Support was from Home Counties and Hot Face

The UK is in an odd position. The working-class have voted for a party that hates the working-class. The reason, Brexit.

Having seen their standard of living and opportunities for their children and grandchildren get worse under successive governments. They have accepted the line that that closing the door and being proud of a fictional idea of ‘Great’ Britain will improve their lives. ‘Take back control’ has become their mantra. Many have signed up to this act of self-harm voting for a party who hates them, but will ‘get Brexit’ done.

People like me. University educated working-class, don’t want to call them racists. I blame the middle-classes. Their refusal to accept their own privilege. They have a history of voting for parties who cut taxes, rather than spending to help those unfortunate to be born in areas with less opportunities. If the middle-classes have punched down on them. Are the working-class doing anything different to their middle-class cousins? So I try to justify their prejudices and argue that we need to invest in improving the post-industrial north.

Working for a Uni, I have access to all the academic papers documenting the negative side of uncontrolled immigration that our side pretended didn’t exist. I know that our side on the Remain side told lies from a perspective of a person living in post-industrial town. When you are working on zero hour contracts and your town has 1 person in every 180 who is an asylum seeker. Your picture of reality is very different to somebody living in an affluent area not effected by either. If you are fed lies in the media it have some element of truth – it is easy to see them as completely true. Sadly, we have lost nuance from British politics. Everything is black or white. Sensible people being dragged to the extremes because we won’t acknowledge their difficulties.

As you can see. My approach to all of this is that there is systemic inequality that needs fixing. I try to justify their self-harm.

Benefits have taken a different and much more direct line of attack. Yes, your life is shit, but you have made it worse. I am starting to think they might have the right idea.

Benefits through their intense angry songs, have created a mirror for the working-class. Showing the ugliness of their decisions in an effort to force them to see how they are accepting the manipulation of wealthy elites, who are encouraging them to punch down, not up.

This is angry music. Chaotic industrial music. Full of feedback and manic drum stabs. With a shouty angry Northerner trying his hardest to shake us awake. Tonight, at the spiritual home of punk, they put in a true punk performance. Kinglsey stalking angrily around the stage spitting out his tirades on modern life with such passion, the performance is visceral and music uncomfortable. But it is also necessary.

On Oxford Street the flags were out for the Coronation, adding a stark reality to Benefits songs. The idea of what is patriotism permitted all their work. Songs like Warhorse, Traitor and Flag seemed especially relevant tonight. We are being portrayed as traitors because we don’t think hanging a flag up fixes problems.

But it was a song that had passed me by on Nails, their recent album, Council Rust stood out. With a change in tempo and a chance for Kingsley to dial back the anger. It almost seemed nostalgic.

Sadly, Kat was unavailable tonight. Rick McMurray from Ash stepped in with Kingsley acting as conductor increasing and decreasing the ferocity of Rick’s drumming. Rick did a fine job to hold on for the ride.

With an album with a black cover and a constant stream of new drummers, the band could be confused for Spinal Tap. But there is nothing amusing about their message.

Every Benefit performance seems to be special and unique. There seemed to be a shift in tone tonight. The release of an acclaimed album bringing a confidence in their material and creating a foundation to the set list. Moments of ‘quieter’ reflection seem to be permeating the set. These brief pauses only intensify the anger of the rest of the set. But added much needs moments of reflection and positivity. Brief moments for us to reflect that we can win this fight. Things can be better.

Tonight at the spiritual home of punk, the most punk band around, showed how music can still be vital and relevant. It is Benefits are also an amazing piece of social art.

• Marlboro Hundreds
• Empire
• Divide
• Shit Britain
• Warhorse
• Council Rust
• Thump
• What More Do You Want
• Flag
• Traitors
• Taking Us Back

Support was from Meryl Streep who also have a lot to say about modern society and the excellent Scrounge.

Deadletter are probably the best new band I have seen this year. From the tiny Social, they have picked up the backing of people like Steve Lamacq after their fantastic Great Escape performance (and he was in the audience). On tonight’s evidence, playing a much longer headline set. They have the songs and the politics good post-punk bands need and they are developing into a top-tier band. It won’t be long before they are playing much bigger venues.

Support was from the Heartworms who used a theremin to give them a unique sound and are worth another listen. Humour, from Glasgow, tried but failed to create an anarchic Gilla Band, type sound. Nice try, but they just didn’t work for me.

I have seen Sinead O’Brien half a dozen times supporting other artist or playing festivals. She’s pretty unique. Superficially she seems to fit in with talky bands like Dry Cleaning. But unlike the recent slew of story-led bands. Sinead is first and foremost a poet and it marks her music out from the rest. But it also means she’s probably more of an acquired taste than other talky bands.

SInead’s Irish lilt is put to great use in her poetic approach, with rising emphasis on words that sometimes seem to be at a strange point from a traditional music perspective, but perfectly normal in poetry. But it means that the music doesn’t just follow a simple verse/chorus structure. The music has to force itself to follow her inflections, short sentences and pauses. Sometimes this means backing off, laying down a backbeat of post-punk guitar, like on Talking in Time. Other times, the drums and guitars have to wander off into psych territory, providing a swirling wash to underpin her lyrics.

Tonight, was another good performance and will no doubt have won over a few more new fans.

Set List:

• Girlkind
• Post Modern Painting
• Roman Ruins
• A Thing You Call Joy
• Kid Stuff
• There Are Good Times Coming
• Taking On Time

The great thing about the Fred Perry gigs is that they are cheap. Tonight’s gig was less than £6. So I half expected a stripped back set from Nadine Shah. That wouldn’t have been a bad thing. Nadine’s early albums, when she sung and played guitar were brilliant and it would be great to hear some of that music again. Something expressed jokingly from the crowd (it was a joke, I’m sure Nadine knows him). But her music has so much of a bigger sound and it would have been unfair on her latest album, Kitchen Sink. It came out during the first lockdown and tracks from it have hardly been aired live and it deserves to be heard live. So rightly, most of tonight’s tracks were from this album, with a few from Holiday Destinations

With her last two albums, co-written by Ben Hillier, her sound has shifted to include some jazz influences, a much bigger sound and much expanded band. The addition of saxophone, especially, has shifted her music to another level. She now is vocalist and that’s not a bad thing. She’s a bloody good vocalist and she has something to say and it gives her a chance to perform. Others can play the guitar bits. We want to see and hear Nadine. More bands coudl learn from her. Singers, put your guitars down and own the stage. Nadine, certainly does.

I’d call Nadine ‘gobby’ and for me, that’s a very good thing. More musicians should be gobby. Music has become too safe. I saw the king of gobby people, Bod Geldof at SXSW in 2011, mid banking crisis as austerity was biting and he decried the lack of artists singing about important things. Something I completely agree with him. Music is often too safe. Indie music is full of boy/girl (boy/boy, girl/girl) songs. If bands do touch on issues, it’s usually issues that relate to them and not commentary on society. Sadly, few put a stake in the ground and write songs about societal issues of the day. Nadine has a lot to say. You don’t have to agree with everything she says (although, I’d hope most of her audience do). That’s not the point. Nadine, is one of the few artists using her platform to try to make people think. With the world as it is. We need more artists like Nadine.

I’m going to slip into politics for a second. We are currently watching the collapse of Afghanistan on our TVs. Our great liberal hope, Joe Biden, has shown himself to be as extreme as his predecessor. Acting on his view that we should never have been in Afghanistan, unilaterally pulling out US troops ignoring NATO and our Afghan allies. Taking the same ‘USA first’ approach as his predecessor. Handing back the country to the Taliban and their regressive form of Islam and possibly sending thousands of Afghans to their death, resetting women’s rights back to the middle ages and undoubtably creating a humanitarian disaster. Having written ‘Holiday Destinations’, an album focused on the disposed, it wasn’t a surprise to see Nadine include some those prescient songs and address Afghanistan between songs.

One of the reasons given why artists don’t write songs about things that matter is that they will write depressing songs and lose the audience. Let’s face it, there’s something to be said for that. I want to have a bit of a dance at a gig. But that shouldn’t stop them writing about things that matter. These worthy songs give the artist an opportunity to take a second to make you think. They have a platform. Use it. Nadine in her usual, ‘shit’ way did that. I love how crap she is at doing stuff like this. That’s why it works so well. It’s not a long Billy Bragg speech (sorry Billy, I love you really) . With Nadine, it’s straight from the heart with no filters. As a Teessider, I’m with Nadine. I’d love to be like Billy and present coherent views, but why say ten words, when you can just say the ‘fuck’ and we all know what you mean?

Tonight, Nadine owned the stage. This was my perfect return to gigging gig. I loved tonight.

I love the 100 Club. There is no venue like it in London. While big venues like the Albert Hall might have a great history. This venue has been instrumental in creating new music genres. While watching Nadine, I was struck that she was probably the most ‘100 Club’ artist I’ve seen play here. With a stunning voice and jazz background, she could have easily graced the jazz era of the club. But with her attitude, her spirit is completely PUNK. She is the perfect 100 Club artist.

Musically, tonight the band were as good as ever. Pete Wareham’s saxophone put to effective use on many of the songs, sometimes seeming to become a second vocal, providing a screaming chorus to Nadine’s biting vocals. Vocally, Nadine blew me away today. It’s a while since I’ve seen her on a small stage. At times she let rip with controlled power and was as good as any vocalist I’ve seen.

This is going to be one of my favourite gigs of 2021. Yes, I may not get to many this year. But even in a normal year, where it would be jostling with 150 other gigs, tonight’s performance would almost certainly be fighting for top spot. It was that good.

Set list

• Kitchen Sink
• Ladies for Babies (Goats for love)
• Holiday Destinations
• EVIL
• Buckfast
• Club Cougar
• Trad
• Prayer Mat
• Dilly Dally
• Fool
• Out the Way

The Murder Capital returned to London only a few weeks after their triumphant Electric Ballroom gig. This time to play a sold-out 100 Club to fervent fans who snapped up all the tickets within minutes of them going on sale

Such is the rise of the band that expectations are high with a queue outside the venue when the doors opened with fans eager to get a space in front of the stage in the narrow 100 Club. This meant Old Morris, the first support act were played in front of an appreciative filling 100 Club. By the time Working Men’s Club came on, the place was pretty much full.

Both support acts were good. Old Morris, had a familiar Post-Punk sound that suited the headliner. Maybe a slightly more odd choice were Working Men’s Club, a band I’ve not got on with in the past. For me, they’re a ‘few pints and a dance’ band. Heavily reliant on that kind of 505 relentless drum machine sound that I usually don’t like. But despite not having a drink, I found their set enjoyable. I think I’ve misjudged them. I will have to give them another listen.

By the time the stage had been set for The Murder Capital, there was a noticeable expectation in the room. The lads didn’t disappoint striding confidentially on to the stage knowing that they’ve earned what was to come next.

Many around me had been following the lads through their rise and had high expectations and were ready to close the latest tour in style.

Launching straight into the machine gun ‘More is Less’ I’m mediately lifted the energy-level of the audience. It was clear the band know how to construct their sets to manipulate their audience taking us through an range of emotions. Bringing the energy level down and increasing the intensity with brilliant Green and Blue. With lots in the audience mouthing along to the words.

As with the Electric Ballroom, the beautiful, On Twisted Ground suffered from members of the audience who wouldn’t shut up. Nowhere near as bad as at the Electric Ballroom, but with this being a small venue with a more fervent audience, I assumed there wouldn’t be an issue. But I guess with their increased profile, their gigs, even the small ones, are going to attract people who are going along to say they were there and their new high-profile was shown by the number of press photographers and record label people queuing for their guess-list passes.

Luckily, On Twisted Ground didn’t suffer too badly and the audience eventually quietened down. This is the song that separates the band from the rest. Each time I hear the song and see it live, it lifts the band closer to immortality in my record collection. While, the early raw live emotion of the song is maybe missing and it’s now more of a performance. Seeing an entire room respect the song only adds to the song’s emotion. I hope no matter what success comes next. and they are only going to get bigger, this song remains the emotional heart of the band. It’s what separates them from the rest.

As the set wound towards it’s end, it was clear that the crowd were going to own this night. They were already struggling to keep off the stage and with each successive surge, they edged closer to taking it. After James jumped into the crowd, there was no holding back the audience who invaded the stage as the concert ended. Many of these fans had followed the guys from the beginning and it felt like they were proud of how far this amazing band had come and the journey they had taken them on. This is a special band.

Set List:

• More Is Less
• Green and Blue
• Slowdance I
• Slowdance II
• On Twisted Ground
• Love Love Love
• For Everything
• Don’t Cling to Life
• Feeling Fades