The Higsons, July 1982
“Music with sharp edges”
Seeing as there’s just been some football on… what happens when football and music mix. Sometimes it’s good (Three Lions). Sometimes not.
THE HIGSONS
Liverpool Warehouse
Melody Maker, July 3, 1982
IT'S quite appropriate that the group playing here tonight should share a name with a well-known local brewery. Like the ale, the music has a different effect on different people, though in a less haphazard way.
The Higsons' music can be a benevolent alarm clock – a burst of energy to dispel Friday fatigue and waken the weekend or even to wake up a whole new year. Their last visit here was memorable, coming at a turning point, as we turned our backs on the disappointment that was 1981 and wondered if there was anything better on the way. It was a shout of optimism that offered itself as a new sound for 1982; something different, something particularly welcome – music with sharp edges.
If comparisons must be made, they're perhaps somewhere between Talking Heads and the Gang Of Four, if they'd all learnt to laugh a little sooner. Not that the Higsons are lightweight though, and despite the shirts they're not really wacky either. They're serious enough to be a very good band, and good enough to cope with some very serious problems.
Let's face it, you just can't get away from the World Cup, you can't keep football out of music these days – I blame it all on John Peel myself. The consequence is football manners invading the safe and tidy rock world.
And unfortunately it brings, too, a partisan mentality with illogical loyalties. "Another funk group from London": it's a good enough excuse, because here celebration goes hand in hand with abuse.
For the rest of the audience, aware at least of the conventions, it was rather alarming. For the group, it must have been worse. But they never stopped smiling, and only for a while did they stop playing.
They started on the defensive — they'd obviously been trained in dealing with hecklers – then moved into attack. By the time they played the quite appropriate "I Don't Want To Live With Monkeys" it was almost possible for the rest of the audience to start enjoying themselves, and by the time they got to "Conspiracy" it was impossible for them not to.
And as everybody knows who watched the match beforehand, dirty playing doesn't always pay. The Higsons have the stamina and skill; they won, of course.
Hear the Higsons
Back in the 21st century
Nothing to do with the Higsons… But you might like to know that photographer and former Dead or Alive manager Francesco Mellina is working on a new book of photos of Pete Burns. The crowdfunder for it ends next week, on 25th July. I’ve seen many of Francesco’s photos of Pete over the years and they are quite spectacular.
There’s also an exhibition of photos opening in September in Pete’s hometown of Port Sunlight.