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MOHAIR have had a heavy afternoon. They are
quite possibly suffering from a collective marker pen
fume-induced headache after plodding their way through
500 leaflets mistakenly printed with the offer of a
free t-shirt for anyone who signs up to the Mohair mailing
list. Apparently, the t-shirts never materialised, but
the leaflets did. So Berol pens in hand, Pete Baker
(drums and vocals), Alex Richards (piano, organ and
vocals), Tim Slade (bass and vocals) and Tom Billington
(guitar and vocals) have spent the five or so hours
pre-gig at Northampton’s Soundhaus ‘amending’ the flyers
and sampling the local cuisine – Safeway’s spring rolls.
Remarkably chipper for a man who’s still recovering
from the fallout of said bureaucratic cock-up, Tom reassures
me my hair has potential, as I am downcast it’s not
the biggest barnet in the room.
 Speaking
of hair, Mohair, he says, is more to do with the mohair-bikini-clad
woman on mohairfashion.com that any cheeky hip-hop
lingo play on words. “It’s just a name,” he proffers,
in explanation to my astonishingly reporter-like inquiries.
“An umbrella?” I suggest, randomly.
“Yeah, an umbrella. I’ll have to remember that” comes
the polite reply.
Mohair bikinis reluctantly aside, this was a gig which
exceeded my, to be fair quite moderate, expectations.
Northampton band Led By Lies opened with a clutch
of angular-punk-metal-shaped rock songs akin to LostProphets
or Hell Is For Heroes.
Having clearly realised the secret to a good shouty
shouty band is to have someone who can actually sing
doing the shouting, LBL need only time to build up their
incisive melodies and work on the message (“I’m going
to take you back top mine/Show you a good time” – hardly
the mettle to withstand competition from painfully relevant
politicised punk bands like Kinesis, Funeral
For A Friend or the Mars Volta) before they
can offer themselves as a fitting piece of the ever-changing
puzzle that is the British rock scene.
Mohair began sounding so Britpop in places I almost
heard shades of Kula Shaker, but I quickly abandoned
that image and gave in to the Hammond organ madness,
raucous guitar riffs and funky bass heavy interludes
that border on excessive, tempered with brilliant vocal
harmonies like those over-hyped but pleasant-sounding
US West Coast pretenders, The Thrills.
Then in self-conscious homage to the Darkness
(“Who in one short year got the whole of macho Britain
singing like girls” Tom stated admiringly) Tom raises
his flying-V guitar aloft and gives it his Justin-peaked
screeching all, before racing, nay, skipping through
the audience. Judging by this triumphant guitar-pop
laden performance there’s no need for merch gimmicks
to induce a dedicated following.
Mohair are well on their way to donning the impeccably
knit cardigan of success, and if I’m wrong, at least
they know how to get a cheap high on marker pens.
Tour dates...
November
03/11/2003: Dr. Drakes, Aberdeen
04/11/2003: Bar Boosa Paisley
06/11/2003: King Tuts, Glasgow
07/11/2003: Kaz Bar, Scarborough
08/11/2003: Crypt, Hastings
10/11/2003: Liverpool University, Liverpool
12/11/2003: Freebutt, Brighton
13/11/2003: University - Dylans Bar, Bournemouth
14/11/2003: White Horse, High Wycombe
15/11/2003: Railway Inn, Winchester
17/11/2003: Fibbers, York
18/11/2003: Soundhouse, Colchester
19/11/2003: Bullingdon Arms, Oxford
20/11/2003: Priors Inn, Bury St Edmunds
21/11/2003: Forum, Tunbridge Wells
22/11/2003: Cavern, Exeter
26/11/2003: Water Rats, London
27/11/2003: Boat Race, Cambridge
28/11/2003: Met Lounge, Peterborough
29/11/2003: Moles, Bath
Relevant Sites:
www.mohairmusic.com
www.soundhaus.com
Natasha House for Crud Magazine 2003©
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