Yee Loi are a band to get excited about. From the first thrash of drums, their set was a non-stop supply of teenage rockstar brilliance, with all the right snags at the edges. Rose, Matilda and Don Don are all siblings who started a band after diving into their Dad’s record collection where there’s no doubt that Transvision Vamp would be in those crates, ready to be discovered.
Standout track Social Suicide combined 90s grunge sounds with contemporary themes of online life and public scrutiny, moving punk back into the modern day, while their ode to Johnny Ramone, Be Like Johnny, got the crowd nodding along with their energetic, shouted harmonies. It’s refreshing to see young musicians so infatuated by rockabilly, punk and properly good guitar music like Yee Loi, who really sound like students of the scene, with clear influences from Stray Cats and The Ramones. And they looked the part two; Rose was skipping and spinning about the stage, Don Don on the bass was whipping his hair in time, and Matilda looked effortlessly cool leading on the vocals while never missing a beat on the drums. They were so much fun to watch on stage, to the point where it almost felt like being transported into a coming-of-age film where you’re watching your older brother’s band rocking out in the garage. They just ooze cool, with a perfect marriage between the age of the internet and all the punk rock pioneers that their parents loved.
They’ve got a debut album coming out in January with an incredibly snappy title; Flicks, Licks and Party Tricks. Hopefully, this is the start of a very big year for the band, who are almost certain to garner some interest from all those gagging for a bit more old school punk rock energy back in their lives. 9/10
There were huge cheers as Transvision Vamp made their way to the stage, accompanied by robotic voices signalling the beginning of Trash City. The cheering grew into rapturous applause as front woman Wendy James walked onto the stage, wearing a white t-shirt plastered with ‘Born to be Sold’ in ransom note lettering, matching quite a few of the punters in the crowd.
It turns out that the University of Leicester is an important place in the history of Transvision Vamp – their very first gig took place on the very same campus that the 02 Academy Leicester sits on. While it wasn’t the 02 Academy then (and won’t be for much longer with the announcement of its upcoming closure), it’s nice to know that the city, which is often forgotten thanks to its big musical sisters Nottingham and Birmingham, holds a special place in the band’s heart.
The room sang along throughout the night, as they moved through a repertoire that served as such a welcomed reminder of just how many incredibly iconic songs the band’s responsible for. I Want Your Love, The Only One and Landslide of Love all inspired a great deal of singing along, while fans grooved along to tracks like Sister Moon. There was bouncing, shared smiles and a really warm, joyous feeling within the room.
Of the original Transvision Vamp line-up, only two members remain – iconic front woman Wendy James and bass player Dave Parsons. Despite this though, there’s a palpable chemistry between the current line-up, with James making jokes about who’s the naughty ones on the tour bus, and who’s keeping the ship steady. The line-up felt slick and very much in step with each other, allowing the star power of James to remain front and centre.
One of the biggest moments of the night was for the song You’re a Dirtbomb Lester, and not just because of where the gig was being held. James made sure to reassure the crowd that the song was not, in fact, about the great city of Leicester’s inhabitants, but instead directed towards a rock critic Lester Bangs. The soft-loud-soft oscillations between verses was tantalisingly excited, accompanied by an immense amount of strobe lighting to really overstimulate in those huge moments. It was a bit of an assault on the eyes at times, but it absolutely created that huge built up atmosphere the song calls for. It was nice to hear some of Wendy’s own songs like this one mixed in with the wider Transvision Vamp set list, and may have been a bit of an unexpected one for some fans there.
Unfortunately, James found herself fighting against a cough towards the end of the set, but she refused to let it compromise the experience for the fans. So much so, that she restarted one of the songs just to make sure that the audience didn’t ‘miss out on a single word.’ There was a real commitment to put on a good show, which you honestly don’t always get from legacy bands like this one. It’s easy to sell the tickets on nostalgia, take the money and run, but James and co. proved that that electrifying punk rock spirit hasn’t died out and is still in its element on stage.
But it’s not just that raw, fighting energy that’s captivating – the harmonies shared between James and keyboardist Matt Millership on Bad Valentine during the encore were really pretty, allowing for a really nice, swaying breather between all the toe-tapping and fist-pumping of the rest of the catalogue. There was plenty of light and shade, showing the whole range of what Transvision Vamp was all about.
The night came to a close with nine minute epic, Velveteen, a song that charges, and builds and then unleashes right at the end, leaving the whole audience on an absolute high. It’s not difficult to see why this was such an formative album for so many music fans, and hopefully that continues into the future as new bands form, and develop through their parents record collections, much like Yee Loi. A triumphant night for a truly fantastic band. 8/10
Written By: Izzy Morris
