Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)

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The Long Blondes, Old Market, Brighton

By Simon Price
Published: 18 February 2007 


Like an eel slapped with a plank, The Long Blondes had me
stunned. Almost literally. My reactions to the Sheffield
quintet have been criminally delayed.

As long ago as 2003, mutual friends were raving about
them, so I investigated "Autonomy Boy", their
contribution to the Angular Recordings compilation,
agreed it was decent enough, but subsequent scowling
photo sessions gave the impression of disapproving fun-
haters (about which, I couldn't have been more wrong).
Even as recently as last August's Reading Festival,
admittedly at a moment when my platform shoes were
killing my feet, I had them marked down as a second-rate
British answer to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Then I heard their debut album, and realised that The
Long Blondes had become the band that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
never quite managed to. Someone to Drive You Home was
that peculiar paradox: an instant slow-burner. I knew
immediately that this was a record which would grow and
grow.

In the flesh, they're even more impressive. Hand on
hotpanted hip, neckerchief tight, it's easy to see why
Kate Jackson has become something of a fashion icon
without being a mere clothes horse - combining the voice
of Chrissie Hynde with the discreet sauciness (and indeed
the hairstyle) of Play School presenter Carol Chell.

Like The Smiths in the Eighties and Pulp in the Nineties,
at the moment of their emergence The Long Blondes are led
by a singer who is already of a certain age and already
has stories to tell and perspectives to share - as lines
such as "Out on the doorstep, lip burst and
bleeding/Well, that was a crash course for me" attest.
This immediately sets them apart from the monosyllabic
indie rock herd of Twangs and Kooks and Views.

How old is Kate Jackson? Well, she doesn't have bingo
wings or anything, but the internet says 30 going on 31.
Old enough, anyway, to be somewhat fixated
retrospectively with her teenage diaries, and to be able
to act the sassy older sister figure on the anthemic
"Once and Never Again" ("19? You're only 19 for God's
sake! You don't need a boyfriend!"), like Rizzo teaching
Sandra Dee how to smoke.

The Smiths/Pulp comparisons go beyond the frontperson.
The Long Blondes' producer is Pulp guitarist Steve
Mackey, and the aforementioned "Once and Never Again" is
hugely reminiscent of The Smiths' "This Charming Man".
Then there's the Jarvis Cockerish vocal of Dorian Cox on
the duet "You Could Have Both" (he: "It's like I've
painted myself into a social corner", she: "Well, that's
what happens when you listen to Saint Scott Walker on
headphones on the bus" - ouch).

That song is just one example of The Long Blondes'
penchant for breaking down the traditional lead-singer
monologue, and just one example of their cultural
referentialism. Names like Edie Sedgwick and Anna
Karenina are thrown about with abandon, and on "Fulwood
Babylon", Jackson sings "Girls fantasise on school trips
to galleries/Of men who don't meet their parents'
expectations/Who want to introduce them to illicit Russ
Meyer films/And dance 'til dawn to old Kinks records."

If my hunch is right, and The Long Blondes are en route
to becoming one of the most important British bands of
our time, it won't be long until they cease being the
namedroppers, and start being a cultural reference point
themselves.


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