Younger Younger 28's Reviews

 

The Steel Press Concert Review	NME In Between Days Single Review
MM Soap Review	Soap Ad
MM Darts Interview

Concert Review from Steel Press (25th February 2000)

The Foundry, Thursday 10th February 2000

If there was ever a perfect venue for Younger Younger 28's to play, The Fuzz Club would be it.  A haven of girls with pink hair and indie kids trying to out-obscure each other with their T-shirts, surely they can't fail.

YY28's are, on paper, the perfect band.  Their music is bright, breezy, cheerful POP.  They have a charismatic frontman, Joe Northern, who comes across as a fatter, older Robbie Williams, They have two attractive female vocalists.  And just to please the Offbeat crowd, they sing about unfashionable issues (they've described their music as 'Council House').  Oh, and they don't sell any records either.

This last point remains a mystery.  If it got decent airplay, YY28's debut single, We're Going Out, would probably stay at number one for about a year.  Getting the best reaction of the evening, it's an incredibly energetic three-minute romp extolling the simple virtues of going out and getting drunk.  It has a crowd-pleasing singalong chorus, and it contains the lyric "lipstick, cigarettes, packet of three - we're going out".  It's possibly the best pop record ever, and, just to confirm this, the DJ plays it again later to pretty much the same reaction.

As is usually the case, YY28's have been vilified by the NME before even releasing an album.  Yet their crimes are nothing more than sounding a bit like the Human League.  YY28's are the perfect antidote to all those unsmiling, serious, four-boys-with-guitars-play-their-album-and-that's-your-lot bands.

Tonight they're at their eclectic best, every song sounding like a potential hit and looking born to be pop stars.

Matt Withers

Single review from NME (4th March 2000)

In Between Days (v2)

Here's some messy disinterring by tiresomely arch pop culture bandits Younger Younger 28's.  Previously known for their cold-eyed 'fags and lippy' attitude to everything, this cover of one of The Cure's poppiest moments finds them unexpectedly loving, like a teenage mum comforting a toddler with a scraped knee.

Kitty Empire

Soap review from Melody Maker (22nd March 2000)

Younger Younger 28's

Soap (v2)

Out Now 41/2 Stars (Out of 5)

NOTICED the star rating? Finished laughing?  Well, it's not a joke.  Not "Ironic". "Soap", for all its various faults, it one of the best, most consistent, most single-heavy pop albums since Pet Shop Boys' "Very".

The lyrics, and Joe Northern's vocals, are all over the place.  Woman are pathetic ("Next Big Thing") or without identity ("Julie"); teenage mothers are "real dum dum"; men are infantile and socially retarded; the only gay character ("Gary") is HIV-positive ("Hurrah!" - Jack Straw).  Essentially, characters almost entirely grounded in hate.  But in a Human League stylee..

Offensive lyrics and brilliant music?  Didn't hurt Eminem.  Overdone homage's to heroes? Didn't hurt Oasis.  Celebration of tragic pointlessness? Didn't hurt Radiohead.  In truth, Younger Younger 29's don't hate.  If they do hate, they hate being kept down.  It's a "Common People" kinda thing - but their sincerity could only be confirmed if every individual to buy this album personally met the band.  Which tragically will take about seven minutes.

YY28's are currently hoping their cover of The Cure's "In Between Days" will deliver them a Top 40 hit; it probably won't.  The irony is that in 10 years, a 17-year old starlet will cover any of these songs and have a Number One.  And the last laugh will belong to Younger Younger 28's.

Peter Robinson

If You Tolerate This...You'll Love These: Depeche Mode "Violator" (Mute, 1991), Shampoo "We Are Shampoo" (Food, 1994), Dollar "The Dollar Album" (WEA, 1981)

Five Pop Stars Who Are Younger Than 28...

Liam Gallagher, Oasis (born 21/9/72)
Fran Healy, Travis (born 23/7/73)
Paul Draper, Mansun (born 26/9/72)
Chris McCormack, ex-3 Colours Red (born 21/6/78)
Matt Bellamy, Muse (born 9/6/78)

...And One Who Isn't

Joe Northern, Younger Younger 28's (born 23/12/66)

Click here for the scan of the review.

Soap Advert from Melody Maker, 22nd March 2000

Click here for a scan of the advert for Soap, features snippets from various press reviews.

The Melody Maker Darts League, 29th March 2000

Younger Younger 28's were one of the bands to take on the darts challenge at The Maker's magazine-format launch party last year.  Singer Liz triumphed and trounced the competition.  And now they're back to try again...

DART ONE: TREBLE 20, 60

Having covered The Cure's "Inbetween Days", do you have a guilty goth past?
Joe: "I have, I was a fat goth.  Goth was good, cos you had to be either really fat or really skinny to belong."

DART TWO: TREBLE 20, 60

Which of your songs should The Cure cover?
Jim: "they can't do 'Sweet Dreams' because we ripped that off them in the first place! They could nick it back again."
Joe: "'Two Timer'.  I'd like to see Robert Smith standing in the middle, saying, 'I'm the cock of the north/I'm a Romeo' with conviction."

DART THREE: 4

What do you like least about each other?
Jim: "Joe f***ing never goes to sleep.  When we started out as a band we shared a hotel room, and he f**ing walks around all night, writing his journal and keeping the light on."
Liz: "Jim's good at doing the ignoring thing.  If he doesn't want to hear, he won't listen."

DART FOUR: 11

What's the worst look you've had?
Liz: "There are pictures of me in a Spanish dress with a rose in my hair.  When I said I wanted Latino, that wasn't quite what I meant."
Jim: "Andi looked like Betty Boo meets Old Mother Hubbard."
Andi: "I went to a bad taste party recently, and people were raiding my wardrobe, pissing themselves laughing."

DART FIVE: 2

How are you going to get people to watch you at this summer's festivals?
Jim: "If we play the festivals this year, we'll play them nude.  And I'll be having sex with animals.  And we'll be on eight hours before Oasis."

DART SIX: 19

What's the most rock'n'roll thing you've ever done?
Jim: "Me and Liz threw loads of furniture out of our hotel room window."
Liz: "It was my birthday.  We were extremely pissed."
Jim: "We threw loads of furniture out, and the TV, and the double bed."
Liz: "With my friend in it.  She was so pissed she didn't feel any of her injuries."

DART SEVEN: 18

If you could give any celebrity a good kicking, who would it be?
Joe: "The blond guy out of Steps, H. F***in' 'ell, he needs a hot iron on his face to take that smile off.  Every time he looks at the camera on television, I want to take a streamroller and end his life."

DART EIGHT: 0

What's the worst gig you've ever played?
Jim: "Bath University.  We were on after a Beatles tribute band.  We went on and there were 400 people.  When we went off, there were four!  And they were just too ill to move."

DART NINE: TREBLE 20, 60.  A TOTAL OF 234

Bloody hell!  You're in the Top Three!  Have you been practising your darts or something?
Liz: "I've got my Melody Maker darts at home.  I actually used them the other day on a picture of someone I didn't get on with."

EMMA JOHNSTON

Younger Younger 28's rank third out of 104 (between Matthew Marsden and Chicane).  The full Darts League is available on www.melodymaker.co.uk

The Album 'Soap' is out now on V2. 

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