MENSWEAR
The Cavern, Exeter - 1st May 1995
Support: Powder
Taken from a review I wrote for the North Devon Journal, published 11th May 1995. Another one I'm not proud of, and to say my predictions were way off the mark is something of an understatement. That said, Powder really were as good as I said they were...
"We're off to Paris later tonight," proclaims Pearl, enigmatic vocalist of Powder. "We're going to play with Elastica."
"Who the fuck ae they?" rises a voice from the crowd. "The support band," replies another.
Funny, they've only released one limited edition, vinyl only single and already everybody loves Powder.
It's a Monday night and the Cavern is packed to the rafters. There are a few familiar faces in the crowd tonight, namely the members of North Devon band Gotham City Gangsters. Why? Because their old drummer James Walden is now drummer of Powder, a band currently managed by the man who 'made' Blur; whose aforementioned debut single crashed in straight at number one in the indie charts, a band who are going to be bigger than indescribably gigantic! And justifiably so. Powder are good. Very good indeed. Pearl amazes me at the way her voice sounds like she's putting heart and soul into every syllable.
Powder arrived like a bullet and left like a hundred megaton bomb, such was the impression they left."
And so to Menswear, the latest of the mainstream music press' current darlings. Are they as overrated as the rest? Well...
After watching their Top Of The Pops rendition of I'll Manage Somehow, I thought there was probably more to Menswear than your average flavour of the month. On tonight's performance, I hereby conclude I was right.
I knew virtually naff all about this band before my visit to the Cavern, but I was intrigued to discover the wonderfully poptastic appeal of Menswear hiding behind worse fringes than mine (yes, I know...)!
On tonight's evidence, it surely won't be long before both Menswear and Powder 'do an Oasis'.
Oh dear - I do hope my writing has improved since I gave up doing it professionally, and I've left out the worst bits! I actually hung out with James from Powder along with mutual friends in his hometown of Lynton one night. It was a lot of fun and he was a really nice guy.
And here is the most blatant example of Britpop bands stealing from Wire...
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