Photo: Richard Gray
"Good morning! Let's Do this" smiles a fresh faced Jehnny Beth, frontwoman of the awesome Savages.
Yes it is morning, it's 8.45 am, in fact, and it's light outside on Oxford Street where fans have been quening since well before 8am - possibly the first early morning queue on the street that isn't for a department store sale.
Meanwhile, the rest of society are hurrying to work cramming onto tubes and grumpily barging for elbow space with their newspapers. A few very lucky people, including me, are in the 100 Club enjoying the spectacular and feral sound of Savages live as we launch their incredible new album, Adore Life.
It's with great admiration that the band are holding their album launch at this unusual time. "It's no different really is it?" remarks the charismatic Beth, who dressed in all black like the rest of the band.
The band drive through their incredibly tight 10 song set, with opener ' Shut Up' causing an intense josltle to get as close as possible to the tiny stage, where the intensely propulsive drumming, gnarly bass grooves, and huge atmospheric guitars are led by one who is surely one of the best rock singers in the world and stage personas on Earth at the moment.
Guitarists Gemma Thompson and Ayse Hassan remain cool, focused, and unfased with surrounding fans, and just conjure up the moody post punk with pin point precision and timing. Drummer Fay Milton, is quite literally astounding, perhaps it's the morning coffee but she's playing with such power, and melodicism that it's difficult to imagine this band being anywhere near as good if it wasn't for her.
With the crowd already brought to life simply by the music, Beth looks to exploit it and encourages further animation. "This isn't going to happen again in a lifetime, perhaps if you had two lifetimes" she says, whilst encouraging the audience to make the most of every last second of their set. Part of me sinks, why can't we always have gigs before work?
Read our interview with Savages discussing love, punk, fans and the future here.
Savages' upcoming UK 2016 tour dates are below. For tickets and more information, visit here.
Savages will play:
Thu February 18 2016 - BEXHILL ON SEA De La Warr Pavilion
Fri February 19 2016 - CAMBRIDGE Junction
Sun February 21 2016 - GLASGOW Art School
Mon February 22 2016 - MANCHESTER Albert Hall
Tue February 23 2016 - LEEDS Irish Centre
Thu March 17 2016 - LONDON Roundhouse
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