moments of brilliance, generally 'good' elsewhere. 2nd album.. consistently good, fewer moments of brilliance. top live band.

but here was my review for the Leeds Student newspaper:

!Forward, Russia! (supported by Johnny Foreigner) @ The Cockpit:
Monday 28th April 2008: By Nicholas Polydor

Main tour support Johnny Foreigner were a bitter disappointment. The
texture and excitement of their studio material failed to translate to
the live stage: they were flat, uninspiring, and repetitive to the
point of boredom. Bassist Kelly decided to shout and scream through
several of the band's songs, although certain members of the audience
felt that this was, in fact, 'cool'. Most alarmingly, following their
penultimate song, she remarked that it was not, in fact, 'a song' at
all, but 'an interlude'. Joking or not, a support slot is the time to
play your punchy hits, not your 20-minute free-jazz curveball. For all
their merits on record, tonight Johnny Foreigner sounded
indistinguishable from a million other bands currently touring the
circuit.

By the time !Forward, Russia! came on stage at just gone 9:30pm, it
was startling to see that, for a band promoting their new album on the
penultimate, homecoming date of a national tour, The Cockpit's main
room had not been completely filled.

A year ago, towards the end of the touring cycle for their
well-received 2006 debut long-player, "Give Me A Wall", !Forward,
Russia! had packed out the considerably larger Metropolitan University
venue. Perhaps the taste of mainstream music fans has moved on to the
'next big thing'. The new album "Life Processes", released through
Cooking Vinyl Records rather than via guitarist Whiskas's Dance To The
Radio imprint in order to prevent a conflict of interests, has failed
to light up the Chart. Still, what the band may have lost in
commercial success they most certainly have not lost in live
performance ability, and over the next 80 minutes the band proved how
foolish the mainstream record-buying public have been in ignoring the
band.

Draping the microphone cord around his body before a single note has
even been played, frontman Tom Woodhead is clearly premeditating his
convulsions. Immediately, the charismatic frontman is twisting and
turning across the entire width of the stage, each flailing limb
seemingly in time with the flashing red and blue (and occasionally
white) lights overhead. The other three members also sway with verve
and confidence.

Katie Nicholls's drumming is fluid and inventive, but it is the
interplay between Whiskas's guitar and Rob Canning's bass, high in
the mix, that drives the songs forward. The only problem is that
Woodhead's vocals, while distinctive and earnest, are slightly
muffled. This means that the audience has to listen exceedingly
closely to decipher the excellent lyrics. The set is heavy on the new
material, reaching delightfully high levels of intensity whilst always
remaining controlled, but it is the older material that is the most
comfortably performed and elicits the biggest reaction from the crowd
. 'Don't Be A Doctor', the epic between-albums white-label single (and
later included on Dance To The Radio's "Out Of The Woods and Trees"
compilation) is played flawlessly, every subtly detailed element
delivered gloriously. Having noticed a group of particularly eager
fans near the stage moshing, albeit in a fairly regular fashion, to
single 'Twelve', Whiskas decided to precede latest single 'Breaking
Standing' with a speech to the group, warning the perpetrators to
consider the safety of those around them and keep tabs on their
jumping. This prompted sniggers from sections of the rest of the
crowd, and Whiskas was visibly annoyed when one punter crowd-surfed
onto the microphone stand, quickly pushing him out through the rear
stage entrance. Apart from that, !Forward, Russia's! crowd interaction
was as relaxed and enjoyable as one might expect from an
eagerly-awaited homecoming gig, and the band chose to dedicate a song
to their tour manager, Al, who was celebrating his birthday. The band
showed they were capable of playing the slower numbers equally as well
with their rendition of new-album-closer, 'Spanish Triangles', before
returning to an expectant crowd to play an encore of 'Fifteen Pt. II'.

The crowd went home with big grins on their faces - the band were as
great as ever. The only lingering sadness was that more of Leeds had
not witnessed this performance from one of their city's leading bands.

8/10

I gave a listen to both of their albums the other evening - prompted by thoughts of their under-rated greatness - I really like the second album, which I am more familiar with, as it was the first I bought.

I saw them in Manchester (with Grammatics) and I was a bit taken aback at the time by how different they were to my expectations, and by the devoted enthusiasm of the audience.

Now that I am more familiar with their stuff, I would like to see them again.

NB I think JF are brilliant live - I've seen them twice - it is possible to like both them and FR!

are great

one of my favourite bands
the first album has brilliant songs but doesn't have a great flow
the second album has a great flow and is just brilliant from start to finish

the only shame about f,r is that they're so damn quiet these days

more gigs please russians...

I got the first album for £1.99 the other day.

Had a listen and it didnt grab me at all.

Just seemed a bit dull samey, but maybe it needs afew more listens.

, although I have gone off them slightly after Katie Nichols told my off for crowd surfing at their gig.

GAY!