Another for which I'm in debt to Pjggledy Pop, which tipped me off to them.
A band like they used to make bands. This longstanding Medway quartet, named after a Chatham theatre that is now demolished. Listening to their singles compilation, which came out last year, it seems as if they're also fluent in a craft of songwriting that is also barely existent anymore. Time and again demonstrating the kind of easy songwriting artistry that was commonplace when I was making my way through my late teens and early twenties as the Eighties advanced but has seemingly been slowly dying on the vine ever since.
Theatre Royal are masters of these almost forgotten arts.The early Beatles are probably the original reference point for what they do. Lennon and McCartney knocking out new songs together early morning in hotel rooms, fuelled by tea and cigarettes as they made their way from one small town Odeon to the next in '63. Impressions of The Jam, The Housemartins, The Pale Fountains, The Go-Betweens, New Order, Jasmine Minks and The Railway Children abound elsewhere.
Theatre Royal are by no means shamed by being mentioned in such illustrious company. They're that good. Virtually every song is assured and crafted and crying out for a far larger audience than the band have managed to garner for themselves in ten years of churning out singles, albums and touring the circuit.
The band has an immediate, radiant charm. Oliver Burgess and Robbie Wilkinson take turns to write the songs and take the lead at the mic, Brendan Esmonde and Jon Gibbs provide solid bass and drums support. There's something quite winningly unpretentious and pure about what's on show here. Theatre Royal. Another of this nation's saving graces.
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