Talulah Gosh

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Oxford Star, 17 June 1986
Thankyou Chris Scott.

Lend them your ears.

GOSH! They’re fast and loud and young and
precious and bright and brittle and the flavour of
the moment — they’re Tallulah Gosh.


Golly, Gosh!

You must have seen them. Last week. Page 3 of the NME. Next week a session of the Janice Long Programme. Radio One. The one Peacock wants to sell off.

Tonight at Oxford’s St Paul’s, Tallulah will be dispensing instant pop. Instant in that each number is over almost before it has begun. Pop in that it is punchy and melodic.

With youth on their side, drummer Matthew has just taken his O-levels and the most ancient member is 24, the band has suddenly stumbled into the fickle side of the music market. People are pinning back their lugholes now but, according to new recruit, bass player Chris Scott, nobody’s tripping over themselves to be BIG, to fill stadiums, to be worshipped.

What about this volume business? “Yes,” mused Chris, “We play songs like He’s So Dreamy, but are noisy. When we played at Ruskin College everybody had to go outside and listen.”

This is like something straight out of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

The extra terrestrial band in that sci-fi volume blasted out their music from a spaceship orbiting the planet, while those on terra firma listened from the acoustically protected environment of their bunkers.

Talulah Gosh

Tallulah Gosh — precious and pretty loud!

So Tallulah Gosh have established that cranked up volume needn’t go hand in hand with slavering bats and sweaty macho orgies.

Liz and Amelia provide the vocals and play guitar along with Pete, with Chris and Matthew making up the quintessential qintet.

The shortness of the songs might give fuel to the cynics to suggest that the Gosh Gang are short on ideas in such songs as The Day I Lost My Petals Badge and My Best Friend.

But Chris speaks with all the experience you can pack into a couple of decades or so when he says: “Some of us have been playing for years and the band all have something constructive to contribute to the sound.”

A single is in the offing on Fifty Three and a Third Records (named after a Ramones song).

Keep tuned into Radio One. Tune into Tallulah and you’ll get a ringing in your ears. And you may even understand what all the fuss is about.

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