THE HOUSE OF LOVE + THE PRIMITIVES – CHALK, BRIGHTON 5.12.24
To me, this evening’s bash at the Chalk venue in Pool Valley (which has been organised by AGMP Concerts) is a true double-header, despite the fact that The House Of Love name appears at the top of the bill, above that of The Primitives who are shown as “very special guests”. I can see why they have done this, by looking for example at each band’s Facebook followers and House Of Love have 35,000 and The Primitives have 27,000 followers. Tonight is date eight of nine, with the bands having already entertained fans in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle and Cambridge, and tomorrow they round off the tour in London.
The Primitives hail from Coventry and formed back in 1984 and are fronted by the rather wonderful Tracy Tracy, who along with guitarist Paul “PJ” Court, have been in the band since formation. Drummer Tig Williams has been a constant member since 1987 and bassist Paul Sampton came along two years later in 1989. The Primitives emerged from the independent scene of the mid-80s that also spawned The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, The Wedding Present, and Primal Scream. Their widely acclaimed first album, ‘Lovely’, made them the UK’s indie darlings, while the huge success of the single ‘Crash’ saw them cross over to a mass audience. ‘Lovely’ also featured the singles ‘Thru The Flowers’, ‘Stop Killing Me’, ‘Way Behind Me’ and ‘Out Of Reach’. The band then disbanded in 1992, only to get it back together in 2009 and they have been straddling power pop, new wave and post-punk ever since.
This evening we are in their company for 42 minutes and during that time they offload no less than 15 tunes. There’s certainly no hanging around with this quartet as they take to the stage at 7:14pm as a version of ‘Louie Louie’ is blasting out the loud speakers. They then immediately kick off with the first of five tunes from their 1988 ‘Lovely’ album, this being ‘Thru The Flowers’, although according to their setlist, it originally started with ‘Stick With You’ but this was crossed out. Tracy is looking resplendent in silver and clearly the focus of attention in the band and the happy memories of my first encounter with the band came flooding back. I had the honour to catch The Primitives performing live at Brighton Polytechnic on 7th March 1987. I can remember being transfixed by Tracy throughout the whole of their 15 song set, one which incidentally has turned up on YouTube. Find it HERE.
Tune two this evening is my favourite Primitives tune, ‘Stop Killing Me’ which also turned up on their ‘Lovely’ album, although I must say for the record that I much preferred their earlier Lazy Records material as it was more skuzzy than their polished RCA stuff. As ever, this tune sounds wonderful again this evening, and before I know it, they launch straight into ‘Out Of Reach’ which can also be found on ‘Lovely’. Their 60s style swinging pop meets the Ramones ‘Way Behind Me’ track then had a jolly good outing. After which Tracy finally addressed the crowd “Thank you very much! How are you? Lots of ladies!” Then she added “Spin-O-Rama”, this being the title of the next song which is the title track from their 2014 album. Although it’s much later than the previous tracks, this blends in perfectly, and has that drum pattern used by the Cockney Rejects when chanting “West Ham”.
The sole cut from their 1991 ‘Galore’ album is their next choice, this being the most melodic track of their set, namely ‘You Are The Way’, which has an electronic drums samba cha cha style backbeat. They swiftly move onto their 2024 ‘I Won’t Care’ single, which is speedily followed by their old skool swinging proto punk vibey ‘Sick Of It’ which is from 1989’s ‘Pure’ album. This has a decent intro and some meaty bass playing. Throughout the set Tracy moves around the stage and often taps along on her tambourine and in between tunes has a sip of a drink, and the trio of lads are basically rooted to their spots. Paul then strums his guitar twice and they are away again with the rockin’ ‘Petals’ which is on their ‘Spin-O-Rama’ album from 2014. There’s more decent guitar strum action on their almost rockabilly ‘Buzz Buzz Buzz’ tune which is on their ‘Lovely’ album.
The 60’s vibe is back with the slower ‘Don’t Know Where To Start’ which came out as a single in 2022. It’s during this track that Tracy reminded me of Lauren Mayberry (of CHVRCHES fame), via her facial expressions and hand movements. The immediate and in your face 1986 ‘Really Stupid’ corker came next and was followed by their most famous number, this being ‘Crash’, which is also on ‘Lovely’. Their setlists did actually say that ‘Spacehead’ was originally to be performed next, but sadly it got dropped and they went on to ‘I’ll Trust The Wind’ which fits in perfectly with the older numbers and has the feel of the Buzzcocks via its beat and bass parts. This song can be found on their 2017 ‘New Thrills’ EP. Prior to playing this Tracy mournfully said “the penultimate song of the penultimate gig”. Clearly the band have been enjoying themselves on this tour which is good to hear. They signed off with ‘(We’ve) Found A Way (To The Sun)’ which was added to the end of their setlists. This track can be found on their 1986 ‘Really Stupid’ single, and it starts slowly and builds rather nicely, especially the drumming. And that was it and at 7:56pm they vacated the stage and we had been given a truly consistent set full of ‘Lovely’-ness! Terrific band!
The Primitives:
Tracy Tracy – vocals, tambourine
Paul Court – guitars, vocals
Tig Williams – drums
Paul Sampson – bass
The Primitives setlist:
‘Thru The Flowers’ (from 1988 ‘Lovely’ album)
‘Stop Killing Me’ (from 1988 ‘Lovely’ album)
‘Out Of Reach’ (from 1988 ‘Lovely’ album)
‘Way Behind Me’ (from 1989 ‘Pure’ album)
‘Spin-O-Rama’ (from 2014 ‘Spin-O-Rama’ album)
‘You Are The Way’ (from 1991 ‘Galore’ album)
‘I Won’t Care’ (from 2024 ‘I Won’t Care’ / ‘Everybody Needs Somebody To Hate’ single)
‘Sick Of It’ (from 1989 ‘Pure’ album)
‘Petals’ (from 2014 ‘Spin-O-Rama’ album)
‘Buzz Buzz Buzz’ (from 1988 ‘Lovely’ album)
‘Don’t Know Where To Start’ (a 2022 single)
‘Really Stupid’ (a 1986 single)
‘Crash’ (from 1988 ‘Lovely’ album)
‘I’ll Trust The Wind’ (from 2017 ‘New Thrills’ EP)
‘(We’ve) Found A Way (To The Sun)’ (from 1986 ‘Really Stupid’ single)
After a mere 19 minute wait, it was back to the live music action with The House Of Love who were one of the great bands of the proto-Britpop era of the late 1980s and early 1990s. In fact they formed in London as a quintet in 1986 and consisted of Guy Chadwick (vocals, guitar), Terry Bickers (guitar), Andrea Heukamp (guitar, vocals), Chris Groothuizen (bass) and Pete Evans (drums), however the following year Heukamp (now RIP) left the outfit and they have mostly been a quartet ever since. Following their critically acclaimed 1988 Creation Records’ debut, The House Of Love signed to Fontana Recordings the following year and embarked on four years of non-stop recording and touring that would take them into the mainstream. Early singles such as ‘Shine On’, ‘Christine’ and ‘Destroy The Heart’ were followed in the Fontana years with more classics such as ‘Never’, ‘I Don’t Know Why I Love You’, ‘Beatles and the Stones’, ‘Shine On (new version)’, ‘The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes’, ‘Crush Me’ and more.
There’s been quite a few other coming and goings ever since their initial success with Bickers departing late 1989 and being replaced by Simon Walker (guitar), who himself left in early 1992 and was replaced by Simon Mawby (guitar), but Mawby quit the band before the end of the year. They all then called it a day in 1993, but The House Of Love were resurrected around a decade later with Chadwick, Bickers, Evans and Matt Jury (bass), but then in 2021 Chadwick disbanded the 2005 line-up and recruited three new members to tour the US and record a new album, released in 2022. The current lineup is showing up as Guy Chadwick (vocals, guitar), Keith Osborne (lead guitar), Harry Osborne (bass) and Hugo Degenhardt (drums), so I’m guessing it’s these gentlemen whose company we are in this evening for 79 minutes from 8:15pm until 9:34pm.
The quartet are all dressed in black and the beginning of my first ever encounter with the band opens up with ‘Cruel’ from their 1992 ‘Babe Rainbow’ album and I note that there’s some decent rumbley top note bass guitar playing and some twangy guitar shaking going down with slower vocal delivery atop which is a promising start. They follow this with ‘Road’ from their debut 1988 ‘The House Of Love’ album and the drumming intro immediately reminds me of The Adverts ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’ and then the tune heads off into Lou Reed/Velvet Underground territory. Selection three is their ‘Marble’ single from 1990 with it’s memorable “Let’s drive to the hole in the sky; Let’s drink to the spirit of Rome” lines. The guitar is in the similar ballpark as Joy DIvision and the drummer tapping the side of the drum with his drumstick reminds me of Bauhaus’ ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’. We now receive the title track from their ‘A State Of Grace’ album, which is followed by the slower ‘Sweet Loser’ from the same album. This tune does eventually build and is the better for it.
It appears that their next offering, ‘Beatles And The Stones’ – which is from their second self-titled album from 1990, which is often referred to as ‘The Butterfly’ album on account of its cover – is a big hit with tonight’s punters judging by the applause at the end. The drums are delivered in a quiet shuffly manner during this more melodic reflective number. The tempo was brought back up again with the arrival of ‘I Don’t Know Why I Love You’ which is on the same album and benefits from some jangly guitar interplay with the drums. It’s next to both ends of their careers as firstly we get ‘Hope’ from their debut platter, which is followed by a new unreleased track titled ‘Mine’. Notably on ‘Hope’ Chadwick’s vocals are deeper than any other tunes during their performance and reminds me of Richard Hawley, although musically the tune is a different beast as the band ramped it up. ‘Mine’ on the other hand has a catchy chorus “mine, mine, you’re mine, mine, you’re mine” which to be honest is a rarity for The House Of Love material. They don’t really specialise in singalong tunes! ‘Mine’ however did have something vaguely familiar about it, and strangely XTC’s ‘Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)’ jumped into my head, but it doesn’t really sound like that!
There’s a definite (post) Britpop vibe going down for ‘The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes’ from their ‘Babe Rainbow’ album from back in 1992. The guitar kicks off this number and then it has the vibe of early Blur material, both musically and vocally and just about sneaked in as the tune of the set for me! Mind you, following number, 1993’s ‘Into The Tunnel’ from the ‘Audience With The Mind’ album, was hotly on its tail, as there was some decent meaty bass riffage to begin with and it became like a more intense version of Joy Division’s ‘Shadowplay’, with added recent Gary Numan live bass parts, before reverting back to the normal House Of Love sound, and back again. ‘Babe Rainbow’s ‘Burn Down The World’ was also enjoyable and the use of the hard felt headed drumsticks worked a treat as it gave the track a bigger sound. Chadwick’s guitar sounded the very best of the whole set, during this tune as well, which benefited from many layers.
Prior to their obligatory encore, we were given two tunes from their “Butterfly” album, beginning with ‘Se Dest’ which alternates between slow and quiet and then loud and fast beats. After this Chadwick addressed the faithful “Thank you so much, you’ve been a beautiful audience” and the band launched into their biggie ‘Shine On’…come on everyone sing along “She, she she she shine on; She she she shine on; She she she shine on”. As you would expect there was some instant boisterous bouncing and pushing by a few keen fans which put the bouncers on high alert, mainly because of the fact that (like the band) the audience had been stationary all evening, and I guess the sudden movements were exaggerated. Chadwick must have played this track thousands of times, but what do you know! He only went and messed it up! Of all the songs! He instructed his relatively new chums to stop playing and then embarrassingly they then correctly picked up where they left off. I reckon they should have started from the top again as it’s the crowd’s favourite and they had almost half an hour before curfew. They vacated the stage….
About two or three minutes later they returned and Chadwick jokingly stated “You should get your money back for that shouldn’t you! Sorry about the mistake” and they launched into ‘Christine’ from their debut long-player. Clearly it’s a hit with the punters as quite a few souls greeted the track’s first few notes with cheers and applause. I can see why as well, as ‘Christine’ emanates jangly guitar perfection which makes it more immediate than most of their songs and is arguably their three minute pop song. The penultimate track this evening was their 1988 single ‘Destroy The Heart’, which starts with a Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers ‘Roadrunner’ style vibe, especially on the bass and drums and is much the better for it, and you know what, it’s only gone and knocked ‘The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes’ off as top tune of the set for me! ‘Destroy The Heart’ has more oomph and intensity than their other material, and has borderline punk aggression in its delivery! This would have been the choice track to end on!
However they give us ‘Love In A Car’ from their debut long-player with its twangy guitar intro, followed by the drums, and then the rest of the band. It’s then clear that this track builds and builds and I can now see why they have chosen to leave us with this, in fact, it’s a solid choice to sign off on and at the early hour of 9:34pm that was our lot! There were roars of approval from the punters and indeed the band had conquered. To me they had the feel similar to watching The Wedding Present, where although they are all obviously accomplished musicians, in their material you get a few hits, some passible tunes and some not so hard hitting.
The House Of Love:
Guy Chadwick – vocals, guitar
Keith Osborne – lead guitar, backing vocals
Harry Osborne – bass, backing vocals
Hugo Degenhardt – drums
The House Of Love setlist:
‘Cruel’ (from 1992 ‘Babe Rainbow’ album)
‘Road’ (from 1988 ‘The House Of Love’ album)
‘Marble’ (a 1990 single)
‘A State Of Grace’ (from 2022 ‘A State Of Grace’ album)
‘Sweet Loser’ (from 2022 ‘A State Of Grace’ album)
‘Beatles And The Stones’ (from 1990 ‘The House Of Love’ aka ‘The Butterfly’ album)
‘I Don’t Know Why I Love You’ (from 1990 ‘The House Of Love’ aka ‘The Butterfly’ album)
‘Hope’ (from 1988 ‘The House Of Love’ album)
‘Mine’ (new – unreleased)
‘The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes’ (from 1992 ‘Babe Rainbow’ album)
‘Into The Tunnel’ (from 1993 ‘Audience With The Mind’ album)
‘Burn Down The World’ (from 1992 ‘Babe Rainbow’ album)
‘Se Dest’ (from 1990 ‘The House Of Love’ aka ‘The Butterfly’ album)
‘Shine On’ (from 1990 ‘The House Of Love’ aka ‘The Butterfly’ album)
(encore)
‘Christine’ (from 1988 ‘The House Of Love’ album)
‘Destroy The Heart’ (a 1988 single)
‘Love In A Car’ (from 1988 ‘The House Of Love’ album)
Good write up, both bands were on top form. Always loved The Primitives since hearing Thru the Flowers on John Peel and Really Stupid is still one of my favourite songs from that era of indie bands and as far the House of Love, what a band. I said to the other half, as far as encores go, Christine, Destroy The Heart and Love In A Car, not much to top that. Two great bands, two great sets.