The Gossip, Bonde Do Role - Astoria, London - Saturday 24th February 2007

This was a last-minute decision to go to a gig, for want of anything more interesting to do. The Gossip have released a few decent songs over the last year, and have an "interesting" image, so I thought I'd go along. Being an Astoria gig, and with gay clubs to accommodate afterwards, everything started and finished ridiculously early - doors opened at 5:30!!

So, by the time I got into the venue, the main support act was playing - a Brazilian "act" called Bonde Do Role. They were completely bizarre, and frankly not much good - they consisted of a DJ who played samples of various other songs on top of backing beats, and 2 vocalists who did rubbish shouty karaoke over the top. I would seriously fancy my chances of being able to do better myself, and that is not a good sign at all.

The Gossip came on stage with the singer wearing something that looked exactly like a shiny black bin liner. Given that she is somewhat on the fat side, this didn't seem like a very good idea - probably very sweaty. After the first song, she disposed of said bin-liner to loud cheers. The number of photographers in the pit at the front of the crowd was incredible - Beth Ditto being named the coolest person in music by the NME probably helped that. As the bin liner was disposed of, she was wearing a bright blue bodysuit, making her look rather like Bubbles De Vere from Little Britain. If you look like that, it takes some balls to get up on stage and do what she was, so 100% fair play to her.

Anyway, om to the set. I thought that Beth's voice was incredible, amazingly powerful all round. Having said that, most of the songs really weren't all that great - they were really lifted out of the ordinary by the great voice that was singing them. Very few songs stood out beyond having a really special vocal - meaning that any song with decent guitar or drums as well, was a real highlight. Most of all, that was true about Standing In The Way Of Control, which is a quite brilliant song.

I was glad I went to this show - not the kind of gig I'd usually go to, but a decent way to spend an evening nevertheless. Beth Ditto has a fantastic voice (as Noel Gallagher agrees!), but I can't agree either that The Gossip are a great band all round as a result, or that she is anything like the coolest person in music. Good singer, but she is singing too many unremarkable songs for them to be too much more than an average band with a great (and very unconventional) vocalist. More an interesting band than a particularly good band, for me at least.