“Hey Nottingham -Twice in a week ! ” exclaims the effervescent and sparkly clad Brix Smith Start, lead singer of Brix and the Extricated, and although it’s actually been nine days since the last Notts gig, it’s been two packed into a short space of time and I’ve been lucky enough to be at both.

Opening with ‘Something to Lose’ which packs a punch quite literally as Brix punches the air and high kicks her way through the song like a sequinned ninja. They’re here tonight to showcase tracks from their new critically acclaimed album `Part 2′ . New single ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ is greeted like a firm favourite and Brix reveals it’s made the charts , but to remind us of their past and of course the reason that they are called ‘The Extricated’ there are also a smattering of Fall classics in there too and ‘US 80S 90S’ and set finisher ‘Totally Wired’ get the crowd bouncing around and throughly warmed up for headliners , the legends that are The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The Jesus and Mary Chain as their fans well know are are no nonsense ‘we just came here to play rock n roll’ sort of band and that is precisely why their fans love them and have stuck by them for so long, and I have been coming to their gigs for more years than I’m willing to admit to in print for fear of revealing my age and for me they’ve never failed to deliver .

Jim Reid cuts a shadowy figure through the masses of dry ice – which is practically what they use as their state set, its classic JAMC – his attire of t shirt, jeans and jacket emphasising the no nonsense air of the night .

Blasting in with ‘Amputation’ from their latest album ‘Damage and Joy’ – it can be seen that this band are not one to rest on past glories – it could be said that they back to their best but to be honest I don’t think they ever left their best. If there’s one thing about JAMC it’s that they’ve never delivered a bad record and I can’t think of many bands that I can say that about. The atmospheric dark and breathy vocals over the intense wall of sound is a formula that works for JAMC so why change it ?

Tracks like ‘Happy When it Rains’ and ‘Just like Honey’ sit seamlessly next to new tracks such as ‘All things Pass’ and ‘Moonrider’ and then back again to old favourites ‘Darklands’ and ‘Some Candy Talking’ basically whichever era that you discovered that you loved The Jesus and Mary Chain, and if you the here tonight then you will definitely love them , then there will be something here for you, and the thing that strikes me is there doesn’t seem to be many casual fans here tonight there’s a lot of love, respect and admiration in the room.

‘Reverence’ with its scuzzy stooges-esque riffs delivered by the wonderfully unassuming William Reid, who has spent the whole gig out of the limelight skulking at the back in the dry ice, propels him forward if not visually then certainly aurally and the crowd are lapping it up in spades.

The only thing that I can say has changed about the Jesus and Mary Chain in my times of seeing them is the length of time that they play – back it the 80’s it was 40 minutes of pure rock n roll and that’s your lot but tonight the two- yes two – encores mean that the encores alone were longer than their gigs back then.

Ironic that the last track they leave is with is ‘I hate Rock n`Roll’ because for me the band are the personification of what rock n roll is all about . Great songs, great music, great fans and a damn good time.

Jackie Nutty