RUTH AYLETT admires the blunt honesty with which a woman’s experience is recorded, but detects the unexamined privilege that underlies it
Latest editorial
Top of the Poppies
MIK SABIERS detects a serious message beneath the fun and frenzy of a classic 1980s Grebo scene band
poppies
IAN SINCLAIR draws attention to the powerful role that literature plays in foreseeing the way humanity will deal with climate crisis
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall
DENNIS BROE notes what happens to content when the streaming giants incorporate AI and deregulation into their economic models
New releases from The Tenementals, Nik Bartsch’s Ronin, and Kuunatic
SCOTT ALSWORTH hears the call to burn down and rebuild the video game industry from the bottom up
The Chinese language only introduced a feminine pronoun in the 1920s. Now, it might adopt a gender-inclusive one, suggests JANET DAVEY
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.
More from this author
MIK SABIERS leaves The Itch gig rejuvenated and energised
