THE WENDY JAMES BAND + SIMON PRICE (DJ SET) – PATTERNS, BRIGHTON 30.10.25
Wendy James (21:00 to 22:20)
Now I have to admit coming here tonight I am not familiar with the work of Wendy James the solo artist, if anything what sparked my attendance was me catching one of those 1980s ‘Top Of The Pops’ repeats on BBC4 recently and Transvision Vamp were playing. I was reminded of how much I enjoyed the song (yes, that one ‘Baby I Don’t Care’) and it got me Googling to see what lead singer Wendy James was up to nowadays, turned out not only has she been very active with 5 albums released since the millennium, the most recent of those being ‘The Shape Of History’ that was released just a year back in October 2024. The big surprise for me was; boom! She was playing at Patterns here in Brighton and it was the final night of a 19 date tour. So that was the deal sealed, I was booking myself in to catch the legend.
Checking back over the years, it’s not the first time Wendy has played Brighton, she was headlining here at Patterns in September 2021 (Review HERE) and supporting The Psychedelic Furs at Brighton Dome back in October 2019 (Review HERE), plus another date even further back as we would be told later on during the set. Coincidentally The Psychedelic Furs are playing live tonight in Bexhill-on-Sea and we are reviewing that concert as well – review to follow.
Wendy’s band this evening are Alex Ward on guitar and piano, Dave Parsons on bass guitar and James Sclavunos on drums. Many of you I am sure will know Dave Parsons was also in Transvision Vamp.
At 9:00pm on the dot, to the sound of ‘Go-Kart Mozart’ being played by DJ Simon Price – more from him shortly – the band made their way to the stage to a big cheer from the crowd. Wendy looking pleased and cried out “Oh my God, this is our 19th show, 19 in a row! This is our final show. Did you know years and years and years ago, me and Dave Parsons played this club in Transvision Vamp when it was known as The Escape Club, do you remember it? There is even a bootleg cassette of it floating around, so here we are 38 years later, let’s do this”. The band struck up and we were into a song originally by Holly and the Italians, one that was covered back in the day by Transvision Vamp, it was ‘Tell That Girl To Shut Up’, a great start to the set, the crowd clearly loving it.
Next we had a more recent song ‘Do You Dig It Do You Love It Is It Groovy’ from 2024’s ‘The Shape Of History’ album. I really liked this one, great drums and guitars and a different vocal style from Wendy, pretty rocky and moody.
After the excellent ‘Speedball’, Wendy began to introduce the next track “Wow, thank you, I wrote this next song about you” she stopped then continued “No, it’s a lie, I didn’t write it, Fred Sonic Smith from the MC5 wrote it, but we played it, but it is about you, it’s called ‘You’re So Great’”. The instrumental introduction followed and just as Wendy opened her mouth to sing, everything stopped. Disaster occurred as drummer James’s snare drum had given up and was torn right across. “Oh no, we are having a situation, the drum is broken”. Wendy did very well here, to tell us another story of how her and James met, how the mega band formed up and how the song for the album ‘Price Of The Ticket’ came about. During this James switched over the damaged drum and we were away once more. Another from the same album came next ‘Farewell To Love’, one that Wendy said she did write, it was a soft gentle, country-esq number, quite different indeed from the heavy drums and guitar we had received so far.
A clever segue, Wendy took us into the next song “Thank you, well….from farewell to love… to ‘I want your love’”. This was a 1988 Transvision Vamp song, with Wendy switching her vocal style again, to her more soaring style of the 80s, during this you really could have closed your eyes and been hearing a 22 year old Wendy, she has really looked after her voice and this song was sung to perfection. The crowd at the front were dancing about and singing along, one that really took you back. After which Wendy exclaimed “We have some lovely backing singers in tonight”.
We were back to the more brooding style with ‘Perilous Beauty’ from the 2020 album ‘Queen High Street’, “It’s all in the hips, the eyes and thighs” sang Wendy as that engine of Alex’s guitar and the throbbing bass line from Dave powered away. Those beats kept coming with ‘You’re A Dirtbomb, Lester’ as Wendy clapped her hands encouragingly to the crowd.
James’s powerful drumming was full on during that last number, so much so; would you believe it the replacement snare drum gave up the ghost too! “Is there a house snare drum, we do have a drum issue, it could be because we’ve done 19 days straight”. Wendy informed us all as she explained they were now gaffer taping the drum back together. Wendy did genuinely look rather concerned asking if anyone lived locally who might be able to run home and get one, then asking drummer James “We can’t do songs without one”, he calmly carried on gaffering, leaving Wendy to say “For f*cks sake, I’m going to have to tell another story” which caused a wave of laughter.
She opted to tell us about the next song ‘A Big Vicious Rumble’ from her tenth album and how they had hoped to play at Resident Music last year when promoting it, but couldn’t make it happen. Wendy told us a moving story about what prompted her to write the song, “Ultimately this song was about what you say as a grown up to a child in time of uncertainty”. It was a beautiful song with Alex switching to his electric piano, nice and slow, the slightest patter of drums, pretty much acoustically done.
Wendy joked “So that’s the sensitive side, now the other side!” And the guitars and drums were back for ‘You’re A Good Man, Sister’ taken from the 2007 album ‘Racine 2’, it had a real glam rock vibe running through it, I loved it.
‘You Tell Me’ and ‘I’m Freaking Out’ followed, with a slight intermission for the third drum replacement of the evening and a shout out to roadies Marky and Ollie who have been with the band throughout the tour and endured many nights in Travel Lodges, Wendy joking they “Have done more nights in Travel Lodges than dates on the tour”. With the snare drum repaired by Marky we got the big one everyone wanted to hear, the Transvision Vamp song ‘Baby I Don’t Care’, she ended the set by saying “From Brighton to Brighton, I thank you with all my love”.
The band left the stage, but a few minutes later, following cheers and shouts for more they were back to give us a three song encore including ‘The Impression Of Normalcy’ from the 2020 album ‘Queen High Street’ and two Transvision Vamp songs ‘If Looks Could Kill’ and ‘Bad Valentine’. She said they had been backstage discussing the drums, the drums literally gave out right at the end of the tour, the drums did…but not Jim the drummer.
Wendy encouraged us to go the heavily ladened merch stall, I don’t think I’ve seen a stall with so many things on offer before, she closed proceedings with “I will go to the merch stand afterwards and will sign anything you want, we have 3 boxes left, that is the end of this tour, there is really nothing like it, travelling the country, the world and finding an audience to listen, dance and enjoy the songs, it’s the best feeling in the world, thank you, however I remain faithfully a bad valentine”
Well, what a gig that was, totally took me by surprise considering I’m a Wendy James virgin, whilst I was familiar with the perhaps more chart like Transvision Vamp hits as young teenager, her solo stuff I think I prefer, a great mix of guitars, awesome drums and her voice, so so good. Wendy was wearing a Transvision Vamp t-shirt of her younger self during the gig, her hair tied above her head, blowing in the gusts from the fans, the spirit is fully alive and from what was said during the gig, hopefully another album is coming soon with Dave Parsons also on the personnel along with another tour. From Brighton to Brighton and please come back.
The Wendy James Band:
Wendy James – vocals
Alex Ward – guitar & piano
Dave Parsons – bass guitar
James Sclavunos – drums
The Wendy James Band setlist:
‘Tell That Girl To Shut Up’ (Holly and the Italians cover) (from 1988 Transvision Vamp ‘Pop Art’ album)
‘Do You Dig It Do You Love It Is It Groovy’ (from 2024 ‘The Shape Of History’ album)
‘Speedball’ (from 2011 ‘I Came Here To Blow Minds’ album)
‘You’re So Great’ (from 2016 ‘The Price Of The Ticket’ album)
‘Farewell To Love’ (from 2016 ‘The Price Of The Ticket’ album)
‘I Want Your Love’ (from 1988 Transvision Vamp ‘Pop Art’ album)
‘Perilous Beauty’ (from 2020 ‘Queen High Street’ album)
‘You’re A Dirtbomb, Lester’ (from 2016 ‘The Price Of The Ticket’ album)
‘A Big Vicious Rumble’ (from 2024 ‘The Shape Of History’ album)
‘You’re A Good Man, Sister’ (from 2007 ‘Racine 2’ album)
‘You Tell Me’ (from 2011 ‘I Came Here To Blow Minds’ album)
‘I’m Freaking Out’ (from 2007 ‘Racine 2’ album)
‘Baby I Don’t Care’ (from 1989 Transvision Vamp ‘Velveteen’ album)
(encore)
‘The Impression Of Normalcy’ (from 2020 ‘Queen High Street’ album)
‘If Looks Could Kill’ (from 1991 Transvision Vamp ‘Little Magnets Versus The Bubble Of Babble’ album)
‘Bad Valentine’ (from 1989 Transvision Vamp ‘Velveteen’ album)
Simon Price (DJ Set) (19:30 to 21:00)
Whilst we awaited Wendy James appearance on stage we were treated to a masterful hour and a half DJ set from Simon Price. Simon, who is originally from Wales, but is now Brighton based, and wears many proverbial hats upon his very unique hair style, one that I’d describe as devil horns like. Amongst those hats, he is an author, a music critic who wrote for Melody Maker during the 90s and The Independent from the millennium onwards, he is also a Podcaster and a Lecturer. However I am sure many will know him from his famous ‘Spellbound’ and ‘Stay Beautiful’ club nights.
He had promised in advance the set would lean heavily into 70s Glam and Punk, Trash and Rock’n’Roll bangers, and he did not let us down. It was a solid flow of musical liquid gold pouring into our ears. He did not confine himself to one era, there were a few ventures as far back as the 50s and a little bit of alt-rock from the 90s.
Some of the tracks that he played included; ‘Union City Blue’ by Blondie, ‘Celebrity Skin’ by Hole, ‘It’s So Easy’ by Guns N Roses, ‘Oh Bondage!, Up Yours’ by X-Ray Spex, ‘Boys Wanna Be Her’ by Peaches, ‘Fall-In’ by Adam Ant, ‘Love Your Money’ by Daisy Chainsaw, ‘Pretty Vacant’ by Sex Pistols, ‘Hell Raiser’ by The Sweet, ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us’ by Sparks, ‘Sex Dwarf’ by Soft Cell, ‘48 Crash’ by Suzi Quattro, ‘Top Of The Pops’ by The Rezillos, ‘Cherry Bomb’ by The Runaways, and ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ by The Stooges (see photos below for the full setlist).
Whilst I had taken up a viewing position by the sounddesk for the evening, I was ever tempted to slip on down to the dance floor for a boogie, but I was not going to lose my viewing spot, however I can confirm I clocked up many steps on my phone whilst dancing on the spot. I could see one group of music lovers stationed directly in front of Simon, dancing away and taking photos. Simon closed out the set with ‘Go-Kart Mozart’ by Wendy James as the band walked on to stage, very apt indeed, it was a perfectly curated set and really set the mood.
