Yellow Stripe Nine @ Faversham
By Cathy SimpsonGoing into battle dressed in his dad's golfing outfit and some vintage aviators, Yellow Stripe Nine's ringleader Pete Bott has taken on the guardian of jerky pop/disco choruses and won hands down with catchy bastards like 'I Want More', 'Hotel X' and (the deceptively uncatchily titled) 'The Boy who Desperately Wanted to be Struck by Lightning'. It's unclear however, whether the pop/disco guardian was slain in combat or if he ran away in disbelief that anyone under 70 could wear so many pastels. Pete is a vision in soft pink, baby blue and some delightful buff slacks, with a trio of black clad public school boys as a backdrop. It's obvious that style is important to the band but thankfully they've got some beguiling slabs of ear candy backing it up.
Tonight's gig is dogged with technical problems but there's something else that jars with this band. As Pete dances his way through exactly the same moves he pulled at Unity Day this month it clicks that Yellow Stripe Nine are totally contrived. They've picked out exactly what they want to achieve, from their moves and stage wear right down to Franz Ferdinand / Talking Heads / Duran Duran sound and when something interrupts it they get pretty uncomfortable. As the technical glitches continue Pete sits down in despair before declaring 'This is our last gig for a while, we've got to get some new equipment'.
He may have been joking, but only in part. Indeed the band are taking time out now to develop (if excellent new track 'The Trouble With Girls' is anything to go by) a more 80's, electronic sound which hopefully should win them new fans as well as help develop their repertoire.
Yellow Stripe Nine aren't afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves, so unafraid in fact that they've let them spill over into their hair, clothes, and highly stylised moves. There's Franz Ferdinand hair aplenty and Pete may well have a price on his head for grand theft from Bryan Ferry's wardrobe circa 1973. That said, YS9's influences are pretty cool and their admiration is totally sincere so you're left with a hybrid creature of impeccable pedigree, if slightly lacking in its own identity.
But can they ever be more than a sum of parts? Time will tell.
