Gallows premiered their ‘Grey Britain’ vignette and followed it up by playing the album in it’s entirety at a tiny, London venue. Hammer’s Gill and Beez were there to both worship and tribute. Get tickets for Gallows UK tour!

Gill: ‘Grey Britain’ – The Movie

With no expectation, we sat in the middle row and finished our small popcorn before the film started. What followed was like a cross between Guy Ritchie and David Cronenberg: wideboy punks in Ben Sherman suits (Gallows) and hoodied gutter-snipes battle it out with authority figures with pig masks on.

In between battles the band play shows variously in suits, stripped to the waist and covered in red paint/blood. In being ‘artisctially ambitious’ like this, bands run the risk of producing trite soapbox bullshit and being labelled pretentious, but stick to performance/soft porn/violence and it’s just boring.

Luckily Gallows really do ooze the credibility that the hype promised us and the film (which includes ‘London is the Reason’,  ‘Leeches’, ‘I Dread The Night’, ‘The Vulture (acts I & II)’ and ‘Misery’) is further proof. The whole ‘pig’ motif may seem a little naive to an old cynic who’s spirit has been broken by The Man, but in the film it’s not over-played and done with such conviction that the point will doubtless resonate with the thousands of disenfranchised young punks who need a band like Gallows in their lives.

Beez: Gallows Live At Madame Jojo’s

Now, if you’ve read the Hammer review of Gallows’ genuinely generation-defining ‘Grey Britain’ or listened to me harp on about how important this band are at the current point in time, you’ll know that the potential of watching this band play songs from their new opus in a venue as tiny as Madame Jojo’s in Soho would have me more excited than a tabloid journalist with a new disease to talk up. Expectation wasn’t so much high, as stratospheric.

So bear that in mind when it’s said that last night’s gig even topped THAT level of expectation.

It’s fucking outrageous just how good this band can be and last night, Gallows made a claim to add gig of the year to this writer’s already-decided album of the year. Playing the whole of the new album and a few old favourites, Gallows are on fire. When their upcoming UK tour comes to your town, if you’re not in that venue then whatever you’re doing will be shit in comparison to what will be going on in that room. You could be having sex with Megan Fox and Keeley Hazel, it won’t be as good as shredding your throat to the opening lines of ‘Black Eyes’. Get tickets for Gallows UK tour!

The drums to ‘London Is The Reason’ crack away, the guitars mount, the blood pumps, teeth grind and fists clench, and then there’s a visceral blast of energy that just doesn’t let up for the set’s duration. “We are the rats an’ we run this town!”? Not fucking half!

There’s just so many superlatives to throw in tonight. The room is filled with about 70% industry folk and yet Frank Carter could still turn the room into a war zone. It’s probably the feeling anyone can get from singing lines as cool as “a million Hail Mary’s can’t save you now” and “I know where you live” at the top of your lungs that does it. If you’re human and love aggressive music and the songs from ‘Grey Britain’ don’t strike a chord with you, I question whether or not you have a pulse.

Indeed, there’s a line in Reservoir Dogs where baldy leader Joe Cabot is talking about being caught in terrifying situations. He says “that’s when you gotta shit your pants, dive in and swim,” and he could easily be talking about when Carter steams up onto the balcony next to yours truly, blood-shot eyes and (as Dizzee Rascal would say) screw face on, and throws a mic into my face. I think what I’m getting at is that this band are making the most sane, laid-back of people feel alive in a way that no other band even get close to.

Whether it’s that the lyrics are so unbelievably poignant to people of this generation, the band’s ability to build a riff into something otherworldly that makes you feel like you’re being hit by Guile’s sonic boom, the unparallelled aggression or something else that you just can’t put into words, seeing Gallows in full-flight is an indescribable feeling.

Other highlights include Carter’s onstage banter (“is that Steve Strange? I don’t care who you are, get on the floor!” and “our single charted at number 147. Warner Bros gave us a million pound, so they must be shitting themselves!” being highlights), the manic grin that doesn’t leave Steph Carter’s face all night, the fucking huge bass intro to Misery and…well…just about everything in truth!

Gallows are on tour throughout May. Miss it at your peril.

Get tickets for Gallows UK tour!