'Thanking You London & The World'
By Hannah Sykes
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The stage is showered in glitter and flowers. A 'Happy Birthday' sign stretches across the back. Steve Lamaqc scuttles onstage at the start of the set to give Lauren a card. For today is Lauren's nuh-nuh-nuh-nineteenth birthday. And tonight, Kenickie have been unleashed onto the airwaves of Radio 1 - but of course, Keinckie live on the radio is only half the bargain for the listeners at home, and the girls aren't about to let them forget it. 'By the way Laverne, I like your hat' Marie grins at Lauren across the stage. Lauren looks only momentarily confused before catching on. 'Thankyou - it's a cheeky little three-cornered number I picked up in pre-revolutionary France before I escaped.' The girls march onstage with an air of authority and tear straight into 'PVC' and 'Classy', two of Marie's finest vocal performances. All the tracks tonight are performed withsincerity and precision - after all, this is a chance to show the world what they're made of. What the songs lack by the absence of X on drums - though he wanders around the stage adding handclaps to the proceedings - is made up for by the live keyboards. New song 'I Would Fix You' gets its radio premiere tonight, and is hopefully a sample of incredible new material to come from the band. But what most of the listeners have tuned in for is Kenickie's legendary between-song banter. They neatly put down hecklers, sing 'happy birthday' and dedicate one song to Will Self. so those at home don't feel too left out. And although some of the tunes ('Come Out 2Nite', 'How I Was Made', 'Millionaire Sweeper') are painfully short on record, live it doesn't matter so much, because you're always looking forward to what the girls will have to say. Yet tonight you detect a feeling of subtle irony in their voices, because, after all, performing on the radio undersells their talent. They prove their point, that, yes, they are the greatest band to be performing this week - and indeed how could anyone doubt it? - and leave us all with as much conviction of this as they have. |
