Words and Photos: Emma Bowdidge

It’s a cold and erie night in Camden Town so what better place to hold a William Control gig! The recent snowfall hasn’t stopped fans from coming out in force tonight to witness another energetic show by Mr Control. Having last graced the streets of London in 2010 when he played The Borderline he is back to terrorise Dingwalls tonight.

Surprise to many there turns out to be an extra support act tonight which is London based Fearless Vampire Killers who were confirmed just a week before the show. The five-piece rock a big sound and make full use of the stage!

Fearless Vampire Killers

Main support comes from Birmingham 3-piece Obscure Pleasures, who definitely fit the bill tonight. You can see why William Control has taken a shine to these guys as they have a very similar sound and image. The crowd take every lyric in that comes out of lead singer Joshua White’s mouth. He’s hypnotizing with his deep seductive voice. Josh is backed by his fellow musicians which consist of guitarist Ben Green and bassist Ryan Foster which brings the live atmosphere to life. ‘Hate’ stands out from the set which was described as ‘wanting to stab someone in the face and then bury the body smiling’, because of its dancy backing track. They finish up with their debut single ‘Private Peep Show’ which was released the end of January. Its definitely a crowd pleaser soon as you hear the unforgettable intro people are dancing to the beat. Some may be familiar with this song by now as it’s received rave reviews from certain press. It sets the mood for tonight’s headliner.

Obscure Pleasures

William Control enters the stage oblivious to the no smoking rules in London or perhaps it’s just his rock and roll demeanour. He storms straight into his new single ‘New World Order’ taken from his 2011 EP ‘Novus Ordo Seclorum’. The crowd feed off his energy, head-banging and singing back the words. Tonight’s music comes from just a laptop of backing tracks and Aiden’s very own Zombie Nick on bass. Still it’s tremendously loud, bassy and Wil uses the whole stage space to jump around and entertain. Things really get going with crowd pleaser ‘Beautiful Loser’ which was one of his first singles from ‘Hate Culture’, the first album Wil Francis put out as his alter ego William Control. More crowd favourites include ‘All Due Restraint’, ‘The Whipping Haus’, ‘My Lady Dominate’ and ‘Dorian Grey’. All such great dance tracks! William Control has come a long way from the first time he played London in 2008 with just the one album he mentions how this is his longest set to date with 2 albums and an EP under his belt now. He finishes up and bids farewell to the crowd. After just exiting the stage the crowd start chanting the words ‘Encore’.

William Control

William can’t pass up the opportunity so takes to the stage again with an acoustic guitar and strums himself into ‘London Town’. Nick re-joins him after and they finish off with 2 more songs ending on such a high with ‘I’m Only Human Sometimes’ which he ends the last section off by pushing his way off-stage into the sea of people dancing with him. The crowd certainly walk away pleased with tonights show sweaty with huge smiles on their faces.

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Words: Tom Willmott Photos: Emma Bowdidge

When you think about Manchester bands, the first ones that come to mind are Joy Division, The Smiths and Oasis. But what many people don’t know is that the city is also home to one of the best underground and criminally underrated rock acts of the past decade or so. Amplifier have been in existence for twelve years now, and despite the fact that they’ve made appearances at major festivals and received tons of critical praise for their latest record “The Octopus”, they’re still very much under the radar. This year saw the demise of their contemporaries and fellow Mancunians Oceansize, which sees them filling quite a big void there, aided no doubt by roping in Oceansize’s former guitarist Steve Durose for live duties.

First up we saw Northern Irish four piece Mojo Fury. Along with “The Octopus”, their debut “Visiting Hours Of A Travelling Circus” has been amongst the highlights of this year’s releases. As well as performing some tracks from that album e.g. “The Mann” and “We Should Just Run Away”, they also made room for some new material possibly for the next album. “El” and “Grounds” hinted at a more experimental pop direction, but also retained their signature sound which some might describe as very heavily influenced by Nine Inch Nails. The band expressed their gratitude to Amplifier for taking them on board, considering their difficulty in finding a band to support, given their eclectic sound!

Mojo Fury

 By the time Amplifier hit the stage, there was still only a somewhat sparse crowd, who although  very passionate in their welcome, could not fill the generous space of Islington Academy. However, that’s completely irrelevant to what happens on stage, where dressed in their familiar all-in-black with octopus logo, the band kicked off with “Forever and More”. Watching them live, it was great to hear grooves and melodies that haven’t been heard since the days of Soundgarden. With a typically Octopus-heavy setlist, they also made way for some of their older material, most notably “Motorhead” and “Strange Seas Of Thought”. Highlights came in the form of “Interglacial Spell” and the title track itself. For the majority of the set, the band maintained a silence in between songs, until the end when they explained  to their disappointed fans that they had hoped for a longer set, but due to club night arrangements, had been cut short. Initially ending with “UFOs”, the reaction was so strong, they had time to fit in one more for an encore, which came in the form of old favourite “Airborne”.

Amplifier

Generally, they are a rewarding live act, and should not be missed if they were to tour again. Possibly, the event would have worked better in a smaller venue such as the Relentless Garage or  The Underworld in Camden, but the main task was to deliver an eye catching performance, and that is definitely what they accomplished!

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