New Corsairs On The Block

Fêted as this week’s latest “Next Big Thing”,
Pete And The Pirates hail from land-locked Royal Berkshire.
Royal Berkshire, as I’m well aware, is many a nautical mile
from the warm salty seas of the Caribbean.
But even so (as the band take to The Borderline’s
small subterranean stage), I’d be lying if I said
I wasn’t slightly disappointed by their lack of
sartorial resemblance to the buccaneers of old.
Sure, I wasn’t expecting peg-legs
or pretty parakeets on shoulders,
but a tricorn hat or two would’ve been nice.
A token Jolly Roger perhaps? A gold tooth?
Maybe a suggestion of scurvy around the drummer’s gums?
But hey, maybe that’s just the old-school
Adam & The Ants new-romantic Sexperson in me!
What quickly becomes apparent however,
is the fact that Pete And the Pirates
have saved their swashbuckling spirit for the set-list.
Such feelgood rabble-rousing boisterous energy.
Such hummable whimsical hand-clapping raucousness.
Would it be too presumptuous of me I wonder
to describe this herky-jerky shiver-me-timbers 5-piece
as the new Blur? Afterall, it's about time somebody was.
And no, The Kaiser Chiefs do not count!

Pete & The Pirates: Black Cab Session