The Vaselines at the Leadmill, Sheffield, January 26
The Vaselines split up in 1989- before the release of their debut album, receiving a huge accolade from Kurt Cobain and gaining a legion of twee fans across the universe.
Now, 22 years on Frances and Eugene have a lot of making up to do.
Tonight fans have travelled across the world to witness this reunion on the first date of the UK tour. As the couple trade filthy jokes conflicting their twee innocent melodies young girls are left dancing carefree in their masses.
2009 album Sex With An X brings light honest songwriting as childlike Frances brings her flatline vocals to Eugene gruff lo-fi mumblings. ‘Oliver Twisted’ and ‘Sex With An X’ are so twee they would leave Belle and Sebastian reeling with envy while ‘I Hated the 80s’ nods towards a time of break ups and bad fashion.
But you can’t escape The Vaselines past- linked together with filthy jokes and snide remarks. “Sorry about that I was thinking about having sex with you and it put me off,” Eugene half snarls, half smiles to his female counterpart before launching into another scuzzy lo-fi riff.
Then there’s ‘Molly’s Lips, ‘Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunbeam’ and ‘Son of a Gun’- mellow heartfelt snippets of joy which makes you realise why Nirvana were compelled to include the covers in their collection.
The Vaselines may not have missed each other for the last 20 years but with touching quiet classics they’ve just about healed our heartache.
