Wednesday 16/06/04 Pearl @ Noble Rot, London.

You think Kylie has the angel versus smut thing monopoly? Think again my friends, and curtsey to the new Queen of Filth, Pearl Lowe.

If a crisp, white grand piano was in the vicinity, the Dave Brubeck-style dirty rock/jazz music her band creates might have Pearl writhing and sliding across the piano in a silky pom-pommed bunny outfit. As it is, ‘Kind of Blue’'s gloriously dark muted trumpet sets the mood, smothering the atmosphere like a sheet of smoke. Pearl shimmies her scantily-clad tooshie and teasingly purrs out the lyrics.

Her alluring Jessica Rabbit-esque smoulder and slinky, revealing dress creates a bit of a queer mixture of classy porn and cartoon charm; especially as the other side to Pearl’s music is more uptempo singsong, like forthcoming single ‘I Wanna Love You’. Vaudevillian piano jumbled with some jabbing guitar cuts through the surprisingly sugary harmonies, already placing it far higher in the tune stakes than Pearl’s first band Powder ever managed. However, Pearl obviously still harbours some affection for the shouty days of 1995, as ‘Don’t Want Nobody’ stabs into a brasher vein. 

Her gaggle of familiar-faced musicians - Darren Berry, aka Mankato on drums; Neil from Delicatessen on guitar; part-time Gene member Angie Pollack on keyboards - fill up the stage so that new recruit, Sadie Frost’s beau Jackson Scott, literally cannot fit up there with them, instead having to stand sheepishly to the side.

Despite the A-list superstar boyfriend and supermodel galpals, the increasing column inches and paparazzi snapshots, Pearl hasn’t yet reached the twinkling heights of musical credibility herself. But from what has been aired tonight, it wouldn’t be surprising if her time has come to herald a new revival of velvet-clad, winsome and shadowy dandymusic; picking up from where Elcka, Jack and the Divine Comedy began a decade ago.

So dust out the music halls, don your finest feather-boas and viva the fresh brand of smut-rock!