Not for them the faux hub-cap stealing Keith Richards look or sound, these men and women looked and sounded like they were from an era when bands weren’t afraid to say they read books, shopped in Oxfam or admitted they actually had female role models. So imagine a sound akin to the Au-Pairs, Huggy Bear and Shangri Las backing Alma Cogan and you’d be somewhere near the aural delights provided by The Long Blondes to a hugely appreciative and very mixed crowd. Unsurprisingly Academy 3 was populated by scores of Kate Jackson wannabes - and, why not? Kate Jackson is already a possessor of one of the great voices in modern music, and with a look most fifties femme fatales would have died for; she’s going to be style magazine fodder for years to come. In fact, her amazing voice dragged some of the clunkier tunes to heights they may not have otherwise reached. The Long Blondes were totally fabulous and with lyrics like, “Edie Sedgwick, Anna Karenina, Arlene Dahl, I just want to be a sweetheart”, they’re a band almost too smart and culturally literate for these prosaic times. The new superstars and sweethearts of indie rock anyone? | 
