The Voodoo Review: Noisettes (Live in London, May 2009)

www.myspace.com/noisettesuk

For anyone who’s missed them, here are some damn fine worthy groovers…

At the end of May 2009, with some cash burning a hole in my pocket, I got off the London Underground at Tottenham Court Road and left at the wrong exit trying to get onto Oxford Street. Instead I was confronted with a street full of mobile phone outlets, and most unusually, some friendly people with placards and flyers announcing “Live in five minutes in Phones4U! See The Noisettes free in Phones4U in five minutes!”

Still not sure I wasn’t on Oxford Street, I looked half-heartedly as far as the metro supermarket outlet, but failing to find anything remotely like a shoe-shop, I turned back and decided to go into Phones4U and see what the fuss was about. As one of the first few there, I found a space at the front, and shortly quite a crowd gathered.

Ten minutes later a petite lady in a plaid jacket, with classic 1940’s glam pin-up hair slipped in through a side door. In the meantime, the rest of the band gathered and tuned up on the stage. It wasn’t long before the lady herself joined them, minus the jacket and slipping off her shoes, pausing only to investigate an abandoned phone-shop manager’s coffee cup and to pick up a reception phone humorously and pretend to answer it…

…And boy, can the lady play and sing live. With renditions of “Don’t Upset The Rhythm” and other tracks from their debut album which was just out, she belts out a voice and energy very impressive for her tiny frame. For a spontaneous free gig in a phone store, it’s one of the more memorable.

Prompted possibly by her bare feet, I went on to buy three pairs of shoes in Oxford Street, and by the great performance, I bought the CD at my local Tesco’s when I got back home the same day.

Awesome stuff. Just what you need to brighten up a wet day in London…



Currently on MySpace, you can watch videos (now synchronised with Youtube), keep up to date with blogs, and on the NoisettesUK MySpace page you can listen to teaser 1-minute samples of “Every Now And Then”, “Saturday Night” (which featured in the soundtrack to St. Trinians II: The Legend of Fritton‘s Gold), “Don’t Upset The Rhythm” and others - but I’d recommend you treat yourself to the album “Wild Young Hearts“… plus more complete tracks including the rocking “Scratch Your Name” and “Don’t Give Up”.

Noisettes, London, U.K.
Pop/Rock/Indie
Band members: Shingai Shoniwa, Dan Smith

...Shame I didn't have time to buy a new camera-phone while I was there...



Appearing at the Xmas Extravaganza, Electric Ballroom, London, U.K. December 14, 2010 (see NoisettesUK on MySpace for details).

*RECOMMENDED!*

L xxxxxx