A new name to many, you’d suspect, Keeley are beginning their first night as support to Terrorvision.
Not immediate touring partners, you’d think, but the thing about class is that it fits in anywhere, and that’s what the three-piece brings.
Led by the mesmeric Keeley Moss, the band is something of a unique proposition given that all its songs are about the same thing: Inga Maria Hauser’s murder case and her life, which make for rich pickings.
The aptly named “Doorway To Another World” opens its world up, and it’s a sensory experience.
“Inga Hauser” is ethereal, and this is the sort of thing you can lose yourself in, while “Forever Froze” has a much more strident chorus.
Keeley herself (now backed by bassist Lukey Foxtrot—who’s had something of a Planes, Trains, and Automobiles experience to get here—and drummer Andrew Paresi (ex-Morrissey)) explains that they’ve just toured with Echobelly—a more natural fit—but “Galway Princess” has the expansive ambition that has a bigger intent than mere support.
Their 35 minutes end with the current single “Trans Europe 18,” and they have clearly—to paraphrase the headline act—won friends and influenced people. This is one of the biggest crowds they’ve played to so far. The words “so far” are doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
“Hello. We’re Terrorvision. From Bradford.”
Five words that Tony Wright has probably gotten into every show they’ve done in the last 35 years, but five words that are simply a guarantee of a damn good time.
That, purely and simply, is what they do. Right from when “Pretend Best Friend” starts, bursting with energy.
But the words behind them tell a story. “We Are Not Robots” it says, and that is the name of their first album in 13 years. Out just days before, it is, as I said on these pages, the best album in three decades. “The Night That Lemmy Died” underlines why—and there’s a decent smattering of new stuff throughout.
This, though, is a breakneck hour and a half. The band—still with three original members, in the shape of Wright, bassist Leigh Marklew, and guitarist Mark Yates—has a catalogue that is bettered by none. “Alice, What’s The Matter”, “My House”, “What Makes You Tick”, and the rest are absolute beauties.
In recent years, they’ve added a horn section, and while it augments “American TV”, it’s one of the new songs, “You’ve Got To Want To Be Happy”, that sees saxophone player Liz Mitchell unleash her inner Clarence Clemons.
It’s not just that one, but the others like “Shine On”, “Baby Blue”, and “Bleeker Street” that have fitted in so well.
The punk rager “If I Was You”, “Celebrity Hit List”, and the one that proves they really were right about the whales and dolphins” are special, as is “Pretend Best Friend”, but since they’ve not played “Oblivion”, then that’s the encore sorted.
No one does it quite like Terrorvision. No one has in 35 years, and no one will. The glory days, the days when they were on Top Of The Pops, are behind them, but here’s the thing: they’re arguably better than ever, and from the looks on their faces, they’re having nearly as much fun.
