Ahead of the upcoming release of new recorded material, B-Movie did a small tour with more dates announced for this year. With keyboard player Keith now joining founding members Steve Hovington (vocals, bass), Paul Statham (guitar) and Graham Boffey (drums), they opened on newer material via 2013 studio album, ‘The Age of Illusion’, with ‘Another False Dawn’, featuring the hammering drums of Joy Division and tumbling keyboards of Magazine, and moved onto ‘For The Dreamers’ from the same release; its glowing synth and glittering guitar were like light beams, with it also featuring a keyboard solo.
The band went on to play older material such the song that appeared on the original ‘Some Bizarre Album’ compilation that helped them gain publicity alongside the likes of Depeche Mode and Soft Cell – ‘Moles’ – with its manic synth, and ‘Polar Opposites’: a pulsating, bass driven track that is almost gothic disco. B-Movie further included 1981 single, ‘Marilyn Dreams’, its dazzling synth and dark gothic sound taking influence from The Cure’s ‘Seventeen Seconds’.
A surprise came in the set when they covered Magazine’s ‘The Light Pours Out of Me’, a band who had a huge influence on their music; it was a good attempt at recreating the classic single despite Statham’s guitar not quite reaching John McGoech’s heights. Another rarity was their more recent 2018 disco-funk single ‘Repetition’, which was a delightful refreshment to the rest of the set and signalled the genre variation and dance rhythms that this otherwise modest band is fully capable of.
B-Movie finished their set on their classic singles: 1980’s ‘Nowhere Girl’ with its poignant classical piano introduction, repeated throughout the song and dualling with Statham’s lovely melting, pitched guitar; then 1981’s ‘Remembrance Day’ with an aluminium guitar solo. They ended their main set on a cover of the sombre, ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, by Joy Division.
19/11/23: B-Movie @ The Lexington, London
Photos © Fernanda Bavaresco.
© Ayisha Khan.