The City Kids / The Suicide Notes / Circus 66
Fat Lil’s, Witney, Friday 15th October
Live Review by - The Dark Cookie
When I think of Witney I don’t think of a Rock and Roll hotbed. It makes me think of a slightly posh market town in Oxfordshire that used to be the constituency of former Tory David Cameron, but I was mistaken as Fat Lil’s is a fab little venue and of course Witney is also the defacto home town of tonight’s co-headliners, The Suicide Notes. Let the mayhem commence!
And it did with style as first up were the incredibly talented Circus 66. With one of 2022’s best albums under their belts, they didn’t disappoint. Opening with “Jekyll Or Hyde”, a song which not only shows off the raw power of their fine singer Annabelle Alexandra Zaychenko, but how tight the band are generally. Like it or not though it is Annabelle who captivates the attention, especially when she leaves the stage and grooves and signs from within the crowd during “Monster”, which is both a blessing and a beautiful curse, as this band are the sum of its parts, with as much Kudos going to Matt and the boys. They even threw in a new track along the way to wrap up with a stellar version of “When the Black Crow Flies”, again with the singer going walkabout. First time seeing Circus 66, and on this evidence not the last time (See you at MK in December!).
So, if Circus 66 were the epitome of tight, The Suicide Notes are the exact opposite in a perfect rock and roll way. Harking back to sleazier times when Hanoi Rocks and The Dogs D’Amour were the ramshackle renegades, not so much leading the charge as stumbling head first into oblivion, The Notes are their modern-day lovechild. It’s a great act, they come across as being loose and shambolic, but every note is (nearly) perfect, and Gav pounds his drums with so much power I could feel the pressure waves from him smashing the cymbals from where I was standing (at least the club save on air-conditioning). Which leaves us with front man extraordinaire in Billy, a cross between a long-limbed scarecrow and one of Tyla’s sketches, he sneers and snarls his way through the songs and delivers his off-the-cuff, in between tunes banter with a style all his own, even with his mike stand falling to bits, and nearly falling off stage once(Mr Vince Neal please take note), he was always the master of ceremonies . The highlights being “Ragdoll” including the off-stage beautifully sung female vocals and the excellent, behatted (you had to be there) cover of their soulmates The Stones “Dead Flowers”, even with the extremely dodgy singing on the chorus from yours truly (why is it you always forget the lyrics when someone put a mike in your face!), was a brilliant end to a fine set.
Which got us to the main event, The City Kids. A rag-tag collection of some amazing noise merchants, JJ, Dennis, Berty and Dave play their infectious brand of Punk ‘n’ Roll with gusto. I personally don’t like the term “Supergroup”, as it usually means something pretentious and ultimately unsatisfying, which is the polar opposite of the Kids. Kicking off with the infectious “Best Of You'', starting as they mean to go on, and not letting up, the band have the confidence to bash through old favorites and songs from their anticipated 2nd album, and based upon the new stuff and how well it was received, it cannot come soon enough, JJ gives his customarily sly smiles from under his cap, Dennis is a model of a guitar hero, simply playing his heart out and the backline of Berty and Dave underpinning the groove with moxy. Throwing in an excellent version of “Mazel Tov Cocktail” with the crowd giving it large on the woahs and as Berty gives us a piece about the heroes we’ve lost in the last year before “No More Heroes”, some of the seriousness of the speech is diminished as Dennis leaps off the stage to go to the gents for a piss!, this seems to sum up the City Kids to a tee!
Rounding out the set proper with the pair of “You Get Nothing” and a favorite of mine, “Round And (A)round”, which was accompanied by some impromptu pogoing from yours truly, something I’ve not done for many a year! But that was not the end of the evening. Anyone who bought last years most excellent min-album from the collaboration of both The Kids and the Notes would not be disappointed when Billy and Alex join the lads to run through “Bad Luck”, “Bathroom Wall” (which I know from talking to him earlier in the evening, Billy was struggling to remember the words to, oh, and it showed, but no one cared) and of course the evening would not be complete without and rawkus and rowdy rendition of Rats! And yes more jumping up and down and shouting ensued from this writer again!
Yes, a frikkin great night was had by all. I cannot think of a better way to spend a Friday night. Can we do it again next week?