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Tiscali Showcase - Broken Dolls
Tiscali Showcase - Broken Dolls
Broken Dolls opened the sixteenth Tiscali Showcase at the Carling Bar Academy Islington on Friday December 9th 2005, and you can see exclusive video performances from the night after the event.
Set list on the night:
1. Here We Go Again
2. So Good For Me
3. Any Other Day
4. Peaches
5. Rock and Roll
6. Coming Out
More on Broken Dolls:
Meet Neil, Neil, Jay and Mick, a gang of four childhood friends collectively known as Broken Dolls; an idea born from a mutual love of MC5, accidental girlfriend sharing and extended bouts of late-night boozebonding; a kickass rock band to get those fists pumping airborne again.
The West Midlands, our nation's industrial heartland and seedbed of invention where 'letting off steam' has become a local tradition. Zep and Sabbath were schooled early on in gritty Midlands working men's clubs and were forced to be as hard working as the audience or accept the consequences. No foppish dandiness here. Just grit, vomit, power and glory. Move on a decade to Coventry, where the polyracial populace are forced to vent their collective spleens in the form of Ska, Reggae and 2 Tone Records. The Specials captured the mood of the downtrodden in Thatcher's Britain and for a time they ruled the world.
Twenty years on and the dormant heart of rock and roll is beating once more Broken Dolls are a PIL'ed up version of Song 13-era Blur with a nod to the electronic excursions of Radiohead. Brooding frontman Neil L and lead guitarist Jay, ever-influenced by the psychedelic blues of Zeppelin and the urgent rock and roll of The Sex Pistols, played in numerous local bands and flirted with success. The inevitable pay-your-dues gigs came their way with the pair once appearing on The Big Breakfast Show performing an acoustic version of "I Will Survive' for the winner of TV show Survivor...
Mick and Neil H came from the 'other side of the tracks'. In the early 90's Coventry had the first 6 o'clock nightclub licence so they spent their time polishing their carousal skills and making music in the studio. Classically trained Mick had been tinkling the ivories in churches from the age of five; inspiration came from UNKLE, Detroit and Tangerine Dream. The electronic informed the organic and the seeds of something big were being planted.
Fast forward. Long nights and days spent in dingy basements, smoky blues parties and liquor sodden afterhours clubs give rise to 'Rock and Roll' a three minute celebration of excess and a worthy addition to the pantheon of Midlands born anthems. Well-crafted guitar-driven songs, fused with breaks and little acid, tussle with soaring vocals performed with that cheeky punk rock sensibility by a frontman who's an icon in the making...
Broken Dolls-coming to a venue near you...
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