Little Angels – Big Bad & Back
Little Angels, the band from the coastal town of Scarborough, which started out as Zeus in 1984, grew into one of the biggest British hard rock bands of its generation in the early nineties. They had eleven top 40 singles, including “Womankind”, “She’s A Little Angel” and “Boneyard”, and in 1993 their album Jam reached number one. Little Angels shared the stage with Van Halen, Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Faith No More, Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi. They never performed on stage in the Netherlands. In 1994, they said goodbye with a sold-out show at the Royal Albert Hall, followed by a brief reunion around Download Festival in 2012.
Now the classic line-up is back: Toby Jepson (vocals), brothers Bruce (guitar) and Jim Dickinson (keyboards), Mark Plunkett (bass) and Mark Richardson (drums), who later played with Skunk Anansie and Feeder. A new record was never on the agenda. Yet new songs emerged during rehearsals for the reunion tour, which is largely sold out in England. “We would never make a new record if we had nothing left to say,” says the band. “But it turns out we do.”
With Big Bad & Back, the circle is complete. The title is a nod to their 1989 Big Bad EP. “You Want Love” is a new version of “I Want Love” from their very first mini-album Too Posh To Mosh from 1987, now as a duet with Doris Brendel. And for the mix, they called Mike Fraser, the Canadian sound engineer who also mixed Jam back then. Fraser was behind the controls on Permanent Vacation and Pump by Aerosmith, co-produced Ballbreaker by AC/DC and worked on Balance by Van Halen, Load by Metallica, Sonic Temple by The Cult and the album by Coverdale/Page. The band explicitly asked him to recapture the spirit of those records.
He succeeded. The five songs were recorded live in one room in a single week at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, the old-fashioned way. The vocals have not been tuned, and the drums are often the first take. You can hear it: this sounds warm, raw and alive.
The opener “All For One” is immediately the strongest asset. It has a big chorus, brass and a guitar solo by Bruce Dickinson that will make old fans beam. Put it alongside “Boneyard” or any of their other old hits and it holds its own effortlessly. This song will bring the house down on tour. “Hero (That Was Then, This Is Now)” looks back without wallowing. “This is no longer about youth,” says Jepson. “It’s about where we came from. It’s about coming home.” “Small Town Boys” has the swagger of The Who, and “Raised To The Ground” closes without a single moment to catch your breath.
And Toby Jepson? He still sounds like a young rock god, with a phenomenal voice. All five songs hit you right in the face, and before you know it, you’re headbanging around your living room in your fifties as if you were 24 again. Life is beautiful. Give The People What They Want, The Kinks called their 1981 album. That is exactly what Little Angels do here. Their huge, loyal fanbase has never stopped loving this band, and now gets what it wants, and frankly, what it needs too.
Criticism? For the nitpickers: this is pure nostalgia. But very, very enjoyable nostalgia. The only real problem is that five songs are not enough. After this tour, there simply has to be an album. All good things come back, and so do Little Angels. What a kick-ass band they still are. (8/10) (Big Bad Music)
