The Lovely Eggs / Thick Richard / Bug Club / Arch Femmesis – The Ritz, Manchester, UK, 3rd June 2022

You’d have to be very lucky to have avoided the jubilee if you’re in the UK, an omnipresent sea of flags, plastic tat, cheap lager and even knitted Jubilee themed hats on post boxes, seriously someone in Manchester is doing that, that seems to be washing across the UK, but for those of us in the know, tonight means some something much more significant. The proudly independent Northern psychedelic punk rock duo that is The Lovely Eggs are finally playing their biggest ever show at the end of their current UK tour. What’s the big deal? I hear you cry, well it’s that tonight has been a long time coming, since the beginning of the pandemic this tour, that was originally intended to promote the release in April 2020 of their I Am Moron album, has been rescheduled a staggering seven times. With that in mind, and as the tour poster for tonight says, “Never Mind The Jubilee …. Here’s The Lovely Eggs.”

There are echoes of ’77 all across the UK, the nationalism, flag waving and scone consuming seems to have reached it’s zenith, something that is at odds with most peoples day to day experience of living in the UK where there is pretty much fuck all to celebrate at the moment. Eschewing the flags, scones and everything else that’s Jubilee related, not an easy task it must be said, but embracing the four day bank holiday, we head into a satisfyingly flag free pub in Manchester for a few beers and then it’s finally into The Ritz for the typically eclectic line up that is a hallmark of The Lovely Eggs live shows. As I’ve previously mentioned this is fiercely independent DIY duo’s biggest headline show to date, one I’ve been looking forward to attending since it was first announced, I never gave up hope it would happen, and neither did The Lovely Eggs, and at long last they have finally completed the tour in support of an album that was released two long years ago.

The first instalment on this eclectic line up are Arch Femmesis who are an unknown quantity to me, which is how I like it when it comes to support bands, it’s the chance to hear someone new, and in this case see something unexpected, two almost balletic figures move around in an arrhythmical waltz before they launch into a set of avant- garde electro punk. Taking their cues from art punk, new romantic, dance music and performance art this is an unpredictable and unexpected, but not unwelcome, start to the evening. The blending of pop and art recalls the likes Soft Cell, Human League and even Donna Summer, but with a lyrical savagery that comes with the freedom of independence. The self styled “old school electro queer” outfit are an arresting duo, one I doubt I would experience in my usual musical circles, something that I feel is the intention of the tour, and part of The Lovely Eggs raision detrè.

Arch Femmesis are followed by The Bug Club who hit us with a blast of fast paced pop punk power pop that acts as as a contrast to the extravagance of the opening act, this is back to the roots of power pop, think The Saints or Jonathan Richman and you’re about there, but with a 21st century kick that keeps the melodic hit of throwback power pop curiously contemporary, as with Arch Femmesis this is an unexpected and surprising inclusion that maintains the off kilter vibe of tonight flowing unpredictabily and erratically as the sun sets on Manchester. The Bug Club deliver the the kind of tunes that are an unstoppable ear worm, one that’s trapped in a web of The Violent Femmes and The Only Ones melodies. Every song sounds like a theme tune for ill advised tv series that never happened, this is much much better than I’m making it sound. Appropriately for a post pandemic tour this is incredibly infectious. 

Thick Richard opens his set with a gloriously intense rant that echoes punk poets new and old, an intense and close to the bone rapid fire delivery that hits the spot. Words are fired at you at 60 rounds per second. Did I mention unexpected and unpredictable as a theme for the night, well Thick Richard meets all the criteria for everything that has been before and after. Near the knuckle and delivered like a assassination of the worst of the worst and a celebration of the best of popular culture, there’s also the fact that People Who Smoke Crack Shouldn’t Throw Rocks is one of the best titles for anything, ever. Stuff The Jubilee, sums up the attitude of the weekend for many before Thick Richard’s finale focuses it’s ire on Manchester’s past with laser sharp precision. Throughout his set Thick Richard takes no prisoners with Hicksian rants that sacrifice pretty much every sacred cow along the way.

The Lovely Eggs enter the stage with all the glitter and and excess you’d expect from one of the UK’s most understated and independent bands, part punk attitude, part space rock, part post punk and finally that final unknown Ingredient, the one that has made tonight such an delicious collision of past and present. Tonight The Lovely Eggs resemble extras from The Boys, the glam rock superheroes you don’t talk about. It’s only when you are confronted with The Lovely Eggs live that you realise just how much noise this duo can generate, space rock via grunge and post punk, beyond that that it’s indescribable in the best way possible, constantly veering between genres and styles, The Lovely Eggs occupy a unique spot in the UK’s music scene, the kind of slot that is always occupied by the outsiders that exist on the edge of any scene.

The Lovely Eggs personify outsider culture of the last 50 years like few other bands, from The Stooges to Grandaddy it’s all embraced in a unique fusion of styles that makes them irresistible, tonight may have been a longtime coming but it was worth the wait. There’s is no one else doing what The Lovely Eggs are doing, absorbing, distorting, absorbing and discarding culture like no one else, bands that stand alone have always been proved right in the end, and on the basis of tonight’s show, and The Lovely Eggs do put on a show, this will remain the case. If there was blip tonight it was the middle aged crowd surfers competition that reached its climax tonight, sadly the climax was not achieved as the competition was hampered somewhat by The Ritz’s security policy of no stage divers, thankfully I’m not involved, whether this is jealousy or an outright denial of middle age is for you to decide.

Photography by Gary M Hough of Shot From Both Sides