Peter Perrett, The Scala

May 30th 2019

Starting his set with Baby Don’t Talk gave notice that Peter and his band would be playing songs from throughout his career with the bulk of the set sourced from his two recent solo albums.  Peter’s sons Jamie (guitar) and Peter Junior (world’s largest Fender bass) were joined by Jake Woodward on drums, Jenny Maxwell on viola and Lauren Moon on keyboards and theatrical tambourine for a very Velvet Underground & Nico vibe. The Epic Story was an early highlight whilst War Plan Red bought the set to a snarling conclusion and 48 Crash proved to be a Perrett original rather than a Suzi Quatro cover.  Former Only Ones John Perry and Alan Mair were in the audience to witness versions of The Whole Of The Law, From Here To Eternity, The Beast and (of course) Another Girl, Another Planet. After all his travails it is remarkable that Peter is still functioning, let alone delivering gigs of this quality. Support was Strange Fruit – their accoustic version of Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood was well done  – and Cardiff’s Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, who wanted to be Suede but ended up Suedette.

 Standout collectables: Tour T shirts £15, tote bags £10

This review was written for Record Collector magazine