Live Review: Lips Can Kill (Healthy Junkies/Yur Mum/Pollypikpocketz/Tokyo Taboo)

Lips Can Kill – Healthy Junkies/Yur Mum/Pollypikpocketz/Tokyo Taboo

The Kingfisher, Corby  –   7/12/2019

It’s a dream tour for many and this last night sees the bands head down to Corby where they’re met but a great turnout and plenty of enthusiasm. First up tonight on a rotating line up are Tokyo Taboo who dazzle with their great tunes and Dolly as ever mesmerises with her singing and pole skills. There’s one sad moment when some cretin decides to have a grope during an audience walkround and he is soundly and quite rightly given a verbal kicking by Dolly supported by the rest of the crowd. There’s a wonderful moment near the close with everyone sat down for a slower tune and Dolly is joined by the rest of the tour sisterhood for a quite beautiful show of solidarity and unity. Tokyo Taboo nail it and then some. Let’s face it they always do.

Pollypikpocketz come in one mode and that’s fun. They bring with them a party till you drop vibe that’s infectious. Their music is, like so many, hard to pin point. It’s such an asset these days to cross over. Visually they do the same too. Rocker on guitar, a punk on bass, grunge behind the kit and a very small whirlwind creating the perfect storm at the mic. Frog loses his mic stand and glasses at one point but help is at hand. He never loses his rhythm though. We’re also treated to Myura knocking out the beats on a floor tom. It’d a case of where did the time go as 40 minutes fly by. The bands on this tour are all playing the same set length. A great idea that gives each act time to settle and showcase themselves.

You Mum are fresh from playing main support for New Model Army on a couple of dates. By all account they were very well received. The venue may be a little more compact tonight but the reception is just as enthusiastic. Recently downsizing to a two piece has in no way diminished You Mum’s ability to make a very loud but fantastic sound. The way they’re rearranged their songs if anything gives them even more clout.  It’s a bit like musically upgrading from a claw hammer to a sledge. Same tool, same effect, but you now get your brain smashed in much quicker. The clear bond between Anelise and Fabio seems almost psychic at times. Who needs a guitarist anyway, not Yur Mum for sure.

Famous on the punk scene for their new wave sound and absolute reliability the Healthy Junkies close the show with a typically solid set. Nina is of course bonkers, writhing around all over the place like a slightly out of control doll. The band don’t miss a beat. You can tell sometimes when musicians have been playing live shows for a few dates because they get to know their set and get into a groove. Healthy Junkies sound like this at every show, long run or not. There’s no sign of the dread fatigue here in Corby either. A few extra beers may have been consumed (casts eye at Dave on bass) but the musicianship is unaffected. We get what is in effect a greatest hits medley such is the standing of this group.  Every song is a winner and is lapped up by an audience that know they’ve seen one of the tours of the year and in the Healthy Junkies one of the best acts on the underground.

Lips Can Kill was always going to be something a bit special. It shows what you can do when bands go out as a unit really support each other and fans support the scene. The whole tour has been a huge success. The special tour shirts sold out so soon a second batch had to be printed. Some people even followed the tour around going to multiple shows. So often we hear that music is dying, that it’s only the old acts that people want to see.  Lips can kill (and plenty of other tours too) show that just isn’t true.  Now what we all want to know is can we have a Lips Can Kill 2 please?

Review and photos by Gary Trueman