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Blog: Prolapse at The Lexington
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As is traditional for gigs at The Lexington I popped round the corner first to have my tea at Indian Veg, which was as delightful as ever. This included a trip to The Toilets Of Propaganda, which informed me in no uncertain terms that vegetariansim/vegansim is EXCELLENT - thanks, The Toilets Of Proaganda in Indian Veg, I did know that but it is always nice to be reminded!
My next stop was The Three Johns to meet Mr S Hewitt for a couple of delicious pints and similarly delicious conversation, and then on to the venue itself for the first night of their NEW ALBUM TOUR. I was looking forward to this, not just because Prolapse are dead good, nor even that the new album is ALSO dead good ("It sounds like THEM!" is the general consensus) but because I was also convinced it would be a room full of old pals I hadn't seen for decades. My BRANE was thinking this because that was the case several years ago when they did their FIRST reunion gigs, but this time it was a room filled with people who LOOKED like the sort of people I remembered, but for the most part were not. Almost as if they have fans that I don't know?
We went up stairs to say hello to Mrs E Pattison, who was talking the J Jervis role in the merch booth, and saw the end of the support band, Moderate Rebels. My GIG INSTINCTS kicked in when I looked at my watch and realised the night was running late, and had to keep saying to myself "This is not your problem, also it will all be fine" and indeed it WAS, and Moderate Rebels were dead good too - very Prolapse-y, in fact!
We struggled round, through the SOLD OUT crowd, to our Usual Spot in the Royal Box (made difficult because, as Steve pointed out, it was an audience full of people who would normally stand at the back) and discovered Dave and Jasper, last seen in Whitstable. Chat was had and then it was ROCK O'CLOCK, as Prolapse came on and were - as discussed earlier - BLOODY GRATE.
As with going to see Allo Darlin' recently, this was different to recent gigs of theirs because it was NOT a Greatest Hits Set celebrating the fact that they were BACK, but rather a NORMAL gig to promote their new album. There were still a lot of HITS, but also some really old songs (including ones I didn't recognise) and LOADS of the new ones, which were ACE. Best of all though it was back to some of the CHAOS and BLOODY RACKET I remember from Back In The Day - INDEED the stage set up and the place where we stood kept reminding me of seeing them at The Charlotte, where it would ALSO be a bit of an old racket and also also unpredictable.
Watching them it made me realise what a weird old thing it is they do - you've got four blokes on guitars looking Quite Stern (except on the occasions when Dave got on the stage-side Remark-O-Phone) and Tim bashing HECK out of his drums, making a sound that, on its own, can veer towards STADIUM GOTH (in a good way), whereas in the middle of it all is a very very different act in the shape of Mick and Linda, especially when they get going on the between song chat. Then when the whole LOT of them get going there is this huge and chaotic BLOODY RACKET that sounds like it's going to go horribly wrong any minute but then DOESN'T. I mean, that's what they've always sounded like really, but having it presented like this with sound that was a) GOOD but also b) still a BLOODY RACKET was pretty flipping wonderful. My only criticism was that a no point did Linda read from a book, or Mick smash up an old TV set, like in OLDEN TYMES!
It was BRILLO basically, and afterwards there was a little while to say WELL DONE and to have a quick chat with the merch supremo before heading off into the night and to home, even though a part of me felt like I should be going to a School Night Indie Disco for more BOOZE and dancing to TAD!
posted 27/10/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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