The Lovely Eggs
– FUEL CAFE, MANCHESTER –
Upstairs in this tiny venue, sees the opening night of a six day UK tour. In these six days there shall be no fewer than nine shows, which will include appearances in bars, charity shops and even one on a beach.
As the three girls that make up Manchester’s very own Hotpants Romance take up their positions, it is clear to see they are more suitably attired for the sizzling heat than any other person in this room. The shortest of shorts are as always, the order of the day with this noisy pop-mongering trio.
Before the first note is played, the level of unprofessionalism here is apparent, but don’t let this fool you, as this is not what they are about. The old punk ethos stands proud here, where taking up your instruments of choice and having a go, clearly out ways any intentions of grandeur.
The first couple of songs encompass the usual false starts and are rough not only around the edges, but right through to the core. As if by magic, when they play Relax, they manage to pull off an uncharacteristic and almost cohesive song from start to finish. When they give a cover Twist and Shout an airing, everyone here is enjoying every missed beat and out of tune vocal arrangement.
For the next to last song Summer Romance, bassist Lowri needs to have her book of lyrics on hand to sing from, as the other two girls just crack on with their respective rolls.
Interval time is upon us and Lowri swaps her bass guitar for the bands merchandising box, which doubles up as an old style cinema usherettes tray so she can peddle her wares to all and sundry.
Now is the turn of Lancaster’s The Lovely Eggs, a boy/girl duo that create a sound so diverse, it would be hard to place in any genre known to man (unless any of the record shops suddenly decide to give up an area for fun/noise/happiness).
Holly is shyly but confidently fronting the pair with her guitar while David is perched behind a once basic drum kit, which has now been upgraded to include a squeaky horn, bicycle handle bars with bell and recorders as they head into their set of kooky kitsch.
The first of the album tracks to get an airing is Sexual Cowboy which is followed by I Like Birds But I Like Other Animals Too. After these is a short but sweet song about an American artist called Jon Carling.
Next is Mices, which sways from gentile and jaunty to thrashy in the blink of an eye. From this they rock straight into the O Death, which gives Holly’s vocals a good airing. Oh The Stars sees David discard his drum sticks and take his ukulele in hand for this quaint and cute track.
There is a short break here to announce the winner of tonight’s raffle. The prize is to have a song written about you by both of our fine hosts. After a short poem courtesy of the winner, is Pa Pa Pa and I Collect Snails. The latter is apparently about David’s fascination with hoarding/collecting things of all types.
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‘Accidental Editor’ of Silent Radio from its inception in 2009 through to 2020. None of this was planned; I’ve never been in a band, never been part of the ‘music scene’ and never expected to be the gaffer of a music website with loads of dedicated music loving writers. I bought my first record when I was 8 and haven’t stopped buying since. I love crate digging for bizarre and weird stuff, but equally happy ploughing through press releases looking/listening for something I’ve never heard before.
