aaamusic | On 01, Apr 2011

London, 24th March

A primordial nostalgia? The return of The Primitives.

Blonde Bombshell Tracy Tracy is back on stage. The band from Coventry is on tour again, promoting their new EP Never Kill A Secret, about 20 years after their last album Galore. What happened in between to the indie pop band and their acclaimed success with the hit single Crash?

Simply, their last album in 1991 was a commercial failure and they split on 1992.

Formed on 2008, Chelmosford/Clapham band Evans The Death warmed up the dark stage of the Relentless Garage with their powerful 80s style indie pop. Maybe a bit shy, maybe the small crowd… it’s never easy to support a legendary band from the mid-eighties… I enjoyed their performance though, definitely a band to watch.

More experienced, London based Tender Trap followed. Choruses and happy indie vintage pop, dance and ready-to-sing short songs and abuse of smiling. Ah, the drummer was standing up during the whole performance – Strange, I thought. Ten years making music together and still Amelia Fletcher, band’s lead singer, gets the feeling of the first time on stage, entertaining us with funny stories and jokes. With songs like Girls With Guns and Do You Want a Girlfriend? all you have to do is swing your head, move your hips and sing.

It’s their time now. Headliners are coming up. The Garage is finally full. As the stage staff were moving and plugging cables and devices, I had a run to get a beer before the “Show” started. By the bar, the small Primitives’ merchandising stall was open, offering t-shirts, tote bags, vinyl records and pins. The queue was there, not at the bar. I realized the average age of the crowd was a bit higher than mine (I was 7 when The Primitives formed). Indeed, in the late eighties merchandise and a kind of worship for bands was probably stronger than it is now. I have never seen in the indie venues in London fans so keen to get the new gadget from their beloved bands, even before their concert started.

As expected, beautiful Tracy in a shiny elegant black dress arrived a couple of minutes after the rest of the band. On stage, a flower shaped light wire twisted around the microphone boom.

The nostalgic dream in the good old times started. I’ll Stick With You, Everything’s Shining Bright and Stop Killing Me was a striking start for the fans.

The entire show was a perfect performance of a evergreen catchy sound, a catwalk show on their three albums and classics, singing along Crash and Thru The Flowers. Of course, the 4 new songs were played too, but they passed on air and I thought: – OK, let me enjoy the rest, I’ll listen to the new material when I’m at home and will let you know.

Twenty years passed and nobody noticed it tonight.

Waiting for summer festival dates, I’ll stick with you, Primitives.

Setlist
Stick with you
Everything’s Shining bright
Stop killing me
Pretty stupid
Nothing left
You are the way
Summer rain
Never kill a secret
Empathise
Dreamwalk baby
Buzz buzz buzz
Need all the help I can get
Spacehead
Sick of it all
Crash
Rattle my cage
We’ve found a way to the sun
Way behind me
Thru the flowers

Author: Pietro Nastasi