Nothing Seems as Sweet as the Start; NRWO as Devizes Arts Festival’s Finale

All Images: ©Gail Foster

If last Saturday’s Celtic punk band quipped if the Devizes Corn Exchange was a bingo hall, and Milton Jones jested “it’s great to be here, in the past,” it took a band with roots to the town to introduce Devizes Arts Festival to a next generation, and, predictably, Nothing Rhymes with Orange smashed it, with zest….

It’s been a fantastic year for Devizes Arts Festival, their 40th anniversary, though it continues to attract a majority of older residents. It’s understandable, with the Devizes age demographic and the cost of living crisis particularly affecting our youngest. Not for the want of trying, chief organiser Vince told me of a “Battle of the Bands” of yore, which has the blueprint of a young Kieran Moore’s past input, but the vicious circle comes down to economics; a certain style of event not selling has the potential to financially ruin the festival, and has to go. Wanton to attract a younger generation being the reason why the price to this particular event was reduced; it worked.

Highlighting the diversity of their program is something I’ve preached for the years we’ve extensively covered it, and upon receiving a whisper they’d booked Nothing Rhymes With Orange at the end of last year’s festivities, I kept schtum, but secretly I excitedly prayed this might be key to crashing the invisible boundaries of the festival’s age demographic. Not blowing my own trumpet, but I was right!

Prayers answered by Bristol’s Nothing Rhymes with Orange, as our oldest and youngest gathered; the latter only slightly outnumbering, but both tolerant and respectful of the other. The most age-diverse Arts Festival event I’ve witnessed was one of the happiest, and deffo, liveliest! And also, one element to the gig’s success.

The other, of course, was the band formed at Devizes School, quickly became the local Gen Z phenomenon I’d refer to as “Beatlemania in Devizes,” and departed to Bristol Uni. If that usually spells an end to school bands, Nothing Rhymes with Orange made the adjustment together, and I will continue to vow this tightness and comradeship is the secret to their success, as, through their dedicated motivation and raw talent, they went on to replicate the local phenomenon into a national one.

Last night, they returned to their roots, and though they collectively confessed it felt “strange” to be back, to me, many of their original homemade fanbase waited in anticipation for those early singles, which they can sing back to the band; that’s as vital to Gen Z as recording it all on TikTok!

It was an obligatory pressure for Elio, Fin, Sam and Lui, who wish to retire their earliest songs in favour of progressive newer ones, and they announced this would be the last time they would play them. Fittingly here in Devizes, but not without subtle apprehension from the band; understandable. I get this; if I had to replicate my teenage creative output in my twenties I’d have cringed.

Never say never, I expressed, for nostalgia builds through aging. While the early songs were welcomed by the younger crowds, what was most impressive for all in attendance, was surely the new ones.

If the indie punk pop genre has come of age, and thrashing out three-minute rages is cliché, Nothing Rhymes with Orange are at the pinnacle to a progressive evolution of the sound, with matured experimentation akin to prog rock. And therein lies their contemporary universal magic.

Through superior technical ability, mood-setting bridges and intros, and paced melodies, while still maintaining the professionalism, tightness and adroitness they showed from the start, their new songs have so much more body and strength. They are a pleasure to hear, and appeased the entire crowd rather than those here to sing back the early works.

The merger was a shrewd move, beginning with the classics and moving onto newer ones, with a finale of Manipulation, one of their earliest crowd-pleasers. They may not have played them for a while, and it’s not like riding a bike, but now they’ve ticked that box of reunification with their original fanbase off, and can put those old tunes to bed, it’s time to move on.

Last night proved Nothing Rhymes with Orange are at the top of their game, as they switched old with new seamlessly, and strived to become the universal name we locally knew they could from the very beginning.

Their synergy reverberated, as it ever did, but with a newfound level of proficiency and competence, leaving those who knew them before in awe. With one eye I scanned them as those kids singing to a handful of teenagers in West Lavington village hall, but with the other, as if we were watching The Pretenders or the Stranglers on stage. It was as plot twisting and refreshing as Luke Skywalker returning as a Jedi!

Supported by a brilliant Cheltenham five-piece called Underscore, all guitars, drums, overspilling and confident originals, made for an amazing gig, and a particularly different Devizes Arts Festival event.

Nothing Rhymes with Orange could’ve just come out and nonchalantly played Brotherhood of Man covers and I’d still have been happy to see them all again! But, they didn’t, I mean they wouldn’t, would they?! They knocked it out of the Corn Exchange.

A journalist once told me, you write on a subject, publish and move on. That’s why I’m not a journalist, as I hug the frontman’s mum and tell her I’m proud, and can’t imagine how she must feel. 

Nothing Rhymes With Orange was never just a subject for me, it was a model, of everything Devizine means to me personally, to summarise a journey of a local youth band, and now, through sheer dedication and motivation, to see them never taking a step backwards, only forwards, to a world stage, fills me with great respect for them, hope and delight.

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