Here's a fine review from The Distractions' triumphant return to London in January 2018. It appeared in issue 447 of Record Collector magazine courtesy of Paul Welsby.
THE DISTRACTIONS
LONDON, CAMDEN, DUBLIN CASTLE
27TH JANUARY, 2018
View: standing, front.
After last year’s final album, 'Kindly Leave The Stage', The Distractions’ frontman Mike Finney made the left-field decision to put together a new version of the band to revisit their late-'70s post-punk oeuvre. Joined by ‘classic’ line-up drummer Alex Sidebottom, plus new guitarists Chris Dutton and Johnny Poole, and bassist Joe Brehoney, 2017 saw the band play several gigs around hometown Manchester.
Finney greeted London for the first time in 30-odd years with a self-deprecating “lock up your grandmas,” and it was classic punk-pop all the way. Despite critical plaudits for their new material, there was no room for it in the set, the gig leaning heavily on 1980’s 'Nobody’s Perfect'. Even sedate songs such as Leave You To Dream were given a rattling overhaul. The Distractions’ secret weapon was always Finney’s soulful voice, and the intervening years have rendered it even more potent, no more noticeable than on the sole ballad, the beautiful Looking For A Ghost. The set closed with the raucous Valerie and the Velvets’ Sweet Jane. Now that’s what I call punk.
Reviewed by Paul Welsby
