PANIC SHACK + DISGUSTING SISTERS – CHALK, BRIGHTON 10.10.25
Yes we are talking about Panic Shack yet again, as they clock up yet another Brighton concert performance! This time around the quintet have only gone and sold out the Chalk venue in Pool valley. Local promoters Lout, who have put on tonight’s gig, must be dead chuffed! Clearly the band were pleased to be back in our city as vocalist Sarah Harvey stated this evening….“Thanks very much Bright-un, we love it here!”.
As always Sarah is joined by Meg Fretwell (guitar and bv’s), Romi Lawrence (guitar and bv’s), Emily Smith (bass and bv’s) and Nick Doherty-Williams (drums). Nick played his first ever gig with Panic Shack at Rebellion festival in Blackpool on 4th August 2022, and I was there on the crowd barrier as they were one of my must-see highlights from that year. In all honesty, there were hardly any other fans watching the set, as word hadn’t really then gotten out about the band, but I knew that they were destined for bigger and better things, and here we are tonight at a full capacity Chalk venue. Gosh this makes me proud to have followed their continual rise!
For my debut Panic Shack encounter at Rebellion, they had only their 6-track ‘Baby Shack’ EP to their name, which had dropped in April 2022, but thankfully their solid collection of tunes finally surfaced this July with the arrival of their debut long-player, an 11-tune self-titled release, which pleasingly resulted in hitting the top spot (No.1) on the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart, as well as reaching No.32 on the UK Albums Chart. In support of the release, the band played an instore set at Resident in Brighton on 24th July – Review HERE.
Panic Shack formed in Cardiff back in 2018 and have had a succession of drummers including David Bassey and Ed Barker, but have now seemed to have stuck with a fixed lineup. Their Welsh accents are particularly strong and they are clearly proud of their national identity, although, thus far they have yet to record any tunes in their native tongue, unlike fellow countryfolk Adwaith, who specialise in Welsh language tunes. The Panic Shack material thus far isn’t as extensive as you might believe, it currently sits at a mere 18 tunes, and thankfully we are rewarded 16 of these tonight at Chalk. However, the two tunes they dropped are, for me, quite possibly their strongest earworms, these being their 2022 ‘Meal Deal’ single and the tune that first bright them to my attention ‘Mannequin Man’ from 2022 ‘Baby Shack’ EP, which when played live has an endearing set of moves by the quartet of ladies out front. And there lies the key to the band! All 4 women are always out front playing in a long line near the edge of the stage. As we view them, once again, left to right it’s Meg Fretwell, Sarah Harvey, Emily Smith and Romi Lawrence.
This evening is their eleventh Brighton gig, with their first being on 12th May 2022 at the Fiddler’s Elbow, so this confirms that they do love Brighton, and I for one, hope they return many times, as this evening’s performance is yet another successful set. In fact, I’d actually go as far as saying that this is the best I’ve seen thus far! The future’s certainly looking bright then! So let’s see what they got up to……………
The house soundsystem blasts out the band’s intro music which I think is ‘F*ck Off’ by Quba and moments later the band grace us with their presence at 8:50pm and we are in their company for the next 62 minutes until 9:52pm, which left 8 solid minutes in which to have played those two omitted tunes…sob sob…..moving on…..
The venue is rammed with punters of all ages, which is encouraging, as they have tapped into the younger late teens fans as well as the aging punks. The band open up with ‘Gok Wan’ from their 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album and it’s a superb slice of glam rock/punk rock on steroids with their trademark shouty vocal delivery…..cue loud roars from the crowd after it’s finished! Yep! They’ve arrived alright! Selection two is ‘Baby’ from 2022’s ‘Baby Shack’ EP with its often repeated message “I don’t wanna hold your baby” and rumbly bass and solid drumming throughout. After which we get the “Thanks very much Bright-un, we love it here!” from Sarah and then she goes on to say that they have mixed up the vocals on the next tune and advises us not to sing along. The tune in question is the bouncy ‘I Don’t Really Like It’ from their EP with its earworm “Hey, when you look at me like that; I don’t really like it” lyrics.
‘Smellarat’ from their album is up next with its repeated “Who invited you?” chorus which worked rather well. Then came ‘Girl Band Starter Pack’ from the album which was served with aplomb and was followed by ‘Jiu Jits You’ from their ‘Baby Shack’ EP, which has some seriously fast drumming akin to UK82 stalwarts GBH. It also comes with a brief break in the music, which is plenty of time for the crowd to scream and shout their appreciation. Although this is only day two of the tour, Panic Shack are well on form. We are then informed that they are going to play “a song about being best friends” this being ‘Thelma & Louise’ from the LP with its decent guitar riffage. We are then told that one of them ran a marathon and took magic mushrooms, but they did actually finish the race! This led nicely into ‘Personal Best’ from the album, with its Glitter Band guitar riffage and its earworm chorus of “Now I’m running, running, running, running, I’m running, running…”.
There’s a backing tape intro and a whack of the drums and the band go faster than anything before, with the arrival of ‘Do Something’ which is another cut from their long-player. Emily’s bass playing is particularly excellent here and during the tune vocalist Sarah stood and delivered the lyrics, whilst her trio of female companions laid on the floor and carried on playing whilst exercising with their legs in the air – impressive stuff! The drumming kicks off in a dance-style and then the chugging beats of ‘We Need To Talk About Dennis’ ring around the venue as Sarah delivers the words in a talky style. There’s more similar vocals on ‘Unhinged’ which are delivered like a travelogue of destination discussions with the brief addition of a Mexican horn sound coming from somewhere. As the following track was called ‘Lazy’, Sarah took the opportunity to lay on the floor and sing to us “Alarm goes off, I’ve pressed snooze ten times already; Five more minutes turn to thirty, so I get up and crawl to the kitchen..”. This is another tight tune and has the sound of keyboards coming from somewhere, I’m really not sure who triggered it.
I was a tad taken aback with the arrival of a slow heavy rockin’ number, this being their nod to Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, with their rendition of ‘War Pigs’, which I think didn’t really fit that well into their set. I would have much preferred to have heard ‘Mannequin Man’. ‘War Pigs’ segued straight into ‘Tit School’ and thus signifying a return to form and that trademark Panic Shack sound. This benefits with the repeated chorus of “First they laugh, and then they copy….”. ‘Who’s Got My Lighter?’ from 2022’s ‘Baby Shack’ EP is up next and the rumbly intro reminds me of ‘A Town Called Malice’ by The Jam. The drums then kick in and there’s bass riffage overload and in general a real blast of UK82 vibes. It comes with a false ending and is continued in a Ramones ‘We’re A Happy Family’ kinda way. It’s bloody marvelous and the premier tune from tonight’s set for yours truly!
Panic Shack’s penultimate selection is ‘Pockets’ which offers up more glam punk sounds and an earworm chant (checklist) of “Vape, phone, keys, lipgloss”. Prior to delivering this, the band say that “we only filled this room out so thank you very much”. Before they vacate the stage, there’s time for one more tune, and we are rewarded with ‘The Ick’ from ‘Baby Shack’ EP with its guitar and drums intro and heavy rock nods, and with a “Thank you guys…love you” they are gone. Panic Shack don’t go for fake encores and so at 9:52pm the energised crowd began to head out into the darkness. It truly has been a masterclass and it’s the best quality set that I’ve had the honour of witnessing thus far!
Check out the Panic Shack releases on their Bandcamp page HERE.
Panic Shack:
Sarah Harvey – lead vocals
Meg Fretwell – guitar and bv’s
Romi Lawrence – guitar and bv’s
Emily Smith – bass and bv’s
Nick Doherty-Williams – drums and presets
Panic Shack setlist:
‘Gok Wan’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘Baby’ (from 2022 ‘Baby Shack’ EP)
‘I Don’t Really Like It’ (from 2022 ‘Baby Shack’ EP)
‘Smellarat’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘Girl Band Starter Pack’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘Jiu Jits You’ (from 2022 ‘Baby Shack’ EP)
‘Thelma & Louise’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘Personal Best’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘Do Something’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘We Need To Talk About Dennis’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘Unhinged’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘Lazy’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘War Pigs’ (Black Sabbath cover from their 1970 ‘Paranoid’ album)
‘Tit School’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘Who’s Got My Lighter?’ (from 2022 ‘Baby Shack’ EP)
‘Pockets’ (from 2025 ‘Panic Shack’ album)
‘The Ick’ (from 2022 ‘Baby Shack’ EP)
Support this evening came from electronic pop-rock duo the Disgusting Sisters who according to their social media are “Two sisters. Being disgusting. Making music”. Now to be honest, I’m really annoyed with myself as this is the fifth time that this outfit have played live in Brighton, with their previous visits being for last year’s Mutations Festival on 9th November and then a trio of dates for The Great Escape on 15th & 16th May this year, and the fact that we covered many acts at both these events and yet I somehow missed them! I tell you what…there’s no way that I’m going to miss them next time around, based on the pure fun and quality of tonight’s set at Chalk.
The Disgusting Sisters are London based Julianna ‘Jules’ Hopkins and Paris based Josephine ‘Josie’ Hopkins, and this evening they are joined by Jude Porter on guitar, Joey Robbins on drums and James McManus on bass & production. We are in their company for an all-too-brief 26 minutes, from 7:50pm to 8:16pm, and it’s a foregone conclusion that by 8:16pm, the Disgusting Sisters have suddenly obtained hordes of brand new fans on the basis of the loud crowd reaction on completion of their set. In essence…they came, they saw, they conquered!.
Thus far the Hopkins sisters have dropped two singles: ‘Killing It’ in 2024 and this year’s ‘TGIF’, which will be getting a Hotchip Remix which drops on the 15th of October. Both of these songs are performed this evening for us as well as a handful of unreleased tracks. They have pooled together their love of pop culture and British bands like The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen, and Pulp, but also of French legends like L’Impératrice, The Do, Daft Punk, Justice, and Laurent Garnier.
Their set tonight begins with a bass intro and then they are away with dance routines aplenty and offering up a joint vocal delivery style on ‘Sorry Mister’ with its repeated title and thus ensuring it drives its way into your brain. I immediately get the bouncy vibe and fun that previous Panic Shack support act The Pill currently offer – this is a very positive thing! The girls with their wraparound shades are oozing jollity and the punters are already lapping it up. We get a “Thanks for coming out to check us out” and they set about performing their ‘Killing It’ single with its funky disco style beat with solid drums. It’s a chart friendly track and the girls pull a range of James Bond style moves. Track three is ‘Baby K’ and for me it’s their best tune thus far. It makes good use of the cymbals with a great drumbeat and guitar riffs, and reminds me of an amalgam of Toni Basil’s ‘Mickey’ mixed with virtually any Hinds tune that you care to choose. It’s an earworm track and very much has real chart potential.
There’s fast cymbal action and speedy drumbeat on ‘Weirdo Magnet’ which is another uplifting composition. After which there’s a tape intro, followed by a guitar riff and they are away sounding musically a tad like Blondie for their song ‘Clickbait Lullaby’. After this we are told that the next track is “a scary story about 9 to 5” and they offload their ‘TGIF’ single with its funky electronic beat. It’s where Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ meets the in-yer-face tunes by Lynks and Confidence Man. They then segued straight into ‘Calvin Klein’ with its outstanding boom boom beat. There’s more double cymbal action going on here, which worked really well and then both Jules and Josie came down into the crowd in order to whip up the atmosphere even more! We were invited to get down and then bounce back up again, which, from my experience, is always a winner. They have saved the best tune for the end. This was a hard-hitting set full of all killers and no fillers. This is an act that I must see again!
Disgusting Sisters:
Julianna ‘Jules’ Hopkins – vocals
Josephine ‘Josie’ Hopkins – vocals
Jude Porter – guitar
Joey Robbins – drums
James McManus – bass & production
Disgusting Sisters setlist:
‘Sorry Mister’ (unreleased)
‘Killing It’ (a 2024 single)
‘Baby K’ (unreleased)
‘Weirdo Magnet’ (unreleased)
‘Clickbait Lullaby’ (unreleased)
‘TGIF’ (a 2025 single)
‘Calvin Klein’ (unreleased)
