Gig review: Dave Formula & Noko at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Almost half-a-century on from their brief heyday, the former Magazine mainstay teams up with their late-era guitarist for a skeletal post-punk tribute filled with generous warmth.
“I hope you’ve been enjoying this as much as we have been,” keyboardist and de-facto spokesman Dave Formula says a few songs into matters at the Brudenell Social Club.
Amidst a foreboding wash of hazy prog instrumentation and clattering piano-hues, the trilby-topped star is here in tribute to his former band Magazine, teamed up with their late-era guitarist Noko for what is a skeletal post-punk tribute show. “Because you haven’t heard some of this since 1979!”
For a band that also functioned as the missing link between the Buzzcocks and Visage, there is something both ephemeral and ethereal about the Manchester art-rockers.
Long defunct from a 2009 reunion, two parts of their latter-day line-up have now recruited members of French outfit Affection Place to fill out their numbers for a jaunt down memory lane accompanied by pinstripe goatees and generous warmth.
With his gleaming pate and kohl-smudged eyes, Noko undoubtedly fits the bill of an elder gothic statesman with aplomb. It is his guitar work that mostly catches the eye alongside vocalist Peter Petersen, building off opener The Thin Air and the stately creep of Back to Nature with an often explosive reach.
Motorcade finds him interchanging lines with the rhythm section in impressively dexterous fashion; elsewhere, a storied take on Sly & the Family Stone’s Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) proves skilfully limber in his hands.
Formula has his own time to shine, as with the increasingly paranoid fairground wurlitzer of The Great Beautician in the Sky. Rhythm of Cruelty, in particular, suggests an aptitude for pop chops that would be later harnessed to even greater success.
“Glad to see some of you still enjoy this now,” he says between a terrific Permafrost and the beefed-up swagger of A Song From Under the Floorboards. They are not the only ones still enamoured with these songs.