Date:

Sat, 2007/06/09

Venue:

Shepherds Bush Empire

James Rocks braves the ‘balding moshpit’ to bring us this report of The Only Ones at Shepherds Bush.

‘Its only taken us 26 years to get here from the Strand’ drawled Peter Perrett resplendent in shades, in reference to their last London gig at the Lyceum in 1981. The crowd laughed and cheered, aware that it was amazing they were able to witness this band playing live at all.

They even played one new song 'She Dreamt She Could Fly' which more than stood up against the old classics

Opening with ‘From Here To Eternity’ from the bands classic second album ‘Even Serpents Shine’ it was clear that The Only Ones had lost none of their power or menacing undercurrents and we were taken on a ninety minute journey into their world - ‘I see a woman with death in her eyes, But I don’t have the time to pray’. It is a world of romantic yearning and dark obsessions set against some of the best and well played music to have emerged from the punk scene. The band, sounding tight and well rehearsed, played most of their first two albums and a few from the third, one of the biggest cheers of the night going out to their most famous song ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’ with John Perry smiling his way through the guitar solo and Peter Perrett coming out to the front of the stage to do some rockstar poses in front of the balding ‘moshpit’. They even played one new song ‘She Dreamt She Could Fly’ which more than stood up against the old classics. They encored with a personal favourite ‘Someone Who Cares’ and ended on their first single ‘Lovers of Today’ still sounding as fresh as it probably did to those who heard it in 1977. Peter Perrett inimitable voice singing ‘we aint got feelings, we got no love, we aint got nothing to say, we’re lovers of today’. From tonights performance The Only Ones still have plenty to say.

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James Rocks Reviews

The Only Ones