Fresh off the back of last year’s 40th Anniversary tour, New Model Army are back on the road, promising to pick up where they left off in December, playing a wide variety of material from their bulging back catalogue.
Tonight, Edinburgh’s La Belle Angel welcomes the band who refuses to be labelled, not that that ever stopped anyone. A few definitions flung about over the years include post-punk, protest-punk, folk-rock, metal, goth-metal…you get the idea. Never ones to conform and shunning the mainstream music industry, they’ve always lurked just above the surface, a bit like Edinburgh’s Cowgate, which tonight sees their staunch following spill from its pubs, decked out as dark as the dingy but delightful thoroughfare as they head towards the sell-out gig.
Under a veil of fog, original frontman and guitarist Justin Sullivan is flanked by Michael Dean on drums, Ceri Monger on bass and Dean White on guitar and keyboards in what Sullivan’s been quoted as saying is his “favourite version of the band”. They open with End of Days, a timely number from 2019’s From Here, a desperate conviction building in Sullivan’s crushing cries of ‘But when the high and the mighty spread their wings / Only shadowed things can grow in the shadow beneath’ before marching back to 1987 with the rolling drums of The Charge. Although there are over 30 years between these two numbers, the intention is similar, reinforcing the astuteness of Sullivan’s weighty lyrics. There’s a feral intensity in his eyes as he wails ‘brave, brave hundreds’ through the ferocious wall of guitars. Good Lord, just blink Justin, blink!
Down in the audience a white-vested chap lurches around on a set of weary shoulders while all around him heads begin to sway. Their loyal fan base is today known as ‘The Family’…and what a sweat-fest of a family reunion it is tonight, where later in the hardcore section, a band of blokes whip off their t-shirts like it’s a sunny Saturday in Leith Walk, unfathomed by the the fact that they’re no longer in the first flushes of youth. Then again, why the heck not, I mean what’s a hairy back cleavage™ between friends, family or followings as faithful as NMA’s?
Impurity’s energetic Lust for Power follows before Sullivan says a few words, admitting that he won’t be saying much about the current catastrophes afflicting the world as we’re all too aware anyway, linking up nicely to 1984, which he’s currently dedicating to the sacked P&O workers, his vehemence clear in his gruelling vocals.
Never Arriving, a moody bass-driven track off From Here is up next and pounds towards an anthemic chorus, while its sublimely eerie interlude sees White, Sullivan and Monger skulk in the gloom like a bunch of zombies who’ve escaped the clutches of bodysnatchers in the Old Town’s vaults.
From Here’s epic title track follows, laden with atmospheric, hypnotic drums. A few more numbers are let loose from the archives including Western Dreams, Fate and Born Feral which sees Monger switch to drums, before the haunting Before I Get Old, which no doubt resonates with the majority of the audience, and other Impurity favourite, Vanity. A striking rendition of Bittersweet, their 1983 breakthrough song, originally championed by John Peel, thrills with its upbeat melody, betraying the desperate lyrics in true bittersweet style. Angry Planet completes the set as stirrings of discontent brew in the crowd with murmurs of ‘Vengeance’, the absent elephant in the room.
Tonight, as Sullivan promised, they run through a mix of their back catalogue, which covers 17 studio albums for starters. Who knows how they ever decide what to play, but it could be worse, they could stick the whole lot on random and play the first twenty. Alas you can never please everyone, whatever the setlist. It’s the age-old argument which rears its head at many gigs and is definitely not confined to the NMA camp. No one’s wrong, it’s all a matter of preference, the classics or the hidden gems, which in themselves are subjective.
As the band return for the encore, Sullivan admits he’s been “blown away by the Russians who‘ve protested against the war on Ukraine” and dedicates Courage to them. The Ballad of Bodmin Pill from Thunder and Consolation follows, as he comments that us “Scots are going to be independent soon” pondering why everyone south of the border shouldn’t then move up to a civilised country. Go Justin, we’ll save you a boxroom! They finish with Betcha, B-side to Bittersweet, Monger’s red locks hurling a final flurry of sweat into the awestruck crowd.
It was around 1990 that my flatmate force-fed me a diet of Farmfoods sausages and NMA. Something must’ve sunk in because these songs have never left me, mind you neither has she, showing up once more for tonight’s gig, disappointed only by the fact that Sullivan isn’t joining us for a post-gig pint of cider, the old scoundrel that he is.
However you define NMA, they never have and never will jump on anyone’s bandwagon, and let’s face it, there’s more conviction in Sullivan’s shiny ole tooth than the whole of Westminster. Forever authentic and armed with poignant lyrics as relevant today as they were in the 1980s, never change guys. We need the likes of you more than ever!
If you can get your hands on a ticket, the UK tour continues until 26th March, while Justin Sullivan is touring solo in Europe during May.
Words: Shirley Mack @musingsbymarie
Pictures: Calum Mackintosh @ayecandyphotography