The Next Big Thing

Hello Saferide marked the release or the Regal single with two shows in London on Monday and Tuesday. Douglas Firs has filed the following report about Monday night. There are also great photos from the show here.

“Four band bills. Does anyone have the attention span for such a thing? Thinking that Maia Hirasawa was on first I got down there early but found out she wouldn’t be onstage until 9pm. The first lot were ok and harboured some agreeable enough Americana leanings. No idea what they were called though. Second up was Raymond and Maria, not a duo but a group. Also from Sweden even although they look (and sound) like they might come from Glasgow. Very well and good but the kids (me) are getting a jones for the two acts that I’m here to see.

Maia’s set was augmented by her being joined onstage by Jeanette Lindstrom on keyboards and exquisite harmonies. Ms Hirasawa commands a respect that means that people don’t talk when she’s playing. She should find a way of bottling that because it’s a real art. The new single “Gothenburg” was especially hymnal. By the time it got to “And I Found This Boy”, she owned the audience.

Annika Norlin had spent the day playing the role of a trappist monk. She didn’t talk for 10 hours in a bid to save her voice for the show. HS offer a much needed and heartfelt rush of adrenalin to the pop bloodstream. Now I understand what the guy who usually writes on this thing is on about. Even with the lurghi, this girl gives 150% in between swigs of straight olive oil. I mean Peter, Bjorn and the other fella make perfectly good music but this is on an entirely more elevated plateau. Two youngish guys were just to the side of me and they clapped and hollered their way along with the HS express. One was wearing a Blue Oyster Cult T-shirt and the other one a replica of the Pistols cowboys apparel. That made a statement of potential to me as it might to regular readers of this thing. When all is said and done and all the pigeonholes in the world have been nailed up there is only good and bad music. HS deal in the finest quality in times when reality isn’t even real anymore. From rambunctious to stately quiet, this band is capable of it all and they’ve barely started. To become obsessive about them will become compulsory.”

Some guys, like Robert Palmer once said, have all the luck. All of this took place on the day that marked the 31st anniversary of my scoring the first Ramones album at Harlequin in Dean Street. "Introducing Hello Saferide" is capable of inducing similar symptoms albeit in a different format. Annika Norlin's lyrics propelled by this band or just played gently in acoustic mode are equally potent. Hopefully they'll come back to Scotland soon.