DEADLY
The Papermill, SHOREDITCH
JULY 19, 2008
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY: CHRISTEL ESCOSA
Deadly dropped it for the first time in London over the weekend - and the line up was droolworthy. With DJ sets from the likes of Deadly peops Buraka Som Sistema, Herve, Midnight Juggernauts, Drop the Lime, Invasion thrashing it out live and 'Sup alumni (we ask them a hundred questions in our current issue - and in fact, here is frontman Donald's mug) The Virgins headlining, it was always going to be wicked.
I could try and find a million wanky literary devices to describe The Virgins but the fact is, I just plain like them. They have a je nais sais quoi; an accessible, affable quality that makes girls bat their lashes and boys try harder at trying less hard.
The Virgins strode effortlessly through their set, comfortable and easy-going in manner; quite a different bag from the intensity and drive of Invasion earlier in the evening. Donald has a lovely voice that he wields most charmingly. The catchiness of their tunes can be compared to that of the Kooks, but with far less contrivance and far more charisma. Or maybe it's that they're American, a cultural divide that stops me from quite processing and categorising their consumable indie-pop to put them in the same place as I put the secret guilty pleasure that I used - pre second album - to find in the Kooks (shit, did I just type that out loud?).
There's something a little Danny Zuko and the T-Birds about the Virgins; though again, that might just be me romanticising American culture. But whatever, The Virgins were great. Y'all come back soon now, y'hear?