Homosexual Death Drive are a band featuring the writer and activist Charlotte Cooper and Kay Hyatt. They use accordions, their voices, some twiddly nob thing, something else (maybe they had a uke or a banjo, I don't know, I had drank too much whiskey at that point). They both looked dead good in their outfits, Kay wore a dog themed waistcoat and velour green hotpants. Velour is my favorite fabric and I love the way the word just rolls off the tongue like an expensive Parisian delicacy. As the first song sounded Kay stomped on lots of tiny cardboard buildings which had been made for the show, like Godzilla. Many of their songs sounded like spoken word story shanties. The short set made for inspiring viewing. I expected them to be a strictly comedy band with the name and the lo fi-ness and the high budget set, but my favorite moment was their last song, which was about Charlotte's brother dying in a car crash at 24. The song was a bit of a secularist hymn and the sentiment was basically there's nothing after death, so don't waste your time while you're alive, live. If I wasn't all dosed up on paroxetine I might have cried.
I saw Homosexual Death Drive perform as part of the last ever Club Milk (amazing diy gig night, quite often veering to the queer direction).
Conveniently for me the final Club Milk was at the Ratstar squat in Camberwell, but a stone's throw from my house. I got there to be greeted by a very smiley promoter and a few friends I'd not seen in a while. The Ratstar was sparsely populated, but there were enough people to make it worthwhile. The first band I saw were called Skinny Girl Diet. Get this, they are all cousins, pretty young (I'm guessing around 16?) and they had only been together for two months. They were amazing! A dark bassy distorted guitar sound but fun enough to dance to as well. No post-ironic bullshit just passion. And their nervousness only made me like them more. And the bassist has a gold Angela Davis necklace. Now you can't fault that.
As if things could get better, there followed a drum and guitar jam by none other than Vice Cooler from Hawnay Troof and Rachel Aggs of Trash Kit, making them Hawnay Trash. Vice has totally butched up since the days when he used to dance around in his hot pants with Alison Wolf singing about sucking cocks and hitting it from behind on his conceptual gay album, what was it called again? It was good anyway. Still, he's very into reinvention this chap. Between being a big fag and today, he wore what must have been a mega sweaty red suit which made him look a bit like Austin Powers. That was the Brudenell in Leeds, years ago, then a couple of years ago at Barden's Boudoir he was spotted in Military uniform. Today he's got a semi mullet a medallion and is wearing an Ice Cube t-shirt and is constantly surrounded by women. OK, I'm being binary and unfair, I'll stop now. Anyway, he played drums and Rachel from Trash Kit played guitar. She is clearly not going to stop until she's the ultimate fucking champion of guitar playing for the entire world or something. A drum/guitar jam has the potential to go all jazz club and wanky, but it was thrilling watching those two thrash it out. Looked lots of fun too.
Other highlights were Methodist Centre, gay oi punk band, so much so much so much fun; Trash Kit, post punk amazingness; free pizza and Vice Cooler djing from his laptop, he started with Shots by Lil John and then we requested Ignition by R Kelly and he played that too. There followed Djing in a similar vein, although there weren't enough people dancing and the room had too many lights on for me to dance without feeling self conscious, so I kept retreating back to my bottle of whiskey in the corner. Hence I left around midnight and passed out.
Homosexual Death Drive are a band featuring the writer and activist Charlotte Cooper and Kay Hyatt. They use accordions, their voices, some twiddly nob thing, something else (maybe they had a uke or a banjo, I don't know, I had drank too much whiskey at that point). They both looked dead good in their outfits, Kay wore a dog themed waistcoat and velour green hotpants. Velour is my favorite fabric and I love the way the word just rolls off the tongue like an expensive Parisian delicacy. As the first song sounded Kay stomped on lots of tiny cardboard buildings which had been made for the show, like Godzilla. Many of their songs sounded like spoken word story shanties. The short set made for inspiring viewing. I expected them to be a strictly comedy band with the name and the lo fi-ness and the high budget set, but my favorite moment was their last song, which was about Charlotte's brother dying in a car crash at 24. The song was a bit of a secularist hymn and the sentiment was basically there's nothing after death, so don't waste your time while you're alive, live. If I wasn't all dosed up on paroxetine I might have cried.
I saw Homosexual Death Drive perform as part of the last ever Club Milk (amazing diy gig night, quite often veering to the queer direction).
Conveniently for me the final Club Milk was at the Ratstar squat in Camberwell, but a stone's throw from my house. I got there to be greeted by a very smiley promoter and a few friends I'd not seen in a while. The Ratstar was sparsely populated, but there were enough people to make it worthwhile. The first band I saw were called Skinny Girl Diet. Get this, they are all cousins, pretty young (I'm guessing around 16?) and they had only been together for two months. They were amazing! A dark bassy distorted guitar sound but fun enough to dance to as well. No post-ironic bullshit just passion. And their nervousness only made me like them more. And the bassist has a gold Angela Davis necklace. Now you can't fault that.
As if things could get better, there followed a drum and guitar jam by none other than Vice Cooler from Hawnay Troof and Rachel Aggs of Trash Kit, making them Hawnay Trash. Vice has totally butched up since the days when he used to dance around in his hot pants with Alison Wolf singing about sucking cocks and hitting it from behind on his conceptual gay album, what was it called again? It was good anyway. Still, he's very into reinvention this chap. Between being a big fag and today, he wore what must have been a mega sweaty red suit which made him look a bit like Austin Powers. That was the Brudenell in Leeds, years ago, then a couple of years ago at Barden's Boudoir he was spotted in Military uniform. Today he's got a semi mullet a medallion and is wearing an Ice Cube t-shirt and is constantly surrounded by women. OK, I'm being binary and unfair, I'll stop now. Anyway, he played drums and Rachel from Trash Kit played guitar. She is clearly not going to stop until she's the ultimate fucking champion of guitar playing for the entire world or something. A drum/guitar jam has the potential to go all jazz club and wanky, but it was thrilling watching those two thrash it out. Looked lots of fun too.
Other highlights were Methodist Centre, gay oi punk band, so much so much so much fun; Trash Kit, post punk amazingness; free pizza and Vice Cooler djing from his laptop, he started with Shots by Lil John and then we requested Ignition by R Kelly and he played that too. There followed Djing in a similar vein, although there weren't enough people dancing and the room had too many lights on for me to dance without feeling self conscious, so I kept retreating back to my bottle of whiskey in the corner. Hence I left around midnight and passed out.
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