What have Radical Dance Faction, Culture Shock, Balaam & The Angel, PWEI, Sex Gang Children and Rubella Ballet got in common? They have all played The 100 Club in the space of a week or so. I wish I could have gone to all and can only praise this legendary venue for being the last bastion for great live music in the otherwise soulless centre of town. Tonight it is a 40th anniversary show celebrating the debut album ‘Song And Legend’ from Gothic, post-punk band Sex Gang Children and although I had seen them earlier this year (for the very first time) it was not one to be missed as this was a formative album that I know back to front and absolutely love.

First up tonight are Tiss Vampiric an unknown quantity to me and one I was happy to go in completely blind on and see what occurs. Well quite a lot actually as they take to the stage and unleash first number ‘Take It, Eat My Body.’

This London based Gothic cabaret act are a little on the deranged side mainly due to the theatricality of their lead singer. Gibbering lunacy and madness spills out his seemingly possessed pores. My first though was “for Christ’s sake nobody better throw him a chicken, he’s going to bite its head off,” as he channelled the spirit of Screaming Jay Hawkins.

Well they were certainly putting a spell on the assorted throng. The keyboard player hit some high notes and looked like he had just finished a shift at one of the local electrical wholesalers, the drummer hit her kit like it was a naughty schoolboy and guitarist and bassist dug in tight as they unleashed their intoxicating brand of voodoo blues.

New single ‘Love’s Suicide’ was a carnival caper complete with avant-manic punky energy and ‘The Ripper’ comes across like a long-lost Cramps number. By now there’s not a limb in the joint that’s not twitching.

With the vocalist acting like a complete header throughout and stripping down for final a bare-chested act of bravado this was a very welcome introduction. Hopefully it won’t be the last either as this was a highly-charged and very entertaining set.

Time for a splash of colour and it has been a while since I last saw Rubella Ballet but I have always loved the day-glo punks so was chuffed at their support slot tonight. Playing as a trio, Sid had meticulously recorded his drum parts prior to the show allowing him to concentrate on bass here tonight whilst they are played via the PA.

He and Zillah are joined by Daffodildos guitarist Aelf Ylime aka Emily Flea and they certainly paint a pretty picture to look at on the stage. It’s time to let hair down for those of us that still have any and jumping around is compulsory. It’s not all fun and games though as the ever politicised artists have serious messages within their songs and there are warnings of Poisoned Air and Political Bullshit that have been ignored since the group first emerged way back in the late 70’s.

Zillah and Emily work in perfect symmetry trading off vocals and we are rallied by their spirits. There is actually a real warmth flowing off the stage that leaves us glowing and songs such as ‘Arctic Flowers’ and the great observational ‘Money Talks,’ so apt in this ever gentrified zone, have us all singing along.

The tribal stomp of ‘Emotional Blackmail’, proves a fitting finale. Fun and more than a little splash of Anarchy, it’s great to land on planet punk again, its crazy orbit over far too quickly but leaving us giddy and spinning.

It’s back to the age of discovery, that time when you were at school tape trading and listening to night time radio 1 that the performance tonight by Sex Gang Children whips me back to. I’m sure I am not alone reminiscing this evening either. The band released debut EP Beasts in 1982 and Song and Legend in 1983 and having had them put on tape for me, albeit the expanded compilation version of the former, I can honestly say I had never heard anything quite so unique, disquieting, weird and at times utterly savage before. That remains today as I dig out my vinyl copies of the album and ‘Nightland’ a live performance of the band on their USA tour of 83.

The music was alien, even beyond the theatrics of other peers such as Bauhaus and Christian Death who were hurtling down similar trajectories of their own idiosyncratic making. It was the only way to hear these oddities in pre-internet days and the few musical magazines certainly were only using them for their own disparaging means and mentions were few and far between. Previous Sex Gang Children drummer Ray Mondo was a local figurehead from time in Harrow based band Ritual so I knew of him and his crack-shot work on these releases before he was deported back to Sierra Leone to become a thing of legend in his own right. The whole band were mysterious Batcave era figures who I was just too young to encounter on stage at that time.

Fast-forwarding to tonight, we gather with plenty of expectations and as the band take the stage, launch into ‘The Crack Up’ and start playing ‘Song And legend’ in order we are quickly thrust back in time. I used to envisage the group as a coven of ghouls but of course they are relatively normal looking here and “don’t be afraid this is a family show”. Guitarist Jerome Alexandre has that coiffured Gothic look and throws plenty of those strange guitar shapes out that have us twitching with nervous energy. On the other side, stage right, John Rigby weighs in the bass anchor and at the back time is kept methodically by drummer Rob Stroud. The sound of the songs is replicated perfectly and that’s before we get to the dissonant wail of Andi Sex Gang, beaming at the front and having what looks like the time of his life (to quote another song).

We knew what was coming and when, we sang along even if the lyrics still are as obscure and make little sense. The rattling ‘German Nun’ with its invitation to “kneel cherish and die” groovy bass runs and jagged tenacity is regaled with pinpoint precision. The audience join in calling for the martyrdom of ‘Sebastiene’ and the strange Dionysian delight of ‘Draconian Dream’ give us a moment to sway to its gentle caress. It’s the b) side that holds some of my personal favourites though and I need little invitation to ‘Shout And Scream’ whilst still mystified about who ‘Killer K’ and ‘The Cannibal Queen’ are exactly.

The drum runs and shrill yells of the former and the wild unhinged, warped charge of the latter filling head with all sorts of strange imagery. Music is so quick to throw the listener ‘Into The Abyss’ these days especially with what I listen to but here is the first plummet, guitars shivering and “the man with the gun” captivating us all the way down to the bottom before reverting to razorblades on the frenzied stabbing of ‘Kill Machine.’ The climatic title track was always eccentric even by this band’s standards and the accompanying rafter raising croons and dreamlike melody swoops and soars for a final legendary waltz.

Of course it’s not quite over and there is just about time for a few more songs from the group’s illustrious history. Among them we get the shrapnel shredding histrionics of ‘Bang’ and the Greek tragedy of ‘Medea’ but for me it is the blasphemies of ‘Dieche’ that casts us well and truly into the flames of hell and finalises the night with a coating of pure horror. As with the last performance the singer flies off the stage at end like a man possessed leaving the rest of us to shuffle out wondering if he had fled backstage to keep an appointment with the devil and bargain for the return of his very soul. One thing is for sure and I doubt many here tonight will forget this flamboyant show in quite a while, it’s been quite the spectacle on all fronts.

(Review and Photos Pete Woods)