Pink Military: 5 October 1980, Lyceum, London
Sounds 11 October 1980
When (Killing) Joke had done 'The Wait' as their encore, two thirds of the audience left, exited and went home! The promoter and a cluster of bouncers looked at the blocked exits in amazement, wondering if a fire or riot was breaking out. Like the people who left, I'm obviously totally mistaken over PM. I was told by several people how wonderful and entertaining they were - "a good, honest Liverpool band". But Jayne Casey's voice was even more excruciating than the feedback which plagued Wah!'s set. Her stage gyrations, the most obvious and contrived since Eurovision, and patter like "come on London, show me some affection" (!) illustrates the level of apathy PM really induced.
Yep Lizards, we had it all. Song titles like 'Plastic Hiroshima'. snazzy, jazzy rhythms, a bongo player, a touch of the avant-garde, pomp rock keyboards, and, oh Christ, she's sitting on the monitors 'being meaningful'! She dazzled us with a hand held spotlight as her mob lurched through semi funk routines more suited to the Northern Scampi In A Basket Circuit. This mish-mash of styles can't be attributed to experimentation, musical 'fusion' or even drug abuse. Simply, I don't think Pink Military have a clue where they're going.
Valac Van Der Veene
Thanks to Oliver for sourcing this review which was found at the
Killing Joke site 'The Last Laugh'