We already have a lot to thank KK’s Steel Mill for. And now the best gig venue in the world has also given us a brilliant band.
When Sami Yaffa bumped into Rich Ragany again around a show there, it set in motion something that feels less like a side project and more like fate. Songs were mentioned, plans were made, and eventually there was a trip out to Mallorca to see what might happen.
What happened, it turns out, was The Sideshows.
“Brand New” is slower than you might imagine to start with. And it is a bit of a signpost, because as it stretches out, this album is more about melody than you might expect. That first impression matters. It tells you straight away that this is not just crash-bang rock ’n’ roll, even if that is the background of the people making it.
But as you would expect, this is rock ’n’ roll. Properly so. Check out Rags’ solo if you need the reminder.
“We’re Such A Shame” has more of a jangle than earlier work, and also real class. There is a natural nose for trouble running through it, too. “I Feel It” sits in some kind of halfway house: raucous guitar line, filthy bass, but with pop sensibilities never far away. Then “Say Goodbye” is just so catchy. So much fun.
These boys understand power pop. They really do.
“On A Night Like This” slows the pace. A bit ballad, maybe, but this level of quality obviously comes naturally to them. Then “This Could Be Everything” only reinforces the point. There is a confidence here that you cannot fake.
Does anyone really believe that men this steeped in rock ’n’ roll want it to say sorry? “Rock and Roll Owes Me An Apology” answers that with a grin, before “The Start” lands like something off “Exile On Main Street” — a quite superb highlight.
Rags is one of the great songwriters. Full stop. “Smoke Show” carries a bit of punk energy — Michael Monroe would love this, frankly — and it feeds straight into the darker pulse of “Our Love In The Shadows.”
Closer “Not Sorry” rumbles in with a line that says it all: “Once you use that cliché up you’re history.”
Which doubtless is the point of all this. Clichés, mate? Who needs them?
Because The Sideshows are not what their parts hinted they might be, beyond the fact it is brilliant, like you knew it would be. Yes, you have got the history — Hanoi Rocks, The Loyalties, The Digressions, all that weight behind them — but this does not lean on any of it. It breathes. It swings. It finds melody where others would just turn up the volume, and when it does turn up the volume, it means something.
Recorded out in Mallorca with the doors open and the world drifting in, you can hear that freedom in the grooves. Nothing forced, nothing overthought, just great songs played by people who understand exactly what that means.
Clichés? Not here. Not even close.
This ain’t no sideshow. This is the real deal.
9/10
