Rachel Stamp

What happens if you hate the body fascism and uniformity of today's pop??…Maybe you're a bit different, a bit of a rebel, but what happens if you can't stomach the macho posturing and uniformity of today's_ rock?? …Isn't that what rebels are _supposed to listen to??… Music to get under your parents skin??….

...and I'm looking around me and seeing a whole bunch of colourful young people estranged by the corporate uniforms of most of the big rock and pop bands… here's one of the places they can come and be themselves.… come as you are, for all are welcome at a 'Stamp gig.

The curtain arises, revealing a gothic painted backdrop and set, with six masked Addams-Family-spooky figures, silent and static, almost statues carved out of the stage….then finally they disperse and the band come on, and it is like watching Marc Bolan in his swansong, all glamour, stage-filling charisma. They look amazing… feathered, leathered, painted idols before their audience….and so they start with the familiar tones of 'My Sweet Rose'….and rock, of course. shit- kicking songs, riffs, beats… flying out, thick and fast… particular moments for me were the sandman-esque monster riffing of* 'Dirty Bone'* and the new songs 'Crucified' and 'Loveless'. It's been about six months or more since I last saw them, and there are a plethora of new tunes, more musically dynamic than the stuff on their 'Songs For Strange Children' debut album. Loveless sounded almost like Danny Elfman's music to the Tim Burton films!

The set closed, breaths were held and maybe a few hearts skipped a beat when David sang 'Hey Hey Michael, You're Really Fantastic' perfectly…. and then gone. A great show, made all the more magic because they didn't have some enormous record company bankrolling them…. The unsigned Rachel Stamp created a show to entertain you with their bare hands and the bare hands of a few pals. In an age where rock seems to have become a cynical confidence trick to smoothly suck money out of disaffected teenagers, they are like gemstones in gravel.