Stevie Jukes of the Vigo Thieves
Scotland is an odd place. It’s not the biggest, but large parts of it are empty and almost unspoiled, as the original inhabitants of the place appeared to pick around twenty locations around the whole country as designated living areas and have since just built upwards on those. This creates the fairly unusual situation where no matter how deep you are into urban modernity or grime, you are never really more than an hour away from the countryside.
This creates a juxtaposition between reality and fantasy, the ever-present realization that there really is something different out there, because you’ve seen it. All Scottish people are dreamers.
Chuck in an ingrained booze culture and the fact that it’s usually freezing, and you’ll begin to understand the factors behind the unique personality of the Scots. A curious mixture of pessimism and outrageous ambition. We might be on the ground but we’re always thinking about the sky.
The Vigo Thieves are unequivocally Scottish.
Stevie Jukes of the Vigo Thieves
Emerging to a raucous crowd with debut single ‘Won’t You Be Mine’, the band are satisfyingly loose and, frankly, going for it. Admirably louché frontman Stevie Jukes holds court with the audience, and the energy levels rise with new songs ‘Blood Red’ and ‘Steal Your Heart’. While many of their generation seem to have discovered 80s electropop, the Vigo Thieves raid on their big brothers record collections seems to have seen them arrive back with early Big Country and Armoury Show albums. It’s huge, ambitious, skyscraping music. If you can imagine the Strokes playing The Crossing you’ll be getting somewhere close.
There’s the ever present thrill of flight, of escape, the big widescreen ambitions that young men should have. But best of all, it’s all delivered with an acute sense of melody and an understanding that if you want to write anthems, you have to give people something they can rally behind. It’s a blistering 45 minute set, paced just the right side of frenzied which actually leaves the audience wanting more – always a great sign for a young band on their first swing.
Vigo Thieves
It’s upbeat and technicolour, but underpinned by that effortless sense of dignified melancholia that Scottish bands seem so proficient in. There is a vulnerability about even the most driving songs; this is, in fact, quite charming. It’s music which doesn’t heap on doses of wilful oddness to try to make itself special. It trusts that it has enough about it as is.
The Vigo Thieves have a lot going for them. In a world where music too often hides its heart and relies its head, it’s refreshing to hear a band with no layer of ironic detatchement being displayed as a security blanket. And above all that, they are a cracking, classic rock group. There’s plenty here to like.
Vigo Thieves
The Vigo Thieves new single ‘Steal Your Heart‘ is available now.
Filed under: General Stuff, gigs Tagged: | "Glasgow ABC", abc 2, gigs in scotland, review, steal your heart, vigo theieves, won't you be mine
