1,275 PETER HOOK AND THE LIGHT (2 Sets), Frome Cheese And Grain, Saturday 29th April 2023

 

A slow gig month of April is nonetheless ending on a high note, with the welcome return of a bona fide rock legend… having run the gamut of the entire Joy Division/ New Order canon of releases that he was involved in, it seems Mancunian post-punk icon Peter Hook is circling right back to the beginning, going through the dark, dramatic goth-tinged moody post-punk of his first band once again! Happy with that, the man’s always been more than good value whatever he chooses to play… and given that this fell on a Saturday night, this gave me the currently rare opportunity to bring my full-on GCSE-mode teenage son along for a break in his studies, to further an altogether different kind of education. When I first played Logan “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, his response on hearing this seminal all-time classic was, “so this song wasn’t so much written, more like handed down from God…” so I think the boy gets it…!

 Also joining us were old friends and fellow JD/NO devotees Colin and Paul, Colin picking us up at 6 for the first gig we’d travelled to together for nearly 40 years (Orange Juice at Golddiggers in 1984, gig 22!). Mused about this disgraceful state of affairs and other topics, during a meandering yet pleasant drive through Wiltshire’s backroads, parking up and grabbing a drink in this old corn market hall’s beer garden. Popped into the venue 10 minutes before the support, happily finding a pocket of space near the front, house right. As is his wont, Hooky was supporting himself, leading the band onstage at 8 and proclaiming, “we’ve tried something different on this tour; we’ve let each one of the band pick [the support] set-list! This is Paul’s turn…” Said list was a New Order selection, and Paul absolutely nailed the choice, with the pounding backbeat and change of pace of opener “The Him”, followed by the clattering synth pattern and eerie melodica overlay of “Movement”’s “Truth” and a beautifully plaintive and understated “Leave Me Alone”. Things really ramped up a few gears thereafter, though, with an unexpected “Blue Monday”, a stately “True Faith” and a bubbling, buoyant and singalong “Temptation” to round off a splendid half hour vignette, all delivered with sweeping authority by Hooky and the lads. Superb stuff… and that was just the opening set…!

 Our spot down the front got busier and more sauna-esque, as we were also joined by gig buddy Paul (from last year’s War On Drugs gig, no. 1,219); I took a comfort break at 8.45 and got caught out by Hooky re-taking the stage for the “Unknown Pleasures” rendition, powering into a fast, frantic and frankly incendiary “Disorder”. “Day Of The Lords”, next up, was replete with seething menace, Hooky growling the, “when will it end,” hook with imperious command, conducting the crowd with outstretched arm. The widescreen dark epic “New Dawn Fades” was however my highlight, Hooky raising his usually low, gravelly and stentorian vocals one octave for the genuinely affecting second verse. “Shadowplay” and “Interzone” were tense, taut proto-punk thrashes, with closer “I Remember Nothing” (a track I often struggle with, finding it a leaden plod) faring better “live”, all morose claustrophobia, reflecting those uneasy cold war 70’s times.

 Another brief break before the band returned, the tumbling drum pattern of “Atrocity Exhibition” heralding the “Closer” run-through. This was actually the first time I’d seen Hooky do Joy Division’s sophomore effort, an album I confess I know less well than its’ predecessor, and I was surprised how more synth-based the sound was, particularly on the expansive twinkling Eurodisko of “Isolation”, the regimented, almost funky stomp of “Means To An End” and the church organ wall of sound of “Closer”’s closer, the elegiac “Decades”. Definite nods towards the direction New Order were to ultimately take, although my “Closer” highlight was the taut, jagged and razor-sharp “Colony”, ironically the one track which would have fit most aptly on “Unknown Pleasures”… And, of course, all were delivered with superb purpose and conviction by Hooky and Co., the man turning his back to the crowd at “Decade”’s climax, signalling his approval with one arm aloft, before leaving the band to a lengthy and rapturously-received crescendo.

 They’d saved the best until last, however; the encore saw Hooky thank everyone on this, the last night of the tour, before an undulating, punky “Digital” ceded to the bass riff opening of a brilliant “Ceremony”, Hooky stripping the sound right back for the middle 8 breakdown before the haunting denouement, A hurtling “Transmission” followed, before the inevitable highlight of the night, a gloriously skyscraping rendition of “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, handed down by God and his strafing bass. Just magnificent. Hooky then cast his t-shirt to the masses before departing, then Logan and I grabbed a list and met the boys back at the car, home at midnight. A high note to end April, indeed, with the enduring legend that is Peter Hook!

1,274 OCTOBER DRIFT, The Pleasure Dome, Newport Le Pub, Tuesday 18th April 2023

 

It’s been a tough couple of weeks since my last gig, due to my Dad passing away, which itself was preceded by a period of hospitalisation and hospice care for him. As he always used to say, though, you just have to get on with it, so I was grateful for this pre-arranged gig to finally crop up in my schedule, so I could get on with doing what I love; seeing bands! And in tonight’s hosts, excellent post-punk/ shoegaze noiseniks October Drift, an increasingly special band in my books… A family holiday in Crete had unfortunately clashed with their October 2022 tour promoting their sophomore album “I Don’t Belong Here Anymore”, although I had managed to see them do a “hipster bistro” acoustic performance at Rough Trade Bristol before boarding the plane (gig 1,249). Said album was comfortably in the upper echelons of my Top Ten of 2022, replete with shimmering soundscapes, strident power-riffs and skyscraping choral hooks, so tonight represented a great chance to hear that new material, hopefully with no horses spared, as it were…

 This tour took in the Thekla, albeit in an already busy gigging May, so I’d instead booked for an early-tour trip over the bridge to the little-visited Newport, to Le Pub, a new venue on my dance card. After a quick trundle down the M4 I found it quite easily, close to the railway station and directly opposite an NCP! The venue itself was a small Vic-sized room to the side of a bigger pub, and wasn’t open on my arrival, but I passed the time chatting with a local lad about a £20 note which he’d lost! Eventually wandered in for openers The Pleasure Dome, kicking off dead on 8 p.m. A trio of ginger mullets, rock tattoos, hair and shirtlessness, they looked like a poor man’s Biffy Clyro, which was quite an apposite comparison musically too, with plenty of changes of pace, strident screamy vocals and general grungy noise featuring in their set, albeit also with a bit of Kings Of Leon-esque Southern boogie thrown in. At best, their punked-up set recalled that “difficult” early Biff and Primus; at worst it veered uncomfortably towards incoherent and irritating Nu-metal. Still, seen worse, and I liked the vocalist’s logic; “this is [October Drift’s] first time in Newport; it’s up to you to make it a good one… or it’s up to them as well, maybe… joint responsibility!” 

Bumped into October Drift’s wide-eyed, enthusiastic vocalist Kiran Roy by the merch stand for a between-set chat; the tour has been going really well to date, but they were anticipating tonight to be one of the quieter dates on the tour. Not wrong there, as there were probably about 30 or so hardy folks present as the band took the stage at 9… well, three-quarters of the band, anyway… I’d wondered why the OD roadie had set up the lead mic to the back of the dancefloor, but here was where Kiran delivered the opening number “Ever After”, solo at first before the band bled in with low-key embellishment. However, things blasted off good and proper when Kiran joined his compatriots onstage for an utterly incendiary version of “Lost Without You”, the guitar boys all kinetic power and movement, sawing away as if their lives depended on it, backed up more than ably by drummer Chris, wild-eyed and pounding away mercilessly. Woah, what a start!

Perhaps taking their support’s advice to heart, October Drift were quite brilliant tonight, affected by the disappointing attendance not a jot, instead setting to their tasks with fearsome power, energy and clear-eyed conviction. By “Lost”’s strident, dramatic middle 8, Kiran had already abandoned the stage for an excursion into the crowd, the first of many tonight! Metronomic rocker “Webcam Funerals” upped the pace further, “Don’t Give Me Hope” was a slower-burn shimmer, highlighting their shoegaze side at least until the inevitable cacophonous climax, and “Bleed” was a ticking countdown into a roaring stadium rocker, all thunderous riffery and sky-scraping anthemic choral hook. The swaggering, Pixies-ish “Insects” was another highlight, and the strident “Forever Whatever” saw the front rows sway along to another brain-hugging hook.

 “Thanks for coming out! This is our first time in Newport; the first time we come to a town or city there’s usually about 10 people there!” remarked drummer Chris before the penultimate “Oh The Silence”, to which I couldn’t resist firing back, “come to Swindon, there’ll be 11 of us!” “Silence” was another hard-riffing, fist-pumping anthem to finish the set proper, at which point Kiran and Chris took to the middle of the crowd to deliver a largely acapella and quite beautifully heart-rending version of “Like The Snow We Fall” in the round. A lovely way to end a stellar and dynamic 1 hour performance from a band rapidly becoming one of the best “live” prospects around. A quick chat with the boys, then a tired and slightly diverted (through Bristol) drive home saw me back in the ‘don just after midnight. So, as Dad said, get on with it, and I’m glad to get back on the gig trail, particularly with this marvellous October Drift performance!