Sort of AU. Done as an Interview/ right –up, music mag style...Does it work for you? Listening to some music and it just fitted. Thought I'd just go with it.
Depending on your point of view, it's either a hoary old cliché, or a rock band truism, that when grizzled old roadies and techies stop and listen to you during a sound check, then you've properly arrived as a band. So it is as I wander in to hear Kink rehearsing, or rather 3 members of Kink sound checking. JJ and Naomi are doing their version of White Stripes "I just don't know what to do with myself", and every-one has stopped what they're doing to watch and listen. Naomi's guitar is as always, grinding; pitched at just the right level of relaxed venom, she's standing at the edge of the large stage, head down, blonde curtain of hair concealing her face, carefully concentrating on the music, converse shod foot tapping along in time. JJ's drumming is of course on the nail, but it's his voice, not normally a part of the band's vast musical weaponry that's drawing out the on lookers, it's in parts desperate and sweet and edgy, something we don't normally hear, but like most things with Kink, I've learned to expect the unexpected. Of course watching Eff Stonem the bands lead vocalist writhing away at the front of the stage a la pole dancing Kate Moss, is also having an effect, although Eff probably hasn't noticed, her eyes are closed, she's gyrating in a way that suggests if she were any more snake hipped and low slung, she's disembowel herself with her own pelvis. Two of the Rap/hip hop quartet, a local Bristol group that are joining them on this, their homecoming set of gigs, are watching mesmerised from the edge of the stage, I wander over, and they nod in the bands direction, "They do it as a warm-up, we told them it needs to be in the set, they won't have it...Look at the girl go, it's like she's having sex..." Their gaze is drawn back, one the MCs; Auto-rewind, fans himself, shakes his head, smiles, walks away, "Seen them do this 3-4 times now, still gives me a hard on". The song is building to its climax (a choice of words used advisedly) Naomi is mouthing along with JJ's singing, she smiles as the song finishes, A thumbs up from the sound engineer confirms what all of us have just thought. Kink are back and still as visceral as they've always been.
The set that previewed in London a few weeks ago, and opening properly in Bristol tonight is large even by Kink's normally overrun standards. In all, strings, extra singers, the Rappers, are numbering in the 20's, but it never feels anything than tight. "I'm certain we're actually losing money on this" says Naomi laughing, "The strings are hugely pricey". The music still divided between the "live section" Naomi's lead guitar, and Emily's relentless bass driving the whole along, and the "electronic section" provided by Thomas' decks, and Eff's heavily distorted singing, and vocalisations. And behind it all JJs drumming "The drums in Kink propel everything" Thomas tells me later, "JJ sounds like a big bomb going off, but it's so controlled, JJ understand dynamics really well, so while it's hard". JJ will often hit 2 tom toms, or cymbals at once, "he understands dynamics in a way that other drummers don't, so it's always on the money. I think in part his autism fuels that" The strings are only used for a couple of songs, coming in at the end of "Lakeside" the closest Kink get to tender, an ode to dysfunctional love, and the closer of the set the now familiar "Song of the shed" "It's a fan favourite" Eff explains to me, as I question the band later on the song line up, most of the set taken up with tracks from the first and second Albums only "N.V.R.D.C" the next single and "Closer Still" featuring from the latest EP. "They've stuck with us, I'm sure there'd be a riot if we didn't do it" Kink's sound variously described as a "musical love letter from your sisters nasty best friend" and the "What happens when Grandmaster Flash is anally raped by Queens of the Stone Age, but with the subtlety ground off..." Is still present, and dictated by Naomi's and Eff's song writing. It shouldn't work, the shock and awe shrieking from Eff sounds at first unfocused, but as the band get into their stride- it's just fearsome. Despite Effs often be-hooded head not moving from gazing at the floor 6 inches from her feet at times, she's well and truly inherited the mantle of proper band front woman, cruel and sexy, a proper rock villainess, it's clear that these songs are hands in the air anthems. The set is black and sticky, there's almost no in between song banter now, JJs go-go drumming rules everything, like the one ring, and the other band members seem happy to let the songs do their talking for them, it's cast iron solid, brave and exhilarating, but careful what you wish for, this is a band that has and will scare the be-Jesus out of you, but in a good way...
The members of Kink are settled variously around the smaller than usual dressing room. It's taken a while to get them all in one place now that they're a small touring family, Thomas' young children herded this way and that, various members of the band either helping or frustrating his attempts to get them into the hands of their mother, sometime art collaborator for the band; Pandora, she smiles victorious as the last of the kids are rounded up, exchanges a quick word with Eff and disappears. As Naomi wanders in, the last member to arrive, she settles in between JJ and Emily, dressed all in black, her tee shirt momentarily slips from her shoulder revealing a shocking pink bra-strap, prompting... First things first, "that" set at Glastonbury, and the stripping...Planned anti record company protest, or cunning marketing gimmick to ensure lines of tabloid frenzy? Emily rolls her eyes, "It was always planned as a protest, we just didn't know whether we were actually going to do it, we were looking around at each other for the first couple of songs, but then Eff took off her shirt, so we all had to really." Naomi takes up the narrative "It was a protest about how certain record companies look at women in bands and the marketing angles they want you to use" She adopts marketing speak..."More boobs girls. Skin sells..." she pauses, smiles, "so we thought we'd give them, y'know looooads of flesh..." Were there any plans to get totally naked? "Err, no" laughs JJ "my mum would've killed me..." "It was a finger in the air to the record company that shall never be named, but rhymes with Tony" Naomi laughs again "they got the message" New record label, new EP, relationships all happy as 4 out of the 5 members are now married off. How's married life treating the Tabloid's First ladies of Lesbian Rock? "Fine" sing-songs Naomi, and the other Mrs Campbell? How did you decide on the surname? "We tossed a coin" Emily deadpans, "it's cool being married, nice actually, nothing's changed really, been together so long now" Thomas joins in warming to the theme, "At least my Mum's happy now" he smiles, "it's cool" "It's rubbish" moans Eff, no one to go on the pull with now, all dull marrieds, all they want to do is pick out patterns..." not very rock and roll.
It wasn't always like this, the band, when they hit the headlines 5 years ago with the release of the album "Songs of the Shed" were as famous for the after gig as for the music it's self. This journalist has eaten out on a number of occasions on the story of the first European tour, and in particular a night in Amsterdam. Their journey of drug fuelled passion and grief over the loss of a friend, and the shared chasing of ghosts that found Eff and Naomi exploring dormant song writing and playing abilities, is long documented, and the second album, "Strange Dreams Stranger Realities" which made for uncomfortable listening in places ("Sophia" has never been on a live set, amidst rumours of other band members refusing to play it) merely cementing those reputations. After a musical hiatus and a year of taking stock, amidst a mini fall out, solo efforts, and a change of record company, the band seems ready to take to the road again, and now with new visuals and distortion powered by Thomas. "The set is taking a more rapping slant" JJ tells me, and Emily is happy to provide a dubbier bass sound that chugs along, it's tight, crunching, all smiles at the end of rehearsal. "That's fucking amazing" shouts Eff "You can do so much if you have an idea, and work within it" With a new album on the way, including some of the songs recently released on an EP, Kink seem ready to move on, happier, less Lonely, finally admitting perhaps that they do need each other, want to be with each other, one last question before they're moved by PR to hotel interviews, the initials on the new single N.V.R.D. they stand for anything in particular? "Oh" says Emily, "Our old name for the band: Nail Varnish Removers Drinking Club" before we settled on Kink, y'know, as in; Not Straight.