Hot Flab’s first single ‘The City’ is a scorcher: punchy, fast; a rampant ride of punk burning with to-the-point socially aware lyrics.
It’s been just over a year since I caught Hot Flab’s third gig during my first visit to the Chelsea Inn; the band impressed as much for the performance that night as for the potential it promised and WOW are they delivering now!
Hot Flab Team Photo left to right: Meg; Jenn; Pippa; Lizz
Back in March 23, I saw a band very much in the gritty, raw vein of 70s/80s UK anarcho-punks Poison Girls. All the in-the-face components were there, but it was early days for the band and a comparison that I think best fits then and now would be:
We’ve got something to say vs. Here we are fucking saying it!
The addition of Meg on guitar since that March 23 gig has given the band a greater depth and dynamic that’s only been helped along in bounds by constant gigging; seeing Hot Flab support the legendary Peter and the Test Tube Babies at the also legendary Exeter Cavern earlier this year being an outstanding example.
Hot Flab gigs incoming (including album release party 12th July!!!):
‘The City’ nails the converse nature of Bristol with passion.
On one hand a beautiful place for its colourful houses and lack of tall buildings—though how long that will last thanks to insidious property developers ruining the very view they profit from is another matter—to not only suffering the usual inner city strife (currently compounded by over a decade of a completely incompetent and corrupt Tory government), but also having the aspect of a newer generation positively opposed to the City’s previous indifference to its ingrained and thus unavoidable ties to the slave industry; something highlighted in 2022 when a statue of Edward Colston was wrenched from its plinth and tossed into Bristol Harbour.
Just as Iron Maiden’s Killers instantly takes my thoughts to rain soaked pavements in East London, ‘The City’ firmly plants them in Bristol and makes me wish I was stood in the Chelsea, pint in hand. For any unlucky soul unable to make it to Bristol to experience its buzzing punk scene, listening to ‘The City’ is the best way of getting there without actually going.
Can’t wait to hear the album!
Hot Flab link tree
Thanks for reading 🙂
N. P. Ryan
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