The Others – The Grace, London, 30/04/22

Twenty years have passed since mid-00s London scene favourites and NME cover stars The Others got together and set about making their mark on the musical world. To celebrate the fact that they are still very much still in existence and filled with as much life as ever, tonight’s gig sees the band break an eight year silence by getting back to their grass roots in the low light, low ceiling venue of The Grace in Highbury, London.

The show is sold out and the room is stuffed full with one hundred and fifty original fans gathered beneath a ceiling of static glitter balls, waiting to see what tunes from their three album and a newbie on it’s way catalogue the group have prepared for tonight. Rumours across social media for the past couple of weeks have claimed they would be delivering a two hour set spiked with favourites from all throughout their career.

Ever the supporters of new talent and their rabid ‘853’ fanbase, The Others’ support band, Ilford quartet The Neversheds, are up first featuring long-time Others supporter Dan Edmunds as frontman, putting on a show of exuberant, sharp 70s UK and NY punk rock inspired tunes.

The Others performing tonight are a newly expanded band of 7 and they fill the stage like no time has passed – frontman Dominic Masters still in a trademark stripy polo shirt, bassist Johnny Others still with brilliantly coiffed Robert Smith hair, Jimmy Lager still with shades atop his head, the new members fleshing their sound out fuller than ever.

Fuelled by the boisterous love and cheering from the crowd, the lads manage to make good on their promise of a two hour set which gets split across three sections to afford Masters a short regroup and breather between each part, at times the frontman appearing to yank himself up and away by his own collar as if to stop himself from launching into the middle of the audience every time he gets the urge, other times handing the microphone over to the audience to perform singing duties. The first two parts see tracks dropped from albums number two and three ‘Inward Parts’ and ‘Songs For The Disillusioned’ – a full gusted chant along of fan-favourite ‘Probate’, the ominous and concerned ‘Thick as Thieves’, ‘Penny Chews’, ‘Double Pernod’, ‘Where Is The Love?’, ‘The Truth That Hurts’ as well as a few exciting newbies from in-progress album 4.

The third part is an unashamed time machine back to 2005 and a hefty dose of their self-titled first LP. When the drums of ‘Lackey’ kick in the 853 are up and bouncing, out in force and a moshing force that doesn’t stop until much of the record is ticked off. In this part, the much adored “CHIKA-CHIKA-CHIKOWS” are screamed back at the stage in ‘Psychovision’ and the greatly anticipated ‘This Is For The Poor’ and ‘Stan Bowles’ are received by now-slightly-chunkier-than-two-decades-ago 853 kamikaze stage diving division members and Dominic himself making a success of crowd surfing a complete lap of the venue.

By the end of show, the stage has been invaded full of dancing fans and a yellow and blue Ukraine flag is draped over The Others’ singer’s head. He takes the microphone, announces an invitation for the after party to the whole venue and then stalks away beaming, leaving a re-energised and enthusiastic 853 hoping they won’t have to wait another 8 years to witness their favourite songs played again. The ace and unusual thing with The Others is there was no split, no major falling out, this is no reunion show but an anniversary gathering, so the likelihood is they will be back together and performing again before anyone can say “QPR Ninety seventy fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive”.

The Others first two albums ‘The Others’ and ‘Inward Parts’ are available on all streaming services. The Others third album ‘Songs For The Disillusioned’ is available to buy for as much or as little as you like on The Others bandcamp.