Music > Live Reviews

The Snuts – Heidi Curtis

The Nick Rayns LCR, UEA

20/10/22

The Snuts arrive in Norwich for the second time in just five months following on from their very impressive and equally successful set at the Neck of the Woods festival in Earlham Park at the end of May where they, judging by the enthusiastic crowd that is here tonight clearly made a real positive impression on those of us fortunate to be in the audience on that very sunny and heady Sunday afternoon.

They are on tour during October and early November to promote the new album, Burn The Empire.
They have real attitude and swagger to boot, but the high school friends are decent guys (more on that in a little while) and they burst onto the Common room stage with aplomb, starting this evening’s set with the excellent new song Pigeons in New York.  

 
The new material with songs such as the opener and title track Burn The Empire, Knuckles, The Rodeo, Zuckepunch, 13, Hallelujah Moment and Blah Blah Blah come over extremely well alongside the older songs that are taken from their debut album W.L and still sounding very fresh. All Your Friends, Don’t Forget It (Punk) and Maybe California all get an airing, plus the official debut single Seasons. It’s a really cracking set list from start to finish.

Lead singer Jack Cochrane is looking as cool as ever in his sunglasses, he reminds me in looks of a cross between a very young John Lennon and Bob Dylan. But he is for sure his own man, in his broad Glaswegian accent he is difficult to understand at times, something that he acknowledges during the evening, but he is very humble and what a charmer he is as he regularly thanks the punters multiple times, very gratefully for buying a ticket and for coming out on a Monday night, he also ask them there youths that are having a great time in the middle of the floor to be careful in the mosh pit.

I just love the way that they use their sampling on some of the tracks, that are taken from old news articles and TV clips, it works very well indeed and adds a uniqueness to their music but comes with echoes and a nod too fellow Glaswegians Primal Scream. Their strong mainly rock infused material has real angst at times and a great indie / dance vibe to it on songs such as Always, they really do have great rhythm and have already produced some classic material with songs such as Glasgow, Somebody Loves You which is almost bordering on being a gospel song taken straight from the streets of Glasgow, it’s an awesome four minutes, it’s so very uplifting.

As the evening comes to the final song of the main set, End of the Road, they are joined by the lovely daughter of Newcastle, Heidi Curtis who had earlier provided us with a very impressive support slot. She just like us is having a great time swirling around in her white cotton skirt as she adds her own unique vocals to the track that has Rachel Chinouriri performing on the album version, she adds further joy to the evening and really brings the song and moment to life, its like watching a young Kirsty MacColl perform Welcome To The Cheap Seats with The Wonder Stuff back in the day.

They round the evening off with the very powerful, dynamic and dramatic Burn The Empire, you almost feel like there could be a riot of huge proportion kicking off while its playing (thankfully it’s a very good-natured crowd tonight) and then the Fat Boy Slim tribute (a nod to his famous Brighton beach set), he’s an artist that has clearly been a big influence on their career and played live it starts with a sample of Right Here, Right Now.
Two albums in now and their going strong, I think that these young men will be around for a very long time yet. They possess absolute class in abundance. Listen up folks, for there is magic in the air and we are well and truly satisfied and totally electrified