Sunday 29/05/05 The Golden Virgins @ The Cluny (Orange Evolution Festival) Newcastle

From raw sex and desire in ‘The Thought Of Her’, to laments about late night ex-girlfriend watching, ‘Light In Her Window’, the band know how to run through the emotional gamut.

 

As much as singer Lucas Renney might think that only ten people bought the ironically titled debut album ‘Songs Of Praise’, plenty of people in the hot and sweaty Cluny know the words to every song, eagerly anticipating their favourites. Posturing, adding his ex-schoolteacher bossiness by telling some of the audience to “Shut up” and thrusting his guitar to the strains of yet to be achieved climaxes, Renney is a surprisingly natural frontman.

 

The rest of the band is almost statuesque in their stage presence, but then if you, like bassist Allan Burnup, had the largest white kid afro in Sunderland you wouldn’t really need to jump around.

 

Finishing with ‘Renaissance Kid’, one of their more upbeat songs, the enthusiastic, almost spasming dancing bloke at the front sums up the Virgins. Get dumped, write searing beautiful songs about love lost, then get smashed on whisky and gin and dance like a twat to forget the pain.