Devizes Youth Action Group’s First Club Night

by Florence Lee. Images by Gail Foster.

On Friday, I was lucky enough to have seen the four local bands at the youth gig set up by Devizes Youth Action Group to give under-18 bands the opportunity to perform and show off their talent at the Devizes Corn Exchange.….

Bella Donna were the first band on stage. The first song I saw them perform was Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Jovi and the audience loved it. They had a great set list which consisted of songs such as Drain You by Nirvana and We Will Rock You by Queen. It is safe to say that their stage presence and enthusiasm in these performances spread throughout the audience, who didn’t stop singing or dancing. The band consists of Emmie on drums, Roxie, bass, Bea, guitar with both Bea and Roxie singing. For a band so young, I was impressed by their ability to interact with the audience. I will be following their progress and I am looking forward to seeing how they develop.

The second band was called Shox. As soon as they started to get ready, the audience was shouting their name, eagerly anticipating their performance. My interest was piqued as soon as I saw they were using both a DJ set and live music to perform. They opened their set with using the DJ set and then went into a cover of the Arctic Monkeys ‘Fluorescent adolescent,’ which was an instant hit with the crowd. Throughout their set, the drum and bass held the groove nicely, which paired up with Zach on guitar, who played some creative and well-polished solos. He nailed the solo in ‘Can’t Stop’ by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, which blew me away as I am an avid fan. The lead singer, who was very solid as a rhythm guitarist, let the others be technical and explore their parts whilst holding a beat and singing, which exceeded all of my expectations.

They covered songs such as R U Mine?, in which the drums created the heartbeat of the band, and Buddy Holly by Weezer, to which everyone was dancing. The DJ set really just levitated their performance and meshed really well with the live playing, but gave it an electronic feel, which I haven’t heard or seen in any other gigs. On top of this electric feel, the drummer used electric drums, and this helped the pre-recorded tracks on the mixer fuse smoothly with the instruments. Also, a shoutout to the bassist, who despite standing at the back of the stage held the backbeat of every song humbly, but it didn’t go unnoticed. Altogether, these guys have some awesome ideas, which makes them stand out and make a unique sound that I would love to hear some original songs with. Well done.

Talking to some of the band players whilst Bella Donna and Shox took the stage, all of them downplayed and reacted humbly while I told them how excited I was to hear them play, saying things such as ‘Don’t be too excited’ and ‘We aren’t that good, don’t expect too much.’ However, to say that my expectations were not just met, but exceeded so much that I think I am Enguun’s and Steatopygous’ biggest fan.

When Enguun went onto the stage, I was simply blown away. They are insane. My ears were in euphoria as soon as Ewan Middleton and Joshua Allen started to bless the audience with their music. As a musician, their ability to capture audience attention and put everyone in a trance-like state of freaking out was out of this world. They used techniques such as detuning whilst playing and just purely encapturing everyone with their performance, breaking their promises of ‘not that good.’ Using, or should I say blessing, a Tama Kit (the best type IMO), Ewan played with his whole body, putting his all into creating a beat that the audience could move their bodies too. The mass of sweaty teenagers loved the way that both musicians let each other explore the feel of music that they wanted to create.

It wasn’t just good music either, it was a performance. As you can tell these boys could just play and transport those around them into a different world. I am not quite sure how to describe to you just how much talent these boys have. Even without a Bassist (although they are looking for one) they still managed to keep the groove and attention of everyone looking at them. I was sure that the two boys must have known each other for years, but I was wrong. In the same year at school, and aware of each others presence, they didn’t get along too well at first, as Ewan ‘used to sit next to (Joshua) in Year 8 and it annoyed the s*** out of him.’ That was until over time gained respect and one day Ewan asked Joshua if he could play bass, to which he lied and said yes, but with some luck, the guitarist left, leaving the two boys to play ever since. I hope that I have written this to show the admiration I have for these guys. I will be following them and going to see them again as they were just insane, and you should too.

Last, but definitely not least, the act of which I was the most excited for, Steatopygous took the stage. With their adoring fans, of which I am one, hyping them up around me, my anticipation for their act had only grown. The band consists of talented Poppy Hillier on guitar and singing, Ewan Middleton (again) on drums and enticing Eliza Brindle on bass. The first thing I noticed about this band was how friendly they are. I had contacted them before to ask about doing an interview and they instantly replied being extremely kind; this was reflected to the incredible audience of enthusiastic and happy people who welcomed everyone to dance with each other and enjoy the music. The previous bands, school mates and strangers came together to enjoy their music. The fact that they have only done four gigs was insane for the way that they have an ability to perform; the queue after the gig for buying posters and signing them really just reflects how much the audience loved them.

Now, I was lucky enough to be able to talk to them myself, so if you read on, meet Poppy, Eliza and Ewan: When did you become a band?

‘May last year maybe? First, it was me and Eliza. We had Steatopygous and it was just. I had been playing bass, for like three days!’

‘We started a band and I literally didn’t know how to play guitar. We were just like “let’s start a band”’

‘We went to this Young Women’s Music Project in Oxford and afterwards we were like, yeah we are gonna start a band. Ewan joined a bit later.’

What are your musical inspirations?

‘Definitely Bikini Kill’

‘Yeah. I think it would be a sin to answer this and not say Bikini kill. X-Ray Spex. Amyl and The Sniffers.’

‘Sonic Youth, as well.’

‘And Rat Mobile.’

When you were writing your single, how did you go about it?

‘We had never written a song before, so it was very much like let’s just try and do it.’

‘We had no idea what we were talking about, but we were very angry with some boys, so we thought we would channel it.’

Would you like to explain what the songs about?

‘I think our main inspiration is what it is like to be a women in music and how it feels to not be taken seriously in the industry. There was this one time we were in band practise, and this builder next door, whilst we were playing a Pixies song. He goes to Ewan, our male drummer, “Oh, you guys are really good, do you like the pixies?” and completely ignored us. He did not acknowledge us and talked to Ewan the whole time.’

‘I think from there, it just became about all the annoying experiences we have had with men.’

Why the fish?

‘Poppy is really into fish; she wants to be a Marine Biologist and I do a lot of art. I spray painted a fish once and then wrote Steatopygous over it, and it just stuck.’

Why Steatopygous?

‘Steatopygous means excess fattiness on the thighs and ass of a woman, but it sounds like a dinosaur, which is a plus. My Mum was telling me about the poems she studied in her GCSE and there was one called fat, women’s thoughts in a bath… or something. It was a poem about Steatopygous and I thought it was a sick word.’

How does your female punk ‘riot girl’ look fit into having a male band member?

‘I think that ‘riot girl’ definitely isn’t exclusive just to women. I think that one of the problems to ‘riot girl’ in the 90’s was that it was very exclusive, which let to some ethical issues with transphobia and racism within the riot girl movement, so I think it’s important for us to show that anyone can be a ‘riot girl’ and that comes across with having Ewan as our drummer.’

Any upcoming gigs?

‘No, don’t have anything in the calendar at the moment, but always looking guys!’

In conclusion, these are some people, who are truly talented and you they should be on your radar.

Editor’s Note: Trust me to have to add my tuppence into this great review, but I would just like to say a few things, if I may?! Thanks to everyone at Devizes Youth Action Group for hosting this event, it means so much to the youth that there is something for them to do, and let’s hope there’s more to come. Thanks to all the bands who played, I wish you the best of luck for the future and hope we get the opportunity to write about you all again. To all parents, we have as much as possible attempted to gain permission from you for featuring the bands, and while many responded, if there is an issue please do not hesitate to contact me.

I’ve linked in the band’s Instagram pages, please give them a follow and support them with their journeys; the future of Devizes live music scene depends on it!

But most of all, thanks to Flo for all her hard work. It’s one thing for me to report on youth events such as these, but it is far better that youth are the ones reporting on them. Thank you all!!