Rock City, Nottingham (29/04/99)

Phew, and the Smurphs pulled a top Man U victory from the jaws of pre gig defeat!
Fantastic set, good attendance under the circumstances etc. The bands new singer is excellent no lyric sheets needed he knows the whole back catologue inside out!
A bigger review will follow later! but for all of th miserable gits that dissed this band at slime last year- you have no sense of humour/ style unlike these boys who are so unpretentious its beyond belief, a guitarist wearing Jesus sandles!- fantastic!

Ian C.


This is a much delayed review that i half wrote then forgot to post. It's a bizzare story initially as rock city cancelled the graveyard night that would have surrounded the gig as they felt they had neglected the events advertising (they merely mised it from the listings leaflet) however my counterpart Paul had created and distributed a whole load of publicity. So on the night of the event we were left with a gig but no surrounding Goth DJ's etc as thegig was switched to the skaters disco room! This was quite nerve wracking i imagine for the band as they were forced to go on earlier than they would have been at graveyard and had to play to a mixed crowd of Goths Skate kids and students. The bouncers that are ever help ful at the venue didn't help matters I've since been told they told a few goth types that no goth event /gig was on so these people missed the show which is rather annoying !

Anyway eventually the Smurphs took to the stage. I have to say this band in my opinion are excellent they realise that what they are doing isn't original and they do it with a sense of humour.
Forgive me if i get the set list out of order but I think they came on to FALAA with a perfect atmosphere loads of smoke, and two hugely bright whit floorspotsbehind then back lighting then a la the wake video from the albert hall. This made the band appear as mere sillouetes on the cramped disco 2 stage.
This was debut gig for the new Sisters of Murhy line up,featuring anew singer who knows all of the lyrics by half and has the Eldritch impersonation down to a tea! and a second guitarist also took the stage!
as the band launched into almost note perfect versions of timeless classics like amphetamine Logic, Lucretia,Alice newer (well in Sisters terms) tracks like ribbons, more and more people joined the hardcore Smurf following on the tiny disco 2 dancefloor. Indeed the floor was filled when the band did a fantastic cover of Temple of Love even some of skatey kids got up and had a bop. to me though a higlight of the gig was aside from the covers of Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie and 1969 the singers Eldritch style jibes at the Skate kids in the audience. Althoughthe rendition of the Jabberwocki in the sound check with added varied speed pichshift was hillarious!

All in all this after being an almost disasterous gig ( no fault of the bands mind) ended up being an excellent humoured fun gig, ok no original songs , and a ripped off stage show but these guys do it well, not half heartedly and give an excellent evenings entertainment and value for money, if you are prepared to lighten up and enter into the spirt of things. indeed some of the guitar work at this show sounded better than that i heard at the last real Sistrs gig in London, Mr. Eldritch if you need new guitarists there are two ready trained ones sat there in Huddersfield.
i would say to any Goth if The Smurfs roadshow rolls intoyour town ignore your "how dare they thoughts" and go and have a good laugh and a dance to some excellent songs played very well by these guys. Afterall who knows when the real maccoy will hit the UK again!

Ian C.