Photo: Alex Hegazy
Tonight is the album launch for Robots In Disguise, but first up are Doncaster’s finest Neon Plastix. From the start singer Patrick is au fais with the crowd and constantly chatting away in a mixture of camp and northern speak, culminating in a disco rock soundalike Sean from Coronation Street. Occasionally he flings out “2 for 1” lollipops into the crowd from his bum bag. Having had several releases on Blow Up records it would be easy to expect this band to be a northern rock mod outifit. However the tunage they present puts them firmly in the electro rock mould with stacks of keyboards taking up the stage combined with a grunged up guitarist and androgynous styled drummer.
Next it’s Robots in Disguise. And they’ve surpassed their riot grrrl predecessors. This is a girl’s girl band that’s for sure, with the audience’s main constituent being excitable & dressed up females in their teens and twenties. The Robots are autonomous and they do as they please. And the crowd are pleased to see and hear them.
The band’s signature entrance tune, Kraftwerk’s ‘We Are The Robots’, blasts through the PA. Sue Denim and Dee Plume arrive onstage cheekbones blazing, wielding their guitars ready for action. Now with a drummer in ranks, it almost seems that they’ve gone all rock. But they go into first song ‘She’s A Colour Scientist’ and it’s clear the electro backing track is still there but they’ve become bigger, better and meaner. They stomp chaotically through their album ‘Get Rid’ with the addition of songs ‘Bedscenes’ and ‘Argument’. The audience go crazy singing along, waving their hands, moshing, crowd surfing and stage invading, especially on latest radio hit ‘Turn It Up.’
Throughout the show The Robots throw themselves around the stage, at the audience, swig vodka, steal a lacy glove, crowd surf, sing in people’s faces, cover cameras and knock over their stage equipment. Their encore is introduced by moustached and hatted Noel from The Mighty Boosch and there is time for the crowd to infest the stage for Hot Gossip, finishing with hardened love song Voodoo. By the end of which, Denim and Dee are crawling off the stage. The spirit of Rock and Roll lives. And the Robots await the next level.
