Royal Flush: Watford show
Posted by jamie on Feb 4, 2011
Rowdy Hemel pop-punk upstarts Royal Flush are set to offend Watford on 11th February (this coming Friday). See it on facebook here.
Royal Flush: Hemel Hempstead
Posted by jamie on May 20, 2010
Royal Flush
Wishing Well, Hemel Hempstead
8th May 2010
Jamie
Knowing full well that The Slackers were at the Academy in Islington tonight, deciding on which show to see was a tough decision, but, helpfully, one that was at least between two very different shows: the sultry, syrupy-smooth harmonies and credibly cool jazz/ska stylings on offer from an established US touring act at a medium-sized academy venue in a particularly plush part of the big city, or the altogether less polished but equally confident, boisterous, spiky charm of a motley little crew of local punks rocking out to some catchy pop-punk songs in a grimy little local pub. Such was the quality on offer, it ended up as one of those win-win situations that leaves a little bit of you upset that you’re about to miss out on one of them.
Watching What Went Wrong on Facebook that morning made it tougher still, but Bananatown has had to many near-misses to pass up the chance to watch Royal Flush, so in the end plumping for Hemel Hempstead felt a little bit carpe diem. And the beer’s cheaper.
The Wishing Well is tucked away out of the way where the town starts to get leafier and has the world’s second-best greasy spoon just along the road. Despite all of this, I’ve only been in once by accident and had heard bad things about it. It’s decent enough, though, and slightly surreal: like my old neighbours living room used to look like in the eighties, and with giant plasma screens on every wall. They were showing Michael J Fox driving around with some kind of rubber-faced monster with a mullet. That, right there, is why it’s bad to watch cable and to watch TV on Saturday nights.
Royal Flush enter at 9pm for the first of two near-enough-hour-long sets. The new material that’s been generating such a buzz is really evident. Watch Out for the Adam’s Apple, the superbly named song about accidentally hooking up with a boy while drunk (I know. True genius.) comes out fourth, but otherwise the emphasis is really on promising newer material, stuff that harks back to the pop-punk’s golden days. A four-piece with two guitars, it’s regulation stuff, but Royal Flush do it very well and the songs are very good: packed with hooks, embellished with harmonies and surprisingly powerful. The room’s not full, but they’ve brought a crowd and entertain them well, and even the few surprised regulars seem to enjoy themselves. One couple of pensioners do sneak off fairly early on, but they go down well: a clutch full of lads at the front jumping and climbing on each others’ shoulders and pogoing along quite happily.
The equally ingeniously named I Wrote This Song About John From Saving Sebastian But All He Did Was Complain About My Hairy Balls is another highlight, as are Goodbye, What She Wants and their cover of My Own Worst Enemy by 1990s pop-punkers Lit. Such competence and an impressive live performance blows a hole in any myth about pop punk bands of that era relying on knob jokes and songs-by-numbers to raise a smile: these guys clearly know their stuff, as My Own Worst Enemy is a real blast from the past, and there are certainly a lot of songs they could more easily have picked.
All of that said, though, Royal Flush aren’t above having a laugh. Chaz, Tom and Dean are all in full make up: as we enter, Chas is introducing the room to their new bass player, Muriel, who is basically Dean in eye-shadow. Chaz himself simply has the “C” word in mascara across his forehead, and manages to get a few jokes out of it before realising his Mum is in the room.
After a quick interval, the band return to rip through Rihanna’s Umbrella, Forget Everything and Britney’s Hit Me Baby, One More Time. A big fat bald bloke who told me I looked like Jason Mraz (I was wearing a hat) bets his ate £50 that Royal Flush can’t or won’t play any Abba songs. Lines Between Lies and Insanity follows, and he’s chanting for Abba like he’s a comic genius. Page Three Way, Your Own Song and Corsa all follow before they embarrass him into handing the cash over to his mate by covering Mamma Mia. They’ve been doing it since before the film, in case you were wondering. Then they wrap up with It’s Not You and finally Get Away. It’s been a great little local show: totally unpretentious, a great atmosphere and a tidy, easy going crowd. Royal Flush have got a great set of songs, perform them will and really enjoy it. That’s nearly as infectious as the melodies.
