights. There is much back and forth, and mopping of brows cos of the heat – someone lends Amelia a fan halfway through – but that don’t bother me none, cos cagey old me is stood up on a bench in the corner, right next to the only fan in the entire basement.
This is a night for remembering why you fell in love with pop music (Blondie, The Popguns, The Delmonas) in the first place, untrammelled joy and togetherness and tunes, and friendly sarcasm, pride in being part of Pride, unaffected and infectious and… man, that VOICE! Two versions of Yazz’s ‘The Only Way Is Up’ and we sing unashamedly along, thrusting our hands in the air, swaying and smiling. One song is called ‘Fuck The Queen’ and, yeah. The Damaged Goods single (‘Maybe’) is what I want Cords to sound like… and maybe they do already! Ten songs, pop perfection.
As Amelia sings on the closing ‘Summer’s Over’, “You see what you want to see/You hear what you want to hear/You feel what you want to feel/Now the summer is over”. Absolutely.
I don’t stick around for the main band.