Superqueens review

Dear all;

Here is a review of a gig I went to a bit back, which I have only just finished writing about...

Superqueens Review - Star and Garter, 21/01/05...


I knew as soon as me and my friends agreed to go to this gig, we were in for quite a potentionally an interesting night. While Superqueens are a new (ish) name to those on the local Manchester scene, for me it was almost like a renewal with old friends.

Way back in 1993, through the recommendation of a then friend, I picked up a demo tape by a then new band "The Orch". And what a treat it was too. Brimmed with great Durruti Column-ish guitar lines and keyboards that were as much as footsteps as sound mixed with thoughtful spoken poetry, talking about Manchester in ways that I hadn't heard before myself like it was Tombstone, England or being ritually abused at the local Benefits Office.

I saw them play live not long after and it was a powerful, powerful gig by any stretch of thought.

But the band never seemed to find the success that they truly deserved and stumbled out a few singles and split at the end of 1996.

And that seemed to be it

Fastfoward to 04, and Michael Conroy Harris, the poet and wordsmith resurfaces with a new project "Superqueens".

I'd heard about them by chance, and got somebody to buy me the CD for Christmas and while the album missed the Durruti Column-ish guitars, it came across as just as good through the increased electronic and keyboards which in some places gave it a more of a melodic feel.

Live, the duo certainly followed a similar pattern to CD, expect as my mate said it was even more darker in particular like on songs like "State Hotel", which seemed to come across as more harsh and dirty which is hard to believe considering the album version is bleak to begin with,

Sadly there were one or two occasions when the music threatened to overwhelmed Michael's (or Mick as I notice he likes to be called) like on Track 4 of their album. However, as the gig progressed it without doubt got better and better and better, where the duo started throwing new songs into the mix including a re-vamped version of the old Orch. favourite "The Ghost of Billy Whizz"where the electronics started bouncing around in my head which is ironic considering the nature of the song and a blistering new song called "Rat Poison" which had about three or four people saying in the audience why the hell isn't this on the album...

An excellent gig... Here's hoping that their next album doesn't take 8 years to come out...