Some things I've written:: I had to do a review for my performing arts c/wk

so I thought I'd share it with you :)

Be the reviewer coursework- Flamboyant Bella 5/12/08

Before Friday night, I hadn’t been to a Flamboyant Bella gig since 14th February because I was in Africa last time they played Stoke, therefore this gig was greatly anticipated, I bought my ticket way back in September! Last time was amazing and Flamboyant Bella are and probably always will be my favourite band of all time, yet, they are still unsigned, it’s crazy! They’ve self re-leased 2 EP’s and a single, I own all of these. There was a fairly big crowd, even as early as 7.30pm when we walked in, as the support band’s had managed to gather a lot of support, I’d have said that the gig would have been quite close to being a sell out. The support bands preformed well and got everyone in exactly the right frame of mind for the headliners, this was something which the Sugarmill made a mistake on last time we saw Flamboyant Bella as the support bands were shockingly awful, I can remember even sitting on the stage with my back to them and not even caring that it was a rude thing to do, I cared more about my aching feet! It was great because a lot of the crowd (including me) knew the second support band so there was a very friendly and supportive atmosphere and people started to mosh and dance.

The stage isn’t set out particularly special because Flamboyant Bella are not the kind of band that would feel they need to make the stage look different or to use a load of smoke machines or lighting effects and put up flashy banners, alls there is that give away a clue as to who the headline band are is Doreen (the drummer, no-one knows his real name)’s drum kit that have the letters ‘FB’ taped onto them and last time we saw them thy had a few balloons with the bands name on them and the lyric ‘giving you full satisfaction.’ The band walk on not long after the support bands finished (they don’t like to keep their fans waiting) to huge screams from fans, of which they have many, most of them between the ages of 14 and 21 because that’s their targeted audience. They kick things off with lots and lots of snyth and then burst into their first single, Touch (which was released on the 4th August this year). The crowd sing and dance along as they all know the song because it’s up on their myspace profile. This song has a lovely bright keyboard riff, an electro- poppy drum beat and a distinctive bass line. It’s a fierce song of teenage lust which nobody couldn’t resist dancing to. Throughout the set they do a few new songs that nobody at all is familiar with but people still move to them simply because Flamboyant Bella, with help of the support bands have created an hyperactive atmosphere that people just completely lose themselves and their inhibitions in. They manage to do this even with hangovers from the night before, Flo (the singer and guitarist) explains and they just seem to completely forget that they have hangover, Flamboyant Bella are just so in love with their fans, something which I do think is a very important quality to have as band as I’ve seem some good bands before but when I’ve met them, they’ve been miserable and it just really puts you off them, to maintain the love you have to be good to your fans and treat them well. Flamboyant Bella classics are sandwiched in between their new material and the crowd go insane, from the down beat and beautiful song, ‘Love has got me Stoned’ (which James told me he wrote when he was about 12 or 13!) to the snythy riffs of ‘Absolutely Wankered’ and ‘Crazy Cool’. The crowd are surfing, dancing, moshing and glow-sticks a-go-go, Flamboyant Bella are very, very successful in creating mass hysteria, which in my opinion is what makes a good performance. Flo’s beautiful high-pitched voiced harmonises well with James’s, the guitar riffs featured in the more guitar-based songs like ‘Sexy Beast’ and ‘My Skies’ are kept simple but effective and most of their songs are in major keys which are good in keeping the fans on a high, apart from ‘Love has Got me Stoned’ when Flo always explains to the fans before hands in her Hitchin accent that they’re “gonna take it down a notch now.”

Here are the chords to the ‘My skies’ introduction:

D add9 , A sus4 x4

The guitarist, just changes between this chords using a simple but catchy strumming pattern.

I don’t quite know where Flamboyant Bella musically get their inspiration from as they’re like nothing you’ve ever heard before, but I think their lyrics are in some ways possibly influenced by punk rock as they’re very rebellious and seem to be deliberately rebellious as if they set out to offend older people like teachers and parents. Their lyrics portray typical rebellious teenage acts such as mass alcohol consumption, sex, smoking and herbal high’s. From the lyrics we just get the impression that Flamboyant Bella are just out to enjoy themselves and that’s all that matters to them really, we see this in their song ‘Second, minute, hour’:

“Fags, beer and herbal high’s, just an aid to enjoy my life, gonna live now before I die, cos we’re a long time, dead.”

This song always goes down a storm and has become a ‘Flamboyant Bella anthem,’ the crowd yell back the lyrics at them, and to me, it’s a song which I find is so honest and makes a lot of sense, although I’m sure an uptight person would probably disagree.

‘Absolutely Wankered’ is a very, snythy, upbeat song about getting really drunk (the clue’s in the title), a song which I think that most teenagers can really relate to because they’ve been in similar situations themselves. It’s the final song which the band play and they chose it wisely as it’s the song which everyone just loses their minds to and it’s a clear favourite, although it isn’t mine, it’s ‘Get a reaction’ but unfortunately they couldn’t play it at the gig because it’s hard song to sing because it’s so quick but powerful also and Flo was only just recovering from a chest infection. The song ends in an array of screams and shouts for more and the band come out to meet their many fans almost straight after coming off stage, their fans just love them really for their kindness, hyper activeness (they dance around a bit on stage), honesty and rebellious appeal. They certainly attract their target audience. At the ages of 18, apart from Mitch, who’s 16, they seem to be living the life that any teenager would be jealous of and it won’t be long now before all of the teenagers in Britain are fans.