WHITE LIES + COCO AND THE LOST – CHALK, BRIGHTON 13.11.25
London-based indie rockers White Lies dropped their 7th studio album on 7th November and made their 7th visit to Brighton in support of it! But would it be lucky number seven for the band?…..
Historically speaking, the band has been a true success story as Jack Lawrence-Brown and Charles Cave were at school together in Ealing back in 2002 when they hit on the idea of starting up a group and then two years later in 2004 Harry McVeigh came on board. When they started out they were operating under the banner of Fear Of Flying, and they began releasing their material, these being a couple of singles in 2006.
But before long the White Lies name was in the frame and they dropped their first single, (‘Unfinished Business’) under that moniker on 28th April 2008 and the ball started rolling from that point. Weeks later they secured a highly coveted slot on ‘Later… with Jools Holland’ in May when they played the tune as well as future follow up single ‘Death’ which came out in the September and reached No.52. Their next single, titled ‘To Lose My Life…’, dropped in January 2009 and made it to No.34. Their debut album of the same name was released on 19th January and smashed in at No.1 on the UK Charts, thus becoming the first debut album by a British band to do so in 2009.
Album two, ‘Ritual’, came out on 17th January 2011 and hit the No.3 spot, followed by ‘Big TV’ (No.4) in 2013, ‘Friends’ (No.11) in 2016, ‘Five’ (No.14) in 2019, ‘As I Try Not To Fall Apart’ (also No.14). Their album chart positions have been on a slight decline since their debut long-player back in 2009 and so White Lies are out and about gigging in order to continue to wave the flag. Thus we find ourselves at a rather busy Chalk venue in Pool Valley in Brighton for another excellent Resident Records outstore event. This venue was also their choice of their previous Brighton concert which took place on 18th March 2022 and I was in attendance back then and thankfully they also brought along the rather epic VLURE as supporting act (Review HERE).
White Lies certainly have a professional air about them as not only do they commence on their allotted 9:00pm timeslot, but they finish exactly on curfew at 10:00pm. In between this time the lads reward keen fans with a dozen cuts, with a half of these being found on the new ‘Night Light’ LP. Even their one minute intro is listed atop of their setlists. They begin in earnest with two tunes from the latest record, ‘All The Best’, which has a retro sound of a tune that could have come out 40 or 50 years ago; and the indie rockin ‘Juice’, which is the better of the two with its metronomic drumming.
The band on stage are a quartet comprising Harry McVeigh on lead vocals and guitars with tremolo; Charles Cave on bass guitars, acoustic guitar and backing vocals; Jack Lawrence-Brown on drums; as well as another guy who adds backing vocals and looks after two sets of keys, these being Arturia’s, one of which is a Keylab, I’m assuming this is still Tommy Bowen who played with them last time around.
Prior to performing tune three, Harry finally addresses the crowd with “Hello Brighton! How’s it going? Thanks for joining us in the release week of our new album”. ‘Death’ from 2009’s ‘To Lose My Life…’ album is the tune in question and it’s by far the best received tune, with many fans clapping along. Jack takes the lead on drums on ‘Farewell To The Fairground’ from the same album. The keys are then added and suddenly they remind me of The Teardrop Explodes. There’s a guitar break section and that has a whiff of The Cars ‘My Best Friends Girl’, which as far as I can recall was quite possibly the first 7” picture disc single.
It was now time for the only cut from 2016’s ‘Friends’ album, this being ‘Is My Love Enough’, which has a solo keys intro and then the remaining three come to the party, and collectively The Editors spring to mind. This, like many of White Lies tunes, have a full on multi-layered sound. It was time for two more cuts from the new LP, these being ‘Going Nowhere’ with its often repeated song title, and ‘Keep Up’ which bore some similarities to the “This is my four-leaf clover” section of Tears For Fears ‘Head Over Heals’ hit from 1985. The guys then elected to play a tune from 2019’s ‘Five’ album, this being ‘Tokyo’ which was very well received by the fans. Again I noted the similarities to The Teardrop Explodes. It’s blatantly obvious that the older tunes are receiving far warmer receptions than the newer material. This is probably because they are better known.
Selection nine was ‘There Goes Our Love Again’ and is the only tune performed from their 2013 ‘Big TV’ album. This bops along rather nicely and it’s evident that this is a true crowd pleaser and many fans are raising an arm into the air with I finger pointing skywards during the chorus: “I didn’t go far, I didn’t go far; I didn’t go far, and I came home”. This is followed by ‘I Just Wanna Win One Time’ from the new LP which benefits from some wha-wha guitar action. The penultimate selection is ‘Bigger Than Us’ from 2011’s ‘Ritual’ album, which commences with some throbbing keys action and initially sounding similar to Joy Division’s ‘Transmission’. There’s some more enthusiastic handclaps from the punters and it’s the best received tune thus far. I had a whiff of The Editors on this tune. After this Harry addresses the crowd for only the second time and informs us that they will be finishing on the second single from the new album, this being ‘In The Middle’, which has a strong feel of psychedelic Krautrock about it. For this Charles switches from his bass to acoustic guitar for part of the tune. They are clearly all accomplished musicians and I was thinking that it would have been nicer if more of their material actually sounded like this. But I guess as it’s a new tune, then there’s always the possibility for future releases in the similar vein.
And so to round off, unfortunately their new ‘Night Light’ album only jumped into the UK Albums chart at No.29, so it’s arguably not a case of lucky number seven in this instance, but it’s still a chart album!
White Lies:
Harry McVeigh – lead vocals, guitar
Charles Cave – bass guitar, backing vocals
Jack Lawrence-Brown – drums
Tommy Bowen – keyboards
White Lies setlist:
‘All The Best’ (from 2025 ‘Night Light’ album)
‘Juice’ (from 2025 ‘Night Light’ album)
‘Death’ (from 2009 ‘To Lose My Life…’ album)
‘Farewell To The Fairground’ (from 2009 ‘To Lose My Life…’ album)
‘Is My Love Enough’ (found on 2016 ‘Friends’ album)
‘Going Nowhere’ (from 2025 ‘Night Light’ album)
‘Keep Up’ (from 2025 ‘Night Light’ album)
‘Tokyo’ (found on 2019 ‘Five’ album)
‘There Goes Our Love Again’ (from 2013 ‘Big TV’ album)
‘I Just Wanna Win One Time’ (from 2025 ‘Night Light’ album)
‘Bigger Than Us’ (from 2011 ‘Ritual’ album)
‘In The Middle’ (from 2025 ‘Night Light’ album)
Support this evening came from Coco And The Lost who we have reviewed a number of times previously since March 2023, when Ella Flannery and a couple of chums on guitar and drums showed us what they’ve got. However, on my last encounter there was a different change of direction and Ella was flying solo at the inaugural ‘BHS Fest’ on 25th October at the WaterBear Venue, which had superbly been collated by the folk behind The Beach House Sessions. That afternoon, Ella totally stunned us trio of reviewers who were present with her new sound, and for yours truly this was the surprise choice of the whole festival. This certainly bucks the trend, as I tend to prefer it when solo acts expand to have more band members and a fuller depth of sound, but with Coco And The Lost the sound is still there, but only more electronic. The reason for this being her new purchase, an Orchid ORC-1 chord-generating digital synthesizer made by Telepathic Instruments, which looks like a tiny typewriter and this evening is triggered by a foot-pedal thus leaving Ella to concentrate on her signing duties and accompanying theatrical movements.
This evening’s set is a carbon copy of the ‘BHS Fest’ set with a total of nine songs being performed for us within a 29 minute window (8:00pm to 8:29pm). Ella bounces on to the stage and announces that her opening number is about Liza Minnelli and it’s called ‘Icon’. As before at ‘BHS Fest’ she is using her white microphone along with its accompanying white stand. After this we receive the uplifting bouncy ‘Sweet Lullabies’ Eurobeat track. ‘I Could Go On’ is selection three and we are told that this is “about losing your mind”. Musically this slow chugger reminds me of the excellent Battery Operated Orchestra, who are now based St. Leonard’s way. Track four is ‘The End’, which to me also sounds like Battery Operated Orchestra (BOO) and benefits from a deep bass synth intro and a 1980’s retro beat. We are informed that this is “about betrayal”.
It’s now time for current single ‘Um And Ah’ which has an intro akin to Salt-n-Pepa’s 1986 ‘Push It’ anthem, before morphing into a BOO vibe again. We learn that the next tune is “a new one about having a crash”, its title is ‘Drum Machine’ and it’s another bouncy tune, which has a robotic sounding voice stating “Welcome to the headache house”. Selection seven is ‘Modern Lover Girl’ is dedicated to “anyone who has ever felt objectified”. It’s a slowish number and gives off the vibe of Kinobe’s 2000 hit ‘Slip Into Something More Comfortable’. The penultimate choice we are informed was used on ‘Made In Chelsea’ TV programme. The song’s title is ‘One Last Thing’ and it’s another slab of bouncy electronic pop. Ella bids us farewell and signs off with ‘The End Pt:2’ which we are told is a tune about life. It has the line “This is the end” which really reminds me of Scottish band of the moment VLURE, who got a namecheck above. This is a solid track to end on and Ella was rewarded with a warm reception from the crowd.
Coco And The Lost:
Ella Flannery – vocals, synth
Coco And The Lost setlist:
‘Icon’ (unreleased)
‘Sweet Lullabies’ (unreleased)
‘I Could Go On’ (unreleased)
‘The End’ (unreleased)
‘Um And Ah’ (a 2025 single)
‘Drum Machine’ (unreleased)
‘Modern Lover Girl’ (unreleased)
‘One Last Thing’ (a 2023 single)
‘The End Pt:2’ (unreleased)
