Jesus and The Zealots at The Old Blue Last, East London, April 2024 – The Old Blue Last is a cynical place, of course they don’t take cash, of course the beer is over priced, seven notes plus change for a piss poor pint of Guinness in a floppy plastic whatever a plastic glass is called, well it can’t be called a glass can it? The lighting is a can’t-be-bothered stark white all unforgivingly raw ’cause there’s no one there to flick the switch (where’s McDeath when you need him?) and the whole gig is running late ’cause no one knows the code to unlock the door to the room the band’s equipment is locked in and the promoter hasn’t bothered to show up and oh yeah the sound is almost always crap in here, tonight is no exception. 

Jesus and The Zealots are up against it on a cold East London Sunday night then (and wasn’t there a third band on the bill? No sign of them). It isn’t clear which one is Jesus, probably none of them, maybe Jesus is an instrument? It worked for Echo And The Bunnymen. There’s five of them up there, two of them sharing the front person duties, both of them oozing style. They could be baroque, psychedelic, if they are channelling Dear Prudence then they’re not too far from the Siouxsie version without being anywhere near it, actually they look, and more importantly, sound like they’ve fallen out of 1972 and an all-dayer at the Roundhouse on a bill in the middle of the afternoon with a long-haired Bowie and an embryonic Genesis for an opening act, she, Angel, all bright red hair, cool as flip flute and long blue dress, he, Henri Parnell, looks like a Blond-haired twelve-string-playing David Essex circa Stardust King (check it out before you mock, Essex was damn good for fifteen minutes back there, America, Black CadiIlac land and and all that), They’ve evolved out F4Çade, there’s far more to them in this format, the chemistry is obvious, the two up front look just the right amount of glam, the rest of the band need to get with the plan, they look and sound like they should be coming up with new versions of Cockney’s Rebel’s Sebastian any moment now, they suggest they have a prog rock concept album somewhere in their future lives. Yep, they managed to break through the starkness, the dreadful sound and the can’t be bothered with the lights of the uncommitted venue, they’re the reason the effort was been made, I really didn’t want to go there, but the man said you’ve got to go, ah now you know, Jesus and the Zealots were cool tonight. They only have one track recorded and out there right now, Into The Grass, set closer this evening, things are raw right now, still forming, more to come soon so they say, kind of feels like they might be right… (sw)