JJ72

Last time we saw JJ72 touring the UK they had one of the music scenes sexiest bass guitarist's in the line-up. But after she quit the band earlier last year JJ72 decided to make a controversial, groundbreaking and unprecedented decision, replacing the alluring Hillary Woods with the equally attractive Sarah Fox. No need to start worrying about an image change then.

It seemed a bit of a step down that JJ72 were performing tonight at Glasgow's King Tuts, when only a year or so ago they were touring around much bigger capacity venues. During their absence lead singer Mark Greaney had promised the world that it was time to "fucking rawwwwk". Then they disappeared off to write their next album and everyone forgot about them.

They also appeared to have lost their uniform styling. Instead of his usual jet black attire Mark had opted for a plain, open necked white shirt. Perhaps this was an indication that the new album wasn't going to be as dark as the first two.

Although keen to play material from the forthcoming album JJ72 kept the audience happy by churning out the singles from their eponymous debut. The inclusion of the delightful 'Undercover Angel' was one of the highlights of the evening. 'Algeria' was met with rapturous applause and once the opening chords of 'Oxygen' were echoing around King Tuts the crowd were well up for a mass sing-a-long.

Renown for their inability to in act with their audience I was surprised at how much crowd interaction there was. Mark seemed timid, but appreciative. Sarah on the other hand was playing with far more personality than Hillary ever did, moving around the stage and playing with an intensity that is in direct contrast to their former bassist.

JJ72 largely ignored the second album 'I to sky', which had received critical acclaim but commercially had not done as well as they had perhaps hoped. 'Formulae' was played early on but tonight the focus was split between the original and the forthcoming albums. I did wonder if this was an attempt to distance themselves from 'I to sky'.

The new material sounded pretty close to form. Some songs stood out among others but the majority of their names escaped me. 'Everything' stood out as one of the main tracks that could carry the new album. They were all played with a wrought organic angst which bared a stronger resemblance to the first album than the heavily over-produced connotations of 'I to sky'. It could be that JJ72 were trying to return to their roots. They seemed to have abandoned the 'Joy Division' influences of the second album and gone back to creating a rawer sound.

They rounded off their set with crowd favourite 'Snow', an outstanding way to end. Tonight was the sign of a band trying to get back into what they do best. Whether or not JJ72 will return to the level of success they received with their first album is hard to tell, but I do think this could be the make or break point for them.

FUTURE GIGS

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