Review by Joanne Marsland
Photos by Ange Cobham
Well I’ve been looking forward to seeing YONAKA since last year when I was blown away by their performance supporting NOTHING BUT THIEVES .
Last night in Manchester they were supported by JULY JONES and KING NO ONE and both these acts were a genius choice.
JULY JONES, who had applied to be on Eurovision(representing Slovenia) didn’t quite make it with her song GIRLS CAN DO ANYTHING, describes her music as Gay Pop. Having missed 2 shows due to losing her voice she was back for the Manchester show and the crowd totally loved her. She sounded great and was very charismatic, plenty of high leg kicks, high notes and laughs. She threw her jacket into the crowd as she was too hot but she told them ‘I want it back later’. One of her tracks was written as a ‘f**k you’ to her ex but she pointed out that they were selling merch tonight for her. ‘Go buy some, come meet me, I’m gonna be famous next year’ she said. I certainly wouldn’t bet against it.
KING NO ONE are a 4 piece indie/rock band hailing from York and it took a couple of songs to decide what to make of them.
The music got louder and the guys were high energy, Zach has an excellent voice and as he stood on the barrier (very Tim Booth) he belted out a long high note which sent shivers down the spine. I would definitely see them again, they won me over.
The fans were soooo ready for YONAKA as the lights dropped and the band exploded onto the stage with full on maximum energy and noise, building up to Theresa making her entrance. I immediately knew this was going to be yet another special performance from this Brighton delight. With her neon yellow hair, long black boots and a spectacular black mini dress with silver fringe she already owned that stage even before she belted out ORDINARY, which was anything but ordinary, her voice was impeccable. The set was filled with absolute bangers from the start including a cover of LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD by PAT BENETAR.
George then sat on the edge with his guitar as Theresa sang a stripped down version of GUILTY which I’m sure gave everyone Goosebumps. They soon warmed back up again as they went straight into the more angsty tracks CLIQUE and FWTB and I’ve felt the floor bounce at the ritz before but this was something else, spectacular jump from George off the high speaker too.
SEIZE THE POWER ended the set with a boom but they were soon back for 2 more songs, the beautifully sung ANTHEM and then an anthem itself ROCKSTAR to end the show. It was over way too soon, I could have done with another hour or so, absolute belter of a night and one of the best new bands around!!!!
Other songs played were :-
GREEDY
PUNCH BAG
CALL ME A SAINT
DON’T WAIT TIL TOMORROW
RAISE YOUR GLASS
CREATURE
GET OUT
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