The Young Knives are not only the funniest men in pop music, they're also the some of the most talented at the moment. For those not in the know, they comprise of Henry Darknall (vocals and guitar), The House of Lords (bass and vocals) and the pretty boy of the group Oliver Askew(drums). It's worth seeing these boys from the Roylist stronghold of Ashby De La Zouch for their onstage banter alone, with brothers Henry and House wit easily equal to that of the Chuckle siblings. To get to the point they're just about the best band in the UK right now. FACT!
The tweed clad thirtysomethings performed a blistering set that sounded a world away from the slightly awkward performance I witnessed in Sheffield at the Leadmill 18 months ago, a time when World Cup fever was in the air meaning most young men were sat in front of a TV set rather than experiencing the cultural wit of TYKs. Back then they wandered into the 40 odd people in the audience and chatted with us about the weather and other gloriously English things. But no, here at the Astoria in the capital they have clearly come on leaps and bounds, headlining as they were this NME tour with other new band, more of which I'll discuss later.
Songs were mainly plucked from the new album Superabundance, the follow up to 2006's debut offering Voices of Animals and Men, and quite frankly they sound rather splendid. The setlist included singles Up all Night, with its hilarious matrix-pastiche-poking-fun-at-electro-scenesters video and Terra Firma, with its surreal but brilliant lyrics ("fake rabbits / real snakes / terra firma, terra firmaaaaa"). Their sound has developed to a sufficient extent for the band to be taken seriously despite their definitely less than serious approach to the music industry (they worked in HMV in Oxford for a while and they're first E.P. came out six years ago...). Despite all this, the precosious talent of the
A smattering of songs from Voices of Animals and Men were included to keep those punters happy who'd paid money to hear Weekends and Bleak Days ("hot summer, hot hot summer") and the fantasmic The Rumour Mill concluded the encore. Final song Current of the River is an epic at around 10 minutes long, but after hearing it again in Rough Trade Records East at the weekend for a second time it truly could be a modern art indie classic and sums up The Young Knives to a tee. "I am the Prince of Wales, I'm the Prince of Wales and if all else fails, I am the Prince of Wales".
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