Gig review: The Slits

Published on Wednesday 14 October 2009 18:57

THE SLITS **** STEREO, GLASGOW

WHILE their contemporaries Magazine and The Specials have also reformed and engaged in some high-profile gigging this year, it seems only appropriate that the return of DIY femme punks The Slits should be a more chaotic, feral and intimate affair, though no less celebratory an occasion.

Irrepressible original frontwoman Ari Up and indomitable bassist Tessa Pollitt have recruited the next generation of instinctive, untutored musicians to this latest incarnation – including Hollie Cook, the daughter of Sex Pistols' drummer Paul Cook, on keyboards, ululation, shrieking and other shrill vocal interjections.

Kicking off with their early single Man Next Door – a fine example of their spectral dub reggae sound – they crashed through a generous helping of their back catalogue, plus material from their brand new Trapped Animal album. Typical Girls was as odd, bouncy and joyous as the day it was conceived, while their version of I Heard It Through The Grapevine – officially the greatest cover of all time – was irresistibly funky, fidgety and fun.

Ari Up, resplendent in a vintage tartan coat and with her dreadlocks sculptured into a pile on her head, was chief mischief maker but also the glue in the performance. Her expectations of the "craziest" Scottish audience became more extravagant – she wanted fighting, nudity and, most demanding of all, she wanted political debate.

What she got was gleeful participation from an audience whose wide age range testified to the enduring influence of these original riot girls.