The Dirty Strangers, Juvenile Wrecks and The Electrics The Dublin Castle London 2022

The Electrics kick things off with their post punk guitar based rock with great saxophone playing that adds an immediate injection of hi-energy pizzazz. I loved the punky version of ‘Because The Night’ they inserted into a song called ‘Broken Hearted Lover’. ‘Dead Boy’ is like something that might have charted around the time of Madness. There are light hearted jokes about whether mistakes in the set are due to dementia or vodka. There’s a nice vibe about it and I could have easily listened to more.

The Juvenile Wrecks are a new band featuring Nigel Mogg from the Quireboys on bass with a bunch of younger dudes that are all quite obviously are well versed in the history of Rock n Roll. They look fantastic – from Nigel with his tiny ass in his three piece striped suit, Jay Tea who clearly goes to the same vintage stores as Nasty Suicide with his clashing polka dots, pink ruffle shirt and large concho guitar strap and Alan MP with his dashing Latin looks, beautiful shirt with a rose print and cravat worn wildly loose outside his waistcoat. In London we have been waiting for these sort of sartorial choices, at least if we are fans of  Hanoi Rocks, the Faces and The Dogs D’amour.

Musically they are also a mix of all of this with the New York Dolls as the predominant musical influence.  Opener the single ‘One Shot’ mixes that groove with a dash of Stones and Faster Pussycat style guitar. ‘Ballad Junkie’ could be Dogs D’amour circa 1989. There is also a dash of English humour witness “You Think She’s Yours, But She’s Really Mine”.

Nigel is clearly a seasoned performer whipping his base over the vocalist’s head during new song ‘Chasin’ to make the most of a small stage and is totally unfazed by wardrobe malfunctions like a trouser zip that fails to stay up (What does that tell us Nigel?)  or his bass dropping when the strap gives way: he simply makes it part of the show “if it can survive the Quireboys it can survive anything.” The younger frontmen are currently sharing vocal duties and doing a good job, but if there’s one thing I’d say it’s  that they are both a little too sweetly shy at the moment. A little more wildness or boldness and crowd engagement would not go to waste, but I am sure it will come with time… or when they get an opioid habit.. they both still look in their twenties.

That aside, peddling tracks like ‘Go Go Dancer’ as a more tuneful version of the NY Dolls should make them the darlings of the R n R scene. The Ruts cover ‘Staring At The Rude Boys’ is a bit more like Nigel’s previous outfit The Brutalists crossed with Hanoi Rocks. They finish with a gang vocal version of the Sex Pistol’s ‘Silly Thing’ again inspired sense of humour mixed with a sense of self deprecation while delivering something that we don’t have much of in the UK at the moment. The crowd lapped it up, we could get used to more of this.

Headliner Dirty Strangers do a mammoth set of Pop Punk Perfection kicking off with ‘Bathing Belles’. The audience only behave themselves for a certain period of time before they make a break for the front and completely go for it without even being asked.

‘Blew The Whistle’ is Stonesy with a great Rock n Roll guitar solo. In ‘R U Satisfied’ the guitar tone is so intense it sounds like a Sax. ‘South of The River’ attracts a number of Keith Richard’s look a likes for a boogie up front or is that a stagger…‘Diamonds’ a bit Americana/Tom Petty goes down a storm. Sandwiched around crowd favourite ‘Hands Up’ they do a few new songs: ’Pirates Don’t Get Pensions’ and  ‘Hunter’s Moon’ and the crowd are too into the gig for it to break the vibe. The new songs sit easily alongside classics in the set and there are girls doing air guitar solos at the front, not bad for new material.

Announcing ‘I wrote this song with Keith Richards, you would boast about it too, if you had” they launched into ‘She’s a Real Botticelli’ a Landan Town one liner punchline of a song. ‘Bad Girls’ has the females going crazy at the front almost losing their minds. In the home straight the band wheel out ‘Gold Cortina’ and it goes down as though it was an actual top dollar prize on a game show.

Humour is an essential element of the Dirty Strangers set. Even a request for a drink is ‘Juice .. laced with morphine, perhaps a dash of opium.. sorry I thought I was at home for a minute’. After an introduction as ‘Alan Clayton the man who writes all these songs’ he tucks 20 quid into the pocket of his bassist.. a funny, if expensive, joke. In final song ‘Good Good Lovin’ with its 50s vibe like ‘Tutti Frutti’ Clayton invited the audience to sing “Your chance to join in, you can say you sang with The Dirty Strangers”.

I’ve seen this band before and tonight the reaction they got from the crowd was greater than I have ever seen. To quote one of them on social media “It was a Great Night!” The best bands have good songs AND know how to entertain. The Dirty Strangers know how to do it all.

Dawn Osborne