So impressed are we by KATE NASH’s performance at Manchester’s Gorilla the night before that we hop in the car and mosey on over to Liverpool’s newly refurbished East Village Arts Club (formerly The Masque) which is being christened tonight by Nash. It’s not the most alluring venue, with its garish dark pink walls ‘staring down’ at you, and its split-level ground floor which may or may not work for live shows, depending on the size and temperament of the crowd.
Kate is already on the stage egging on THE TUTS as they close their set to a large round of applause and whoops. It’s refreshing to see a main act visibly bonding so well with their touring support band.
Compared to the previous night’s booming atmosphere, this show is definitely on the tamer side, but then there may be good reasons for that: it’s a Sunday night, the photo pit is keeping Nash mega-fans at a distance from the stage (and therefore their idol), and more problematically there’s a distinct gap between the crowd at the stage and those watching from the upper level at the back of the room, which is frankly killing the mood. Maybe they’ll come down and fill up the gap… maybe.
For Liverpool, Kate is tonight sporting a white black-polka-dot dress and has exchanged the tiara for black cat ears (“K” and “N”). From the get go, she summons those at the back of the room to “Come to me… come to me…” but with only a handful of people responding, she utters a playful “Motherfuckers!” and resigns herself to get on with the set.
The band pounds through the tracks, barely taking a breather – there’s a real urgency and much less chit-chat between songs than the day before. Kate’s frustration at being separated from her crowd by the pit is visible. No longer able to resist, she climbs down off the stage, clambers onto the metal barrier and reaches her hands out to the crowd. She’s loves direct contact with her fans, and watching the spectacle you just want to pick up and toss aside those barriers for her.
She speeds through her introduction to her new Record Store Day track “Free My Pussy” in honour of Pussy Riot to a relatively flat crowd reaction, and, well, we’re feeling a million miles away from that Manchester gig right now with some sections of the crowd struggling to lock into the new Nash sound. The atmosphere picks up of course with “Foundations,” after which the band splatters its punkish energy across the venue with massive crowd-pleaser “Girl Gang” and the stunning closer “Under-estimate the Girl.”
Kate slips off to change outfits, but when she comes back out for the encore, one lagered-up bloke yells out: “C’mon Kate! I need a fucking piss!” She responds in kind with an impromptu rendition of “Dickhead” – respect.
After the show, we catch up with Kate’s uber-cool backing band, aka bassist EMMA HUGHES, drummer FERN FORD and lead guitarist LINDA BURATTO. As Emma explains, all three studied at Guildford’s ACM (Academy of Contemporary Music) and were accepted into the Nash fold following rigorous interviewing. Inspired by her father’s passion for music, Emma found a bass guitar in the garage one day and started strumming out tracks by Lostprophets and The Cure (“The Love Cats”). She considers female bass players to be powerful role models – and she’s not wrong.
Growing up, Fern was listening to Poison, Westlife and Boyzone (“They blew my head… as a 7 year old.”). Tapping away as a little girl, her grandmother showed her how to keep a beat using her knitting needles simply by mimicking drummers playing on TV shows (“I ruined my nan’s best knitting needles…”). Getting her first drum-kit at 14, she lost interest for a while, later coming back to it “probably out of guilt!” Onstage, Fern adopts the grimacing facial expression of someone who could do some serious damage if you were to mess with her breakables, but backstage she radiates a very quirky sense of humour.
Linda Buratto hails all the way from Bologna, Italy. So bouncy is she that a passing fan enquires, “You’re so full of energy onstage – are you high on something?” to which we interject, “Nah, she’s Italian…” With a father who’s a big music fan, she grew up surrounded by music. Practising using a tennis racquet, she started the guitar at the age of 7. Asked what she thinks of female lead guitarists, she passionately stresses, “there’s evidence that there aren’t enough girls doing non-traditional roles in music which are still seen as a man’s job. But, it’s changing…” She offers some valuable advice: “It’s important to be confident in what you do. It’s not about being better than men, it’s about being good at what you do.” She’s also heading her own rock band ECHO BOOM GENERATION – check it out.