This is a more than welcome return for a band whose last single Halo I reviewed last year. However, in the interim, Jonny Cola was diagnosed with End stage Kidney failure and his life was saved by his fiance Heidi Heelz donating one of her kidneys to him. An selfless act of true love if ever there was one. So the fact that they have a single out at all is miracle enough.
My review copy came as a DVD and it will be out as a 7" single and download and Youtube video.
Straight to Video opens with Jonny Cola at home putting on a video called Straight to Video that as the song starts opens in a seedy Soho club and as the patrons behave accordingly. Johnny walks among them singing like early Suede meeting late 70's Bowie with a touch of the Jake Shillingford's but not as affected as that. When he joins the A-grades on stage they are glammed up and charged up but as they play the patrons ignore them, but you don't want to ignore this single. I won't spoil the twists in the video by explaining what happens next, but let's just say it's no surprise that they have David Ryder-Prangley as producer who knows how to harness a glam racket and a twisted tale.
But when we re-join Johnny in his flat it's time for him to get up and leave his flat (past a picture of Bowie) and head down Marlborough Road. The one they are singing about is in Upper Holloway. Johnny finds the band in a rehearsal room in the building that used to house one of London's biggest rock band T-shirts warehouse/factories.
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The rehearsal room is plastered in Bowie and Pulp posters making clear reference to the band's heroes. As the song continues, the band leave the studio and catch a cab downtown getting changed into their glam finery and putting on make-up on the way. It's a nice vignette, the visuals are good and Mauro plays a fizzing solo that marries Ronson to Butler and comes out sounding extremely cool.
It's very easy to sit and watch the two videos on repeat as the DVD just loops round and before you know it you've watched it 3 or 4 times in a row without getting bored.
They'll be playing live for the first time since Johnny's transplant at the Buffalo Bar at Highbury Corner on the 22nd of March at the band's own Some Weird Sin club night. See ya there?
Jonny Cola & The A-Grades
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