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Brassy

@ Borderline, London, 8 September 1999
"I said B to the R to the A to the S to the S to the Y!" ...

I'm not into hip-hop and am not partisan to punk. Brassy combine the two with some gusto live, so much so that I found myself in London's Borderline to watch them for the second time. When I first had occassion to wonder who they were, at Camden's Barfly club, they blew away the band they were supposed to be supporting and a second viewing became imperitive. This show was to prove every bit as energetic and fun as the last.

The singles Good Times and I Can't Wait, while on general release, are not easy to track down but they are well worth the effort, and Secrets was simply electrifying live. Never before in the Borderline have I seen such moshing - I wondered what they'd be like at a festival, and how many injuries would be caused.

With excellent (if oddball) support from Max Tundra, Brassy had an audience from the moment they appeared and treated us to a set similar to the Camden Barfly gig, but it was great to realise that, despite never hearing the tracks since then, I already found that I knew them.

Their guitarist, Stefan, looks like a Cabbage Patch Kid suffering the after-effects of electrocution. The drummer/devices man, Jonny, combined electronica with traditional thrash drumming and was surely at least seven feet tall. Karen the bassist might have been a PR consultant in appearance but her talent somehow managed to exceed her looks while the lead singer, Muffin, with knee-high sports socks, a skimpy top, shorts and... CURLERS???! in her hair exuded charisma at every opportunity and sang (and rapped!) faultlessly throughout. I wondered if it were possible for four more diverse people to make up a band, but decided to go moshing instead.

This is a very slick band surely set for big things, despite having been around for years already. It has happened slowly for many other acts... A band that can turn even me towards hip-hop and away from orchestras, acoustic guitars and the like is surely worth a break! If they play near you, go see them. I said B to the R to the A to.....


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