The Wolfmen invade the Embassy

Wolfmen News - London's Embassy in the city's exclusive Mayfair district became exceedingly loud on Tuesday 26th Feb 2008 as Marco Pirroni, Chris Constantinou and their compadres took to the stage with a storming seven song set.

The gig follows the band's live debut at the Islington Academy back in November 2007, and is the first of three planned at the Embassy, although only the date of the next gig has been announced.

Whilst sipping champagne at his favourite Soho hangout on the Saturday before the gig, Marco told me that "I should have turned up at rehearsals today!", and when asked why he hadn't, he said, "I don't know, I just didn't want to." What did the other band members have to say about this?

"You should have kicked him out of the band!", I suggested to the band's other guitarist, Phil Harvey, just before the gig. "Ah, but he turned up on the Sunday and blew us all away as he knew absolutely everything!", he replied. That was never in contention as we were about to find out.

The new Wolfmen single - released March 10 2008

"Needle In The Camel's Eye"

This gig was to promote the release of The Wolfmen's brand new single, "Needle In The Camel's Eye" (left) on March 10th 2008, and before it was show time downstairs, the band relaxed in the bar as the punters began to filter in. Drummer Daniel Strittmatter looked particularly at ease reading a magazine in his native German. Was all this laid back attitude a taster of this come? Hardly!

Downstairs in the Embassy was the entertainment area where DJ Skip-Rat was spinning some rather "cheeky cover versions, including Laibach's version of 'Sympathy For The Devil', Jarvis' (Cocker's) 'Paranoid', Aphex Twin's 'Heroes', Devotchka's 'Venus In Furs' and finally the wonderfully scampy Lady Sovereign doing 'Pretty Vacant'" so he reports on the Ant Rap forum.

After people had consumed some rather pricey (!) drinks, the band take to their positions on the stage and kick off with the new single, "Needle In The Camel's Eye", which is a remix of the version that appeared on last year's "Jackie Says EP". Apart from being very loud indeed, The Wolfmen were certainly tight as they hammered through their set. Fans of Marco's trademark feedback were not disappointed as he displayed with ease, that he still has what it takes.

The set list featured three new tracks to whet the appetites of the taste of things to come, including the title track of the "Daler Mehndi/Wolfmen" collaboration, "Thieves & Liars".

The complete set list, with the correct titles, was:

Needle In The Camel's Eye
Love Is A Dog
Jackie Says
Up All Niter
Wak This Bass (Right In Your Face)
Better Days
Thieves And Liars

The known songs were performed with excellence and vigour, while the latest additions to the band's repertoire seem to fit comfortably with the roar eminating from the loudspeakers. When Chris introduced "Wak This Bass (Right In Your Face)" he announced that Marco would kill him if he said who the song was about. Bribing the lead singer/bassist with generous lashing of Belgian fries, mayonnaise and beer failed to reveal to me the details of the inspiration. The truth will out.

Seeing the Daler track on the playlist before the band hit the boards may have hinted to many that the Boss of Bhangra may have been making a rumoured appearance. However, it was not to be. "He'll be coming over on March 3rd for a couple of weeks to continue work on the collaboration, but not for these gigs", Marco told me on the Saturday. Chris said, "We have Daler's vocals here for the last track and we will be playing live to that." And that's exactly what they did, thus proving what a potential monster these guys have on their hands as "Thieves And Liars" brought the evening to an ear-ringing climax.

The crowd cheered for a truly memorable performance, and before Chris could even begin to express his gratitude, Marco had whipped off his guitar and shot out of the venue. Vive le rock!

Links to Ant Lady's video recordings of The Wolfmen's performances of Jackie Says and Thieves And Liars are linked below, along with Cork's photos and signed set list page (Cork is from Cork, by the way). Many thanks to Rob Golding for giving his kind permission to use his photos of the gig.

The Wolfmen's "Needle In The Camel's Eye" is released on Damaged Goods on ~~March 10th~~ April 14th 2008 (DAMGOOD303) backed with "Zip Gun" and "Mother Of Mystery".

The Wolfmen's next invade The Embassy on ~~Tuesday April 8th~~ Friday April 18th 2008. Tickets will be available soon.

The Wolfmen invade the Embassy

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