PROLAPSE + CHOPCHOP – THE CON CLUB, LEWES 27.9.24
During the lockdowns I played an insane amount of music and ventured down many a YouTube rabbit hole, one of those bands the algorithm threw at me was Prolapse, the song was ‘Tina, This is Matthew Stone’, it was quite the track, why had I not heard it in my younger days I questioned myself. Before the week was out I’d managed to track down and order their entire back catalogue on CD and was now a fully-fledged fan. My only disappointment was they’d split up in 2000, but I could see they had returned to play just a handful of dates in June 2015 and a rare appearance in 2018, would I ever get to see them live? 2022 rolled around and they were back for 4 nights only, typically the London date was when I was away. So imagine my joy when it was announced they were emerging once more to play two warm up gigs ready for Popfest in Paris and one of those was a mere 19 minute train journey away for me here at the fantastic Con Club, Lewes. My wish was going to be fulfilled.
Prolapse originally formed in Leicester in 1991, the band released four albums between 1994 and 1999 (‘Pointless Walks To Dismal Places’, ‘Backsaturday’, ‘The Italian Flag’ and ‘The Ghost of Dead Aeroplanes’), more recently they issued a limited run of 7” records covering their two BBC John Peel sessions. They earned a cult following for their lively and chaotic live sets as lead vocalists Linda Steelyard and Mick Derrick would lyrically duel with each other, I am hoping I will get to witness this this evening.
At 9:15pm the band emerged slowly onto the stage, I should point out here there are seven in the band, two vocalists Mick and Linda, three guitarists, yes three! David Jeffreys, Pat Marsden and Donald Ross Skinner, then we have Mick Harrison on bass guitar and Tim Pattison on drums. I just know already this is going to be so good.
Instantly Mick D engages with the crowd, informing us that David had only arrived by the skin of his teeth so we will now have the full band compliment, but he won’t be telling us about the backstage antics and bad smells until after the first song, he gestured accusingly at Linda who ignored him, but she tells us they “are not the American thrash band of the same name”, Mick says they are. And that’s it; away we went with ‘Doorstop Rhythmic Bloc’. Linda is pacing back and forth between her microphone towards the drums only turning to face the crowd when she sings, whilst Mick bellows his lyrics as he rocks back and forth on his heels. What a fantastic opener of a track, a nice early one from their first album. The guitars and drums keep at a constant pace throughout; it was a song that starts to build some tension in the air of what might come. Interestingly I noticed David was playing his guitar with a drumstick during this one.
Mick exclaimed that “the song sounded better than last night in that it actually sounded like a song”, this was the start of Mick’s incredibly entertaining stories, quips and rambles that filled the set this evening, he continued that “the dress Linda said she was going to wear smelt like cats piss, yet she still wore it”. Linda protested that she never said that, but Mick carried on telling us that “she then sprayed on all this glitter on her face that smells like fly spray”. Whilst Linda further protested Mick Harrison started the most gorgeous bass line as we entered ‘Visa For Violet And Van’ from the 1997 album ‘Italian Flag’. Tim’s machine gun drumming and the guitars on this just took you on a journey. This is the beauty of a lot of Prolapses songs, they are very repetitious and you are taken along for the ride from start to finish. There are no sudden key changes or false starts, just pure audio bliss.
Mick’s tales continued with a story about last year’s merchandise smelling of fish, “yet everyone rushed to buy them”. ‘Deanshanger’ came next, with Mick putting his microphone right up to its full height, then right down and leaning over to sing, Linda is pacing again shaking her hands to the drum beat, now Mick is starting to pace back and forth, another lively fine song indeed.
Linda joked that “it’s nice to play down south as there’s hand soap in the ladies toilets, not only that it’s from Waitrose”. Prompting lots of “ooooo’s” from the audience, Mick in contrast rambled a tale of drinking beer in his toilet and having places to put his can.
Next up was a new song, one Linda said they’ve only sung together about four times, as she tried to explain Mick kept interrupting then apologised that he was mansplaining to much amusement of the crowd. Linda undeterred carried on “that Mick wanted me to explain it a new song, otherwise you won’t know, as it sounds just like all the others”. Pat kicked off with a delicious guitar riff as the rest of the band joined in, the first section was Mick on vocals with Linda prompting him when it was still his turn and how much long he should carry on, he was now lent on his upside down microphone stand, peering over the top of his glasses at her. It was a cracking new song, Linda said she thought Mick had got the lyrics wrong, “but no one will know”, Mick replied “I don’t even know what the words were”. Someone shouted out “what was the song called?”, prompting Mick to start to explain a song which then turned out wasn’t actually the song they just played, he said “ask me again after we play the other new song that we’ve not yet talked about”, prompting a further question from the crowd, so what was that song actually called then, Mick replied “I don’t know” to much laughter. Drummer Tim said it was called ‘Fall Of The Cashline’.
Next was ‘T.C.R’. a single from 1995. This one has much more Linda on vocals, whilst Mick now microphone stand-less came across stage knocking Linda, who shooed him away, on his second pass he put his hand on her microphone to which she bit his hand. Shortly after the song fell into disarray it ultimately ended, Linda said “well it’s an old one” to which Mick retorted “Well that worked, it’s really good we f*cked up a song that we’ve played for 30 years”. Linda said “it was down to Dave who had only arrived one minute before the gig”, Mick baiting her replied “so now we are blaming are we” acting all innocent before adding, “It was probably Mick H”. Again there was much laughter from the crowd.
Linda explained the night before in London, so many things had gone wrong, “Pat’s guitar broke, Mick H’s guitar strap broke, and Donald left the band half way through the set”. Mick interjected that “they then played a third of the gig and asked the crowd about Donald”, and mocked “that they didn’t even notice he’d gone”, prompting lots of ‘ahhs’, “ah so it’s a pantomime now” replied Mick, he then said, “Me, I love Donald…….. it was everyone else in the band”, whilst the banter was going on the band were already starting to play ‘Slash/Oblique’ another from the 1997 album ‘Italian Flag’, a fast frantic song with both Linda and Mick both going at the vocal at the same time, only breaking for some fab bass interludes and Linda only breaking when Mick came over and dragged her away from her microphone by her waist. The pair of them closed out the song dancing in front of each other. A big applause came at the end of that one.
Mick asked what’s next, it is the new one as it’s bugging him he can’t answer the guy in the crowd’s question until they play it. It wasn’t the new one next, but a nice early one ‘Psychotic Now’ from the 1994 EP ‘Crate: Songs Of Ella’, at one point Mick reached over, gently pulling Linda’s hair, before passing his glasses to her, which she then wore for the rest of the song. Linda said “I can’t believe that song is now 30 years old!” Mick responded “the same age as M”, adding “when I wrote that song” prompting some to shout out “so you’re 60”, leaving Mick to stumble, “of course I was only 4 when I joined the band” joked Linda.
Changing tact Mick announced “The next song is dedicated to some really special, its erm……. what is the next song” again lots of laughs from the crowd, “it’s the new one” replied Linda, “oh well, in that case I’ll answer that guys question after this song” replied Mick.
The new song was actually called ‘Peppercorn’ (according to the setlist). I really liked this one, the bass line runs deep, with plenty of layers of guitar over the top. Mick and Linda were clearly enjoying themselves during this one, playful lyrics, lots of “na na na na na’s” though it. Mick towards the end dropped his microphone on the floor and stood petulantly like a naughty school boy refusing to sing anymore, leaving Linda to do just her bits, he did then mouth the words and it ended on a high. He then tried to give the reasons for the naming of the song, eventually saying it was going to be called “I wonder if they are going to destroy your face”….which it wasn’t.
‘Government Of Spain’ from the 1999 album ‘Ghosts Of Dead Aeroplanes’ came next, loud and ferocious, Mick paced the length of the stage dragging his microphone stand, dropping his glasses on route, Linda ended up crouched over singing because her microphone stand was knocked down by Mick trapping the cable low down, at one point he lost his glasses. Linda said at the end, “if you wondering whether being in a band with Mick was like hanging around with a naughty five year old, you are correct….that is what it is like”. Mick quipped back “I don’t speak English”.
Asking the crowd “what song do they think was next”, random songs were shouted out, someone shouted ‘Madagascar’, Mick replied, “do I look like a Disney man, hmmm well maybe I do or more like that character plug, oh no that was the Beano”, the band kicked in over his talking for ‘Headless In A Beat Motel’, an early song from 1994, with a fast bass line, becoming almost a constant hum, like an engine running, while the trio of guitars screamed over top.
Linda announced it was the last song ‘Killing The Bland’ another from the 1997 album ‘Italian Flag’, Linda was beaming away during this one, with both her and Mick tag teaming verses and singing together the chorus, both dancing and swinging about.
The band left the stage to much applause and cry’s for the expected encore, they did make us wait, but back they came, Linda thanked us all once more and Mick said “this is now the Q&A part of the show, so who has some questions for us”. Someone shouted “when is the next album coming out?”. Mick replied “when is the album coming out, yes that’s a very good question”, paused and said “anymore questions” laughing. Next year was the answer, someone said will there be a hit single, Linda replied sarcastically “yes, it will be in the charts”, Mick then told the story of how their big single ‘Autocade’ was about to be in the charts all those years ago, but the day it was released Lady Diana was killed in the car crash, the song was then pulled from the radio and then went off the radar along with their rich and famous lifestyle that would have come it. “What was the last song again?” Mick Asked Linda ‘Flex’ she replied and boom the drums and the band exploded into life.
Mick ensured he created plenty of carnage on stage knocking over the microphone stands, carrying his about, wrapping his cables around various members of the band many times round Linda, putting his microphone in Linda’s dress pocket and kneeling down to sing from there. Pat pushed his guitar up against the amps getting as much feedback and crazy noise as he could before leaving stage, Mick stopped everyone still playing one by one sending them off stage ending with himself kneeling in a begging position in front of Linda, who held the microphone towards him, he then wrestled her pint of water from her with just the feedback screaming and it was all over.
What a gig that was, you are just hit with a wall of sound from the guitars throughout all of their songs; I guess it does border on shoegaze territory in a way, but it’s a very unique sound indeed. Fun word play songs, seemingly lots of improvisation, I read that’s how most of the songs were written and made; they just went in the studio and took it from there.
I should point out whilst Mick roams about the stage, this was all in a fun, jovial manner, it’s a very mutual thing, what really impresses me is the rest of the band just carry on and don’t get involved, all of them purely focusing and looking down at their instruments. The pattern was Mick will talk, joke, the band start whilst he is still going, they are following a timeline almost out of sync with Mick. Was I glad to have seen them at last, hell yes, is this gig likely to be in my year end top 5, hell yes. The whole thing was musically, visually, interactively utterly fantastic.
There are no other gigs on the horizon currently, but the band spent some time at Foel Studios in July this year mixing a new album, so fingers crossed this may be the start of a big return. Talking with the band afterwards as they kindly signed my record, David said they had hoped to play Brighton, fingers crossed that comes next year, not a few years down the line.
Prolapse:
Mick Derrick – vocals
Linda Steelyard – vocals
Mick Harrison – bass
David Jeffreys – guitar
Pat Marsden – guitar
Tim Pattison – drums
Donald Ross Skinner – guitar
Prolapse setlist:
‘Doorstop Rhythmic Bloc’ (from 1994 ‘Pointless Walks To Dismal Places’ album)
‘Visa For Violet And Van’ (from 1997 ‘Italian Flag’ album)
‘Deanshanger’ (from 1997 ‘Italian Flag’ album)
‘Fall Of The Cashline’ (New song)
‘T.C.R.’ (a 1995 single)
‘Slash/Oblique’ (from 1997 ‘Italian Flag’ album)
‘Psychotic Now’ (from 1994 ‘Crate: Songs Of Ella’ EP)
‘Peppercorn’ (New song)
‘Government Of Spain’ (from 1999 ‘Ghosts Of Dead Aeroplanes’ album)
‘Headless In A Beat Motel’ (from 1994 ‘Pointless Walks To Dismal Places’ album)
‘Killing The Bland’ (from 1997 ‘Italian Flag’ album)
(encore)
‘Flex’ (from 1995 ‘Backsaturday’ album)
www.instagram.com/the.prolapseband
First up this evening in the supporting slot were ChopChop, a four piece band from Brighton, a band who I must confess are completely new on me, and from the few brief snippets I’d heard in my searches beforehand sounded a strange pairing for the carnage of Prolapse who were to follow. I could see on stage a table of delights including a trumpet/cornet, a Yamaha Reface DX, a Zoom Sampletrak ST-224, along with various effects pedals, not the sort of set up you’d normally see off the ground. Intrigued I was, I’m not one to judge in advance, I’ll let my ears do the listening and listen they did.
At 8:15pm ChopChop took to the stage for a solid 32 minute set, lead singer Xelis De Toro was crouching down rubbing his hands together jingling his rings, part of me wondered is this just stage nerves or performance art?. But then as the set seemed to start he began to jump about, hands on his head, swinging his arms, playing a bit of trumpet, stop and starting, the band started lightly building the ambience, getting more lively and before I knew it were already in the first song ‘Lifetime’ from 2020’s album ‘Everything Looks So Real’, it was a good opener, something of a gentle break in I felt.
Next up was ‘Elastico’, the lead single from ChopChop’s new album ‘Bell Well’. This one was a sharp change of pace from the opener, a solid repetitive heavy bass line, a light drum beat and background samples from the Zoom Sampletrak. Xelis’s vocals with his thick Galician accent are almost like spoken word to the music rather than singing as such. To be honest I don’t think I’ve heard music like this before, but it works really well and this one had a funky groovy vibe.
Two more songs followed, ‘The Lark’ and then ‘The Weatherman’, this was a cool number, some interesting sounds came from the table of delights once more, this time a cornet or trumpet being played into a microphone with the pedals being twisted and hit to distort the sounds.
The final three songs in the set were ‘What Is The Question?’ ‘Shake It’ and ‘Lighthouse’. The dances and jerky movements from Xelis’ continued throughout, the flow becoming warmer and more lively as the set progressed. I didn’t think I’d dance, but I was certainly swaying along with the tunes.
It was a compelling watch and listen, strange, but fun, nothing offensive, it was light and filled with joy. There is no way I’d be able to pigeonhole the type of music, a bit of jazz, a bit of electronic, experimental for sure. The band just flowed and grooved so well, Eddie Haydn’s bass work, calm, sure and cool, Ed Briggs bringing all sorts of drumming styles to the table for the various ups and downs in tempo of the songs played this evening. Alistair Strachan’s magic table of sounds, produced the goods and Xelis is utterly endearing, his voice is really calming, so whilst the music and vibes are way out there, you are so mesmerised and pulled in by him, it makes it all so good.
I really enjoyed the set, something very new to me, a combo of art and music together, I don’t how it compares to the recorded albums, but if you want to experience ChopChop, it is something you want to see live, then get over to the merch table and buy the CD, the album ‘Bell Well’ only came out a month ago so it’s hot off the press.
ChopChop:
Xelís de Toro – vocals
Alistair Strachan – keyboards, electronics, samples, cornet
Ed Briggs – drums
Eddie Haydn – bass guitar
ChopChop setlist:
‘Lifetime’ (from 2020 ‘Everything Looks So Real’ album)
‘Elastico’ (from 2024 ‘Bell Well’ album)
‘The Lark’ (from 2020 ‘Everything Looks So Real’ album)
‘The Weatherman’ (from 2024 ‘Bell Well’ album)
‘What Is The Question?’ (from 2020 ‘Everything Looks So Real’ album)
‘Shake It’ (from 2024 ‘Bell Well’ album)
‘Lighthouse’ (from 2020 ‘Everything Looks So Real’ album)
