Gig review: KATRINA LESKANICH- Half Moon, Putney, London, 28 September 2023

October 4th, 2023 by andynathan

Now only really remembered for two major singles, in the second half of the eighties Katrina and the Waves were one of my guilty pleasures. Their sixties inspired guitar based sound stood out among the then dominant synthesisers in the pop world and indeed I do vaguely remember Kerrang! covering them which gave them a veneer of rock authenticity.

Since the Waves split up soon after their Eurovision win, their eponymous frontwoman Katrina has still been on the circuit, though most often at those Rewind type festivals where a string of eighties stars trot out their best known hits to nostalgists with a short attention span. Full length shows have been rare though I did catch one about five years ago at the Putney Half Moon, now virtually the last man standing of the London pub music venues of my youth. This repeat visit saw a significantly larger crowd than I remember that time.

There was a most unusual opening act with bespectacled youngster Joe Loveday at a piano singing humorous songs. These showed a refreshingly original and quirky mind, though being of a certain age I was reminded of Richard Stilgoe. Later it was revealed he was actually the son of Katrina’s guitarist.

Katrina Leskanich came on stage sharply attired in black and looking not much different from back in the day. I was delighted she opened with a solitary cut from my personal favourite ‘Break of Hearts’ in ‘Rock n Roll Girl’ (sounding like a cross between the Hooters and Springsteen’s ‘Working on the Highway’), even if she did seem to miss out on singing one of the choruses.

A solo song I didn’t know, ‘Crazy Mama’ was lively while Katrina explained the role of various old K and TW songs in the band’s history, including the pressure to come up with another summer song resulting in ‘Sun Street’, where taped sounds had to replace some of the horns on the original; and signing to Capitol on the back of the of the Bangles cover of ‘Going Down to Liverpool’; indeed in tribute she and the band had fun as it segued into ‘Walk like an Egyptian’.

‘Honey Lamb’ was an underrated obscurity but I queried the wisdom of covering ‘Echo Beach’: however it was a good fit for the band’s style and all made sense when Katrina explained it was to avenge her irritation at regularly being mistaken for Martha and the Muffins.

She also has a cutting sense of humour that mixes the caustic wit of a Joan Rivers with the cynicism you’d expect of a long time British resident, and she was happy to apply it to band members and irritating fans alike, as well as to self deprecatingly talking about the success on the Heritage chart of ‘Holiday’- which managed to be both raucous yet with a simple pop sensibility. It was followed by oldie ‘Red Wine and Whiskey’ and I hadn’t fully appreciated quite how many drinking songs they had.

Playing his Ibanez left handed, guitarist Darren Loveday had already shown his paces and on ‘Texas Cloud’, which had a bluesy ZZ Top feel and the best whistling from Katrina this side of ‘Wind of Change’, his slide work was excellent. However that was just the precursor to another neglected former Waves single in ‘Lovely Lindsay’ to end in a vehicle for some lengthy soloing that in K and TW’s heyday would have been more likely coming from a Gary Moore or Yngwie Malmsteen, suggesting he is a metal fan manque.

It also gave the lie to any suggestion that the gig might fall outside this website’s ‘rock’ remit and the same was true of ‘Shut Your Mouth’, full of punky energy with Katrina pulling some entertainingly angry-looking facial poses as she lurched towards the crowd and sang ‘shut your big fat mouth’ at them.

Then for something completely different as, after speaking of her pride in winning Eurovision, she brought on Nickie French, a former British Eurovision rep herself, to duet on ‘Love Shine a Light’. In fact the latter, boasting a powerful set of pipes took the majority of the song, but as everyone was swaying along it was the looks and smiles of the two close friends that really warmed the cockles.

Introducing it as the planned hit before ‘Walking on Sunshine’, ‘Do You Want Crying’ saw the band showing a power pop tightness at its finest before it segued into drummer Andy Mapp playing the unmistakable intro to ‘…Sunshine’, where an extended version saw each band member given a brief solo slot. It is one of those ubiquitous songs so it would be easy to be jaded, but hearing its original creator sing it was a memorable moment.

However this thoroughly enjoyable evening, with a band who at times were a revelation, proved that Katrina is about more than that song. It would be good to see her profile rise and legacy secured with more live appearances, though it would be hard to top the vibe generated by this intimate pub atmosphere.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

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Power Plays w/c 11 November 2024

ARCANE MOON Hello Sun (indie)
S8NT ELEKTRIC XTC (Long Branch Records)
ARCANA KINGS Here We Go (Curtain Call Records)
KLOGR face The Unknown (Zeta Factory)
BEYOND UNBROKEN Dance With The Dead (FiXT)
REVENGIN Decadent Feeling (Wormholedeath)

Featured Albums w/c 11 November 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)