Pop Will Eat Itself
The 100 Club, London

 
THE T-shirts selling on the merchandise stand say The Poppies Were Crap at the 100 Club; the reality was anything but. 

This is the first of a three-night London stint with the band playing hits back from their 1987 debut album as well as more recent releases. 

First formed in the early 1980s, PWEI — or The Poppies as they are otherwise known — burst out of the Grebo scene with buzzing guitars, short songs and lots of indie enthusiasm. There’s a lot of that enthusiasm still evident, both in band and audience alike. 

And almost 40 years on, despite some grey hairs, singer Graham Crabbe looks no different in his long shorts and DMs. He’s joined on vocal duties by Mary Mary from fellow Grebo stalwarts the Bykers, and the rest of the original band are back on stage — barring Clint Mansell who now writes film scores in Hollywood — and they’re having a ball. 

Opening with England’s Finest, they soon set out their stall. They’re here to not only to entertain, but to educate. The band are prowling the tiny stage, playing off each other and the already rapt audience. 

Stand out tracks include She’s So Surreal, a poppy, playful tale of psychedelic (induced) love, Grebo Guru – played for the first time since 1989 – and Hit The High Tech Groove, a sample heavy dance-driven shout-out that warps you back to the 1980s mainstream hits. 

But it’s the main set closer that brings the night in focus, and despite all the fun and frenzy, there’s a serious message. Written back in 1994, Ich Bin Ein Auslander was a response to the radical right, the demonisation of refugees and a call to arms; the message still resonates today. 

And then, after a fun-filled encore of Cicciolina – a paean to the Hungarian-born Italian singer and loose cannon, who ended up in parliament in the late 1980s representing the now defunct libertarian Partito Radicale — the night ends with Their Law, a challenge to authority and authoritarianism. It relates to the criminalisation of raves in the early 1990s, but can easily be applied to restrictions on the right to strike and demonstrate that the current shambles of a government is pursuing. 

It’s weird how things come around, but if you get the chance catch The Poppies the next time they’re in town, they definitely won’t be crap. 

Currently on tour. For more information see: popwilleatitself.net