Johnny Panic -
Joseph's Well, Leeds, October 24th


I'm trying really hard to think of something original to say about JP but Jessica Trash's fantastic Cardiff review has ruined it for all of us cos she's already said exactly what we're all thinking! Which is 'why the fuck aren't Johnny Panic massive?!'.


Well??


See, there's really no answer to that cos there's no reason on earth why they shouldn't be massive, why they shouldn't be the band on everyone's lips and outselling every achingly cool Razorlight/Kooks/every other fuckin style-over-substance-we-sing-about-fuck-all-but-our-haircuts-are-better-than-yours band out there. Before tonight I was a JP virgin cos everything revolved around London n it's a logistical nightmare getting there. And sure, I'd heard the songs n seen the videos a million times and banged on about their greatness so often that my boyfriend has now resorted to sighing 'why don't you just marry em?' every time I mention them, but nothing quite prepared me for seeing them in the flesh - they were absolutely mesmerising! Rob's such a physical singer, all flailing arms n facial gestures, making sure his audience get what he's trying to say, while Johnny, Matt and Sean are concentrating so hard on their instruments they seem to be in worlds of their own. They went on so late that I only managed to catch four songs before I had to get to the station to catch the last train home (ten past fuckin eleven; see, this is what comes of privatisation. But that's a whole nother rant...), but it didn't really matter, I've seen them live and they're everything I hoped they'd be and more. I haven't felt this strongly about a band since I first heard the Manics and, strangely, one of their lyrics keeps popping into my head - 'I am nothing and should be everything'. Not that I'm implying JP are nothing, quite the opposite, they are everything, just not enough people know it yet. They're the real deal, they've got something to say and they're singing it loud n proud, they've got the music and the punk as fuck attitude to back it up and they're too fuckin important to become also-rans. The only real obstacles in their way are lack of publicity and money and we can do something about at least one of those things.


They played to about 15 people tonight, which is an absolute fuckin joke. So, as Jess said, go, spread the word.

Fi Beckett, pix by Rosey