On Thursday I attended a very special event. It was the first ever public performance by the all new Pipettes! When a band replaces 2/3 of its members, it’s natural for fans to be a little concerned, but with a back-catalogue like theirs and a member like Gwenno (who was always my favourite anyway), how wrong can they go? I remember a while ago wondering how their second album could ever beat their incredible debut, but having now heard about 8 of the new songs, I can safely say that it is the best album of 2008 so far, and it will be very hard for any act to better it.
The songs on The Pipettes’ first album had a very distinct style, unique to them despite their retro influences, and there is a difference in sound noticeable when the new and old songs are performed side by side, as they were on Thursday. The girls have branched out into some slightly different styles, for example disco in Stop The Music, and even a reggae-pop song called To No-One, about bleaching your hair! Other memorable new tracks for me included Captain Rhythm, which unexpectedly sounded as much like Ace of Base as its title implies, and the last of the new songs they played, called Boo Shuffle. This may not work as a single but it’s certain to become very popular, as not only is it super-catchy and ace as with all Pipettes songs, but it is a dance-routine song (as in, it has a dance routine and is about that dance routine, like Agadoo or U-Turn by Usher) and it has a quite lengthy talky bit, involving all the girls! Just for future reference, the moves you need to get practicing are the shake, the twist and the stomp.
I should also tell you all about the two new members. They are somewhat confusingly named Anna and Annie, and both have long dark hair. Gwenno also has brown hair at the moment, presumably related to her aforementioned hair-bleaching woes. We deduced that Annie must be the one that is Gwenno’s sister, because she was Welsh and looked more like her than Anna. Annie seems to be the youngest in the band, at a guess about 21, while Anna is perhaps 23 (but it is hard to tell). Annie wears glasses, so is obviously going to be seen as the new Becki of the band, but she actually more closely resembles Rose. I was a little saddenned to find that the new girls hadn’t got groovy nicknames (like Riot Becki and Rosay), but maybe they’re still in the works.
It wasn’t just the new songs that they played on Thursday, but also several of the old ones – Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me, Because It’s Not Love, Why Did You Stay, and of course Pull Shapes. The vocals were shared out on these tracks just as much as on the new ones, and the new girls did a fine job, although some songs were notable in their absense, such as Dirty Mind and We Are The Pipettes (but this would be hard since it has the old members’ names in it). We were all very impressed at how they managed to do the dance routines throughout the whole of the hour-long set, and there were no mistakes more than the occasional one girl being a second behind the others. Amazing! While the girls, especially with the 2 new ones, did seem like they could be any girl I know from uni (and girls my age really do seem to connect with them), I don’t think many would be able to do an hour’s non-stop very active dance routines in a small, hot club while singing. Even if the music wasn’t amazing, I’d admire them for that.
I was sad when the gig ended, realising it will be another long wait to have these songs on CD, as it was with the new Alphabeat tracks, but I was happy because any fears of the new album/line-up ruining my Pipettes fandom were completely dispelled. Hopefully this time around they’ll be as huge stars as they have always deserved to be, but even if not their current fans should not be disappointed, and especially my pop-oriented readership should be very excited, because poptasticness is definitely the aim of their new material. I can’t wait to hear it again and for all the rest of you to hear and join me in celebrating the superb brilliance of The Pipettes!