SPIZZENERGI + HEALTHY JUNKIES + VOODOO RADIO – PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 10.4.22
At last! The day has finally arrived for uber Star Trek fan Spizz to beam his band Spizzenergi into The Prince Albert to play live for us this evening.
It seems like eons since this gig was announced and now finally myself, my mates and the lucky crew from the Starship Spizz get to witness an evening of mighty fine entertainment that beams smiles across everyone’s faces.
I was fortunate to catch Spizz and his eclectic Sputnik-esque crew (Luca Comencini – guitar, Ben Lawson – bass, Phil Ross – guitar and Alan Galaxy – drums) at the Undercover Festival at Brighton Racecourse a few years ago, and then they performed here at The Prince Albert a while after that. Both performances were most entertaining indeed. They were masterclasses of rock ‘n’ roll pomp and energi that few acts would be able to match!
Spizz himself is exactly what the music industry needs – a real eccentric but truly loveable character! There’s just something very British about Spizz’s psyche. Battling on in his own inimitable style and not taking a blind bit of notice of what anyone else thinks. His amount of eccentricity within our British society overall is equally balanced in proportion with his vast courage, his mental vigour and his genius. I can’t understand why he isn’t based in bohemian Brighton, where he would no doubt reside within a folly or something similar. But be rest assured that Spizz is one of the nicest people you will ever meet!
Back in the day, Spizz would change the band name each year, but alas the Guinness Book of Records failed to recognise Spizz’s claim that he has recorded and released the greatest number of recordings under different names – SPIZZ’77, SPIZZOIL, SPIZZENERGI, ATHLETICO SPIZZ 80, SPIZZLES, SPIZZOLOGY and SPIZZITALIA!
The famous ‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’ was released in December 1979 and received critical acclaim – ‘Soldier Soldier’ was named Single of The Week by the NME and not to be outdone ‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’ was named Single of The Week by the Melody Maker. ‘Soldier Soldier’ was championed at the time by Paul Weller and Frank Zappa. ‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’ has been recorded by a number of artists, most notably R.E.M and Space, Oasis, Pulp and Green Day have acknowledged the influence of the band. ‘No Room’ followed and was released in June 1980.
‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’ was also the first ever No.1 on the Independent Singles Chart and the song spent seven weeks on the top spot and reportedly sold more than 60,000 copies by July that year. Inspired by Star Trek’s captain James T. Kirk, the single’s success spurred Spizzenergi to release two more Star Trek-themed songs, ‘Spock’s Missing’ and ‘Five Year Mission’.
Tonight, the Prince Albert punters were treated to a sixteen song set that commenced at 10:01pm until 10:57pm and was mainly made up of original material as well as a trio of cover versions. These cover versions are performed in homage to other acts that Spizz has found inspirational down the years.
The first cover was ‘Valentine’s Day’ taken from the 2013 David Bowie album ‘The Next Day’. This is far from an obvious choice of Bowie track to cover. One might have thought something like ‘Rebel Rebel’ would more sum up Spizz. The second cover was Roxy Music’s classic ‘Virginia Plain’, which was enjoyable to see Ben’s fingers sliding up and down his bass in emulation of Brian Eno’s keyboard work. It’s my fave Roxy track, so great choice my good man.
The final choice of cover was given out to the punters to decide. Thus the almost unanimous winner was ‘The Model’ by legendary German synth pioneers Kraftwerk. Although this speeded-up version is vastly different in instruments used to the original composition, it was most enjoyable and the punters joined in with all the guys on backing vocals (except Alan who didn’t have a mic) for their chorus “la la la la la’s….”. For the record, the other option was ‘I Fought The Law’ which was originally penned by The Crickets, however we all know The Clash version.
Spizz is such a likeable fellow and this shines through all the way through tonight’s set. He really tries to entertain the crowd. He’s got his eight Spizz light rings on each of his fingers (no thumb rings), which he eventually offers to crowd members as souvenirs of a great evening. He has his LED belt that scrolls with the word “Spizzenergi ” in green and his political point was made half way through the set during ‘Soldier Soldier’ when he miraculously started pulling at this material slightly hanging outside the top of his trouser flies. He kept pulling and pulling on the material and eventually he produced two large flags, one of the USA’s ‘Stars and Stripes’ and one of the Russian flag. We even had two lots of Spizz confetti this evening too.
I noted that during the performance, Ben had an unusual Japanese manufactured bass that he informed me that he has had for the past 25 years and that he had done some work on it and brought it back to life – good man! Whilst we are talking instruments, Phil’s guitar was a Gibson Les Paul Studio. He had his face painted as well as ‘The Joker’ from Batman and he looked not unlike Cesar Romero which was impressive as he threw his poses around the stage. Italian band member Luca was in charge of his Gibson guitar and Alan was bashing away on his drums.
Tonight the band were most definitely in sync, Spizz was having fun and some banter with the crowd. Highlights of the night for me were Ben’s rumbly bass at the beginning of ‘City Of Eyes’; Spizz changing the words in ‘European Heroes’ to say Ukraine; ‘No Room’ was a corker; Spizz letting off the confetti cannon during ‘Central Park’ as we sang “You want to see me tomorrow, but I saw you yesterday”. He also showered us with confetti during ‘Virginia Plain’. Best of all was ‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’. I was enjoying myself so much that I had my hand on the speaker in order to feel the music too. A great night out!
Spizzenergi are:
Spizz – vocals
Luca Comencini – guitar
Ben Lawson – bass
Phil Ross – guitar
Alan Galaxy – drums
Spizzenergi setlist:
‘6000 Crazy’
‘Shallow End’
‘City Of Eyes’
‘European Heroes’
‘Mega City 3’
‘Valentine’s Day’ (David Bowie cover)
‘Here Come The Machines’
‘No Room’
‘Central Park’
‘Amnesia’
‘Red & Black’
‘Soldier Soldier’
‘Virginia Plain’ (Roxy Music cover)
‘Clocks Are Big’
‘Where’s Captain Kirk?’
‘The Model’ (Kraftwerk cover)
For more delights from Spizzenergi, visit www.spizzenergi.com
Main support this evening came in the form of Healthy Junkies, who came into being when French born vocalist Nina Courson, who after running away from home in Paris in order to pursue her music career, met guitarist Honey-Jones at a Soho gig called ‘PUNK’ in 2009. They formed the Healthy Junkies and the name refers to “a reflection of the mental health epidemic currently spreading like wildfire through the very core of western society”.
This evening their ranks are bolstered with the addition of Ukrainian born Oleg Liubchivschi on bass and Tony Alda on drums. They are now all located in London where they specialise in a cross genre mix of Punk Rock with Grunge, Psychedelic Rock, New Wave, Garage, Glam and Goth Rock.
Interestingly enough the group played their live debut here in Brighton at the end of 2010, when they were supporting Goldblade and Viv Albertine. They have since released five studio albums ‘Sick Note’ (2011), ‘The Lost Refuge’ (2014), ‘Box Of Chaos’ (2016), ‘Delirious Dream’ (2018) and ‘Forever On The Road’ (2020). As one would expect, they have toured extensively across the UK, Europe and United States, where they have been gaining a loyal following for their highly energized and theatrical performances.
This evening sees the quartet perform for roughly half an hour, concluding at 9:47pm. In that time they unleashed nine or ten numbers. Charismatic Nina throws herself around the stage (and lying and sitting on it) barefoot and gives it her all whilst offering up the band’s lyrics, meanwhile Phil is in charge of his Gibson guitar, Oleg is on Rickenbacker bass and Tony is seated behind the drums.
One can easily see from their first notes of opener ‘This Is Not A Suicide’ that these have a more punk sound that their predecessors tonight. Phil is unloading rasping psychedelia from his instrument and they are already more my thing. They give us a tight example of how it’s done within their powerful in-yer-face sound. They admirably performed ‘No Control’ for the very first time with their excellent drummer Tony. This chops and changes beat and even heads off into reggae/ska midtune.
I enjoyed their set, but I felt at times that the guitarwork would stray into heavy metal territory which is not my bag, but that’s just me. Punters around me were enjoying that. They finished with the Nancy Sinatra hit ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’’, which was written by Lee Hazlewood.
If you missed the Healthy Junkies, then worry not as they are back at The Prince Albert for an afternoon session on Sunday 17th April with DiabloFurs and Jellly – Grab your tickets HERE.
Healthy Junkies are:
Nina Courson – vocals
Phil Honey-Jones – guitar
Oleg Liubchivschi – bass
Tony Alda – drums
Healthy Junkies setlist:
‘This Is Not A Suicide’
‘Runaway Devil’
‘I Don’t Give A Damn’
‘No Control’
‘‘The Sound Of My Guitar’
‘Juliette’s Call’
‘Johnny Demented’
‘Some Kind Of Girl’
‘Theft’
‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’’ (Lee Hazlewood cover)
The first band on this evening were Voodoo Radio, who took to stage at 8:16pm. Visually they appear as an odd pairing, like say on the rise duo audiobooks, but on further investigation we learn that they are in fact a father and daughter duo consisting of Tony Cook and Paige Cook, who originally hail from Cumbria. Dad is in charge of his Gibson guitar and backing vocals and his daughter very much takes centre stage on vocals and drums in the standing position.
Eyes are very much drawn to Paige who most certainly has powerful lungs as she has a clear slightly shouty vocal delivery accompanied by expressive face movements as well as an energy that comes with the joys of youth.
Following on from their debut single ‘Space Girl’ last October, the daughter/father duo dropped their debut mini-album ‘Pop Pills’ last December and it consists of eight self-penned tunes and is available on 10” yellow vinyl HERE.
I would suggest that these don’t really fall into the punk category as such, but more into the rock spectrum, but they are very much ploughing their own furrow, which is in the main very well received by the attending crowd.
The standout track from their 10 tune pure raw energy heavy drumming set, is arguably song six which is titled ‘Dog’ and this evening is its live premier. It was penned for a film, but that’s top secret so I can’t divulge that….doh!
Their set concluded at 8:51pm and had overran by 5 minutes and they took to the stage 16 minutes later than initially planned. This would have a knock-on effect for the rest of the evening and so Spizzenergi were unable to perform ‘Denmark Street’ and ‘Spock’s Missing’.
Voodoo Radio are:
Paige Cook – vocals/drums
Tony Cook – guitar
Voodoo Radio setlist:
‘Eat Your Words’
‘Pretty Boy’
‘Basic Bitch’
‘Slag Bank’
‘1 From 2’
‘Dog’
‘She’s So Toxic’
‘Love Drug’
‘Space Girl’
‘Turn Out The Light’
Voodoo Radio are on Instagram.
