The Dirty Strangers / The Brutalists / The Lost Search Party - The Dublin Castle, London (UK) - 11 October 2019

Not having heard of them before, it being apparently their first ever gig, I was pretty blown away by opener The Lost Search Party. They only had a set of six songs, but the heavy riffs and classy strong vocals caught my attention immediately. They deserve to be signed and although they are a bunch of ordinary looking guys they really can play the heavy Blues. I do hope they are picked up as an up and coming band for festivals like Ramblin' Man and am eager to see more of what they can do.

The Brutalists drew quite a crowd. Fronted, of course, by Nigel Mogg (ex Quireboys and nephew of Phil Mogg of UFO) and formed with Mick Cripps (formerly of LA Guns) they have forged their own style which I call "Rockin' Ska", and although it's guitar-based as Cripps says it's music you can dance to. They are not relying on past glories and there were no numbers from any of their former bands in the set.

It's a mixture of heavy Blues and "Landan Town bovva boy" vocals, and although Nigel was always a bassist hitherto and only did a bit of gang vocals in his past bands, he looks comfortable and cool on stage. There were plenty of tracks from the new album in the set as well as the first. By the end of the set the people were dancing Bad Manners-style, recalling for me the days of Madness and The Specials.

The Dirty Strangers had a guest guitarist tonight, Guy Griffin of the Quireboys (wearing his "who the fuck is Spike?" badge) and suffice to say it affected the sound quite a bit. Instead of the more punky seventies presentation I was used to and expecting, the result was much more sixties like The Faces and the Rolling Stones, like the earlier studio albums of the Strangers with a bit of Chuck Berry fifties Rock 'n' Roll thrown in. While I got the impression from the face of the bassist that not everything was going quite to plan, they didn't really help Griffin by giving him a set list they didn't follow. Without the facial expressions I am not sure I would have noticed, it was enjoyable and they had people jive dancing by the end.

Review and photos by Dawn Osborne