There really is an awful lot of this sort of stuff around just now. A dense and sweaty Sneaky Pete’s crowd are eagerly awaiting the appearance of this weeks “Next Big Thing”. London’s Chew Lips have attracted much praise and radio play from the likes of Steve Lamacq. With their debut album, Unicorn, freshly released, they’re at that point of teetering delicately on the fringes of mass popularity.
So where the hell are they? Extended technical problems, seemingly compounded by roadies and sound people having to work through the seething throng, means quite a delay before anything happens on stage. One over-refreshed punter, bearing a strange resemblance to a youthful Bob Dylan, attempts to take matters into his own hands, literally, by bashing away at a keyboard set-up, earning himself a severe bollocking from it’s intended player.
Finally, diminutive blonde popstrel Tigs takes the stage, all glittery and short shorts, flanked on either side by two somewhat stern and disinterested looking multi-instrumentalists. The Chew Lips sound is a commercially viable rewiring of early eighties electro-pop (think Heaven 17 and The Human League) married up to modern club bass and boom. Basically, mining exactly the same musical vein as plundered by the Little Boots/La Roux axis of synth-driven pop sounds. It already sounds so dated, so very 2009, darling.
Tigs makes a pleasingly unaffected front lady, a friendly, chatty, slightly arty girl next door who might have been persuaded on stage by an older brother for a few years of fun before the 9-to-5 finally beckons. Her natural voice and presence provide the sole glimmers of emotion, her two partners barely acknowledging the wildly enthusiastic audience, the music itself sterile and jaded. But the crowd love them, even though little love is returned, and the final blast of “Solo” plays them out like a greatest hit in the making.
Still, in every musical micro-movement, there are leaders and followers. If La Roux was Blur, then sadly that leaves Chew Lips as Menswear. This is their little moment, but the future may be brief and regrettable. The lovely Tigs, however, could certainly have a career ahead as a children’s television presenter.