Some of us of a certain age and inclination will remember, perhaps with fondness, a small phenomenon around the turn of the century that saw a handful of young upstart bands take 70’s glam and sexual ambiguity and mix it with the fierce-panda-type quirky rock n roll of the time, creating a kind of mutant ‘indierock-glam’. Motley Crue were still out of fashion on the whole, so glam still meant Bowie and Velvet Goldmine, and Kaiser Chiefs hadn’t fully broken so indie still meant independent – not shite.
Many of you out there probably don’t remember (or will never have heard of) a lot of these bands, but for those that do, Jonny Cola & The A-Grades remind me very much of that time, whilst still retaining a freshness and relevance that places them as very much a must see band of today. Roxy Music meets Easyworld with a hint of Ultrasound via Remote Control perhaps? Or in the theme of thoughtful ambiguity, perhaps not. Either way, this is Proper British Pop – fronted by the eponymous Jonny Cola, they are a visually exciting and highly invigorating experience, that comes off the stage and grabs your attention (sometimes quite physically if memory serves correctly) and makes you listen.
And all this translates well onto the EP. Backed by a genuinely interesting video (not just another live rock-out piece – they’ve had some real fun with this), lead track Postcode Wars is at once witty, intelligent, seductive and melodic to the extent that even the handclaps don’t sound out of place. But this is not a band in one dimension, as there’s also some very open and personal introspection on the quieter tracks, which come out as fairly anthemic as they build and slowly captivate the senses.
You know what just happened? I enjoyed pop music again. Well bugger me, I did not see that coming. Go see this band and see if it happens to you too.
