Review: Inspiral Carpets at Rosemount Hotel

Inspiral Carpets at Rosemount Hotel
w/ The Deenys
Saturday, July 30, 2023

The 90s are well and truly back! It’s a glorious time for 90s music fans, as we’ve been seen some legendary legacy acts touring again – some making it all the way to Perth! We’ve had Ride and The Charlatans, The Happy Mondays are coming in October, and Slowdive played a couple weeks back. On the weekend it was Madchester legends Inspiral Carpets turn, to dust off the rug and give it a spin.

The band started in the mid 80s and it was their first time in Australia since their heyday in 1993! The tour featured the original vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player, and promised to give us all the hits. All the old geezers and fans came out for this one, managing to pack out two nights at The Rosemount, showing there was still a lot of nostalgic love for this band – and they delivered with a solid 90 minute set covering everything a fan could want.

Inspiral Carpets were part of the scene that exploded from Manchester in the early 90s alongside the likes of The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, The Smiths and The Charlatans. A sound that drew from 60s guitar and keyboard psychedelia, melodic vocals and harmonies, combined with the driving beats and rhythms of the emerging dance music scene. It was a distinct sound that defined the Madchester scene and coined the genre ‘shoegaze.’

In Australia, Inspiral Carpets were never as big as some of their luminaries, but were notable for their influence among the scene, with their Cow Records label, and popular ‘Cool As Fuck’ T-shirts, released for their 1990 EP of the same name, sporting a cow smoking and wearing sunglasses – and were said to sell more copies than their albums!

A certain young man named Noel Gallagher was even the Carpets roadie, after he unsuccessfully tried out to be their vocalist when original singer Stephen Holt left in 1989. Tom Hingley got the gig, and helmed the group through their most popular years before breaking up 1995. They reformed in 2003 and sporadically toured, until Hingley left in 2010. That’s when they reached out to Holt to come back to the fold, and the latest, yet original iteration of the band continued, even releasing a new (self-titled) album in 2014, and they finally made it to Perth!

Young local band The Deenys had a prime support slot. Being “poms from the north” they had the largely British crowd’s attention with their catchy indie pop-rock sounds and laddish style and swagger. Their music has a distinct UK influence, that they wear on their sleeves, but they give it their own youthful, modern spin – somewhat like DMA’s.

They can pen a good tune though, and recent single Coming Home has an infectious upbeat chorus that had the crowd bopping along. While Life Goes On is a sentimental song about moving to Australia from England says singer, Drewe McAllister, decked out in a Fred Perry polo, delivering his melancholic vocals.

Some tracks have a more post-punky vibe with angular guitars and punchy bass lines. They’ve got a solid sound and lots of attitude and seemed to be enjoying the chance to perform to a full, receptive room. Latest single Last Minute Winner is another goal. Before leaving us, McAllister got a “Here we fucking go!” chant going in anticipation of the main act, ending with a more raucous number.

After a short bar break, the room started to fill up and there were greying geezers a-go-go and bucket hats dotted all around. Pretty soon the lights went down and Oldham’s finest Inspiral Carpets took the stage, welcomed with some enthusiastic cheers and moo-ing. (Side note: In the 90s the band became synonymous with their Cow logo and people moo-ing at their gigs, which arose from their early gigs that featured slideshows of nature and animals, and people started moo-ing at the cows. Then people just started moo-ing before they came on stage, or after a song.)

Launching straight into it with Joe, fittingly from their first demo album put out through their own Cow Records, called Dung 4 (the catalogue number). It was released in May 1989 – incidentally the same month The Stone Roses debut album came out. It was only released on cassette, and featured their original, and current singer, Stephen Holt.

They rolled straight into Generations from a couple generations ago in 1992. And rocked straight through the harmonies of Weakness. Butterfly, another early garage rocker from Dung 4 was given fresh life.

They seemed to be warming up and feeling more comfortable. Holt, was starting to find his groove and interact with the crowd a bit more. It’s a fairly new line up, they’ve only been touring this year. They’ve recruited the young Kev Clark on drums, and Clint’s son, the very young-looking Oscar Boon, has taken over on bass. You can see they’ve started to gel as a tight unit, with the young rhythm section keeping it locked down, and the three grey, elder statesman in paisley shirts rocking out front. While they may have started a little patchy, from there on they really started to let loose, tearing through three of their biggest and best tunes in a row.

She Comes In The Fall is a joyous uplifting jangly tune, and it sounded even better live, complete with an epic drum solo at the end. Holt’s vocals were Morrisey-esque at times over the droning electric organ grooves, reminiscent of The Charlatans. Though you realise that the Carpets actually pre-dated most of these other bands. It also recalled the Stone Roses’ She Bangs The Drum or The La’s There She Goes. It seemed there were a lot of “she’s” doing things back then!

Probably their biggest tune, This Is How It Feels hit hard with its marching drums and huge anthemic chorus that got one of the biggest singalongs of the night. And Two Worlds Collide from their 1992 album, Revenge of the Goldfish, sounded massive with its double vocal chorus. A mighty track with big Tears For Fears vibes.

They lifted Let You Down from their 2014 self-titled reformation album – and it sits perfectly well next to their 80s and 90s classics – it would probably sound at home in the 60s or 70s too, with its Doors-y vibes courtesy of some classic Boon organ. It’s retro, yet timeless. And you can tell Lambert and Boon enjoy playing these new tracks they’ve written together with Holt – who left halfway through recording their debut studio album Life in 1989.

Caravan was a nice change of pace with its deep groove and very Stone Roses-ish guitar and rhythm sound. That percussive breakbeat drumming style perfected by Reni, with a stomping bass line and rolling piano melody – defining elements of Madchester. Looking around you could see the joy this reformation and tour brought to many fans. The dance floor at the front was packed with bouncing, excited, air-punching lads and veterans ‘avin it large, all with big grins plastered across their mugs.

Keep the Circle Around sounded great with its post-punky guitar riff from 1989 – naturally Holt sang this early song well, his deep, slightly flat vocals harmonising with Boon’s swirling keyboards. Uniform from 94’s Devil Hopping sounded triumphant, and they finished with one of their biggest hits, Dragging Me Down.

They were soon back on stage for an encore, jumping into a deep cut – the ravey Commercial Reign, off the She Comes In The Fall single. A cool and eclectic cover was next, the Carpets going full 60s with 96 Tears by ? and the Mysterians, which they also covered on their 1989 demo. Before they finished the night off in style with the one big track they hadn’t played – an epic, rousing rendition of Saturn 5 that saw the crowd going off for one last boogie.

A happy bunch stumbled out into the cold night, ears ringing, but eyes sparkling, having witnessed a solid performance from a classic band who did their legend justice, bringing back memories, or lack thereof, from another lifetime ago. They even hinted that it might not be the last time we see them, “We’ll try to comeback soon and not wait 30 years till the next time!”

ALFRED GORMAN

Photos by Linda Dunjey