Ramonas.

Lev 2 Esquires Bedford. 4th March 2005.

You want to hear my perverted little idea of heaven? A load of women dressed as Japanese schoolgirls playing Saxon covers in Esquires. Never likely to happen though, is it, so imagine my delight when the next best thing rolled into town! That’s right, a load of women dressed in stockings and suspenders playing Ramones covers!

So were my filthy little desires satisfied by The Ramonas? Well, kind of, but I have to say I was left a little disappointed. Sure, the Ramone frightwigs were out in force (although I’m sure the drummer’s was her real haircut, which is really quite disturbing)! Sure, aside from The Ramones’ masterwork ‘Baby I Love You’ they did most of the classics. Sure, they could say “1,2,3,4” just like The Ramones used to…

But after twenty minutes they just hadn’t convinced me that I wanted to sniff some glue, or that I wanted to howl at the moon (sha-la-la), or even that Sheena is a punk rocker. And I think they might have, except for the fact that as well as trying to look like Joey Ramone (in bad drag), the singer was trying to sound like him too. She, being a woman, didn’t. She just sounded like someone who couldn’t sing.

Very nice concept, shame about the execution.

Review by Steve Norman. www.bedfordesquires.co.uk