Jon and Lou team up for new project
You're probably more familiar with Codeine Velvet Club than you realise.
The band, which comes to the Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea on Thursday, is a new musical collaboration featuring Jon Lawler – lead singer and chief songwriter of The Fratellis – and singer-songwriter Lou Hickey.
In this new amalgamation, the pair celebrate a shared love of '60s girl-boy duets, dramatic orchestral pop, and dark post-war Hollywood and Las Vegas romanticism.
For Lawler, Codeine Velvet Club offers a respite from the whirlwind of touring, recording and non-stop promo that enveloped The Fratellis after their debut album, Costello Music, exploded in 2006, buoyed by a string of anthemic singles including Chelsea Dagger and Henrietta.
When the promotional commitments for the group's second album, Here We Stand, ended in March this year, it was agreed that the Glasgow three-piece should take a well-earned breather.
Never one for resting on his laurels Jon offered to help write a track for family friend Lou Hickey.
Vanity Kills, as it came to be titled, emerged as a swaying, jazzy, big-band duet, tinged with noir-ish menace and shades of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's waspish 1960s guy-gal duelling.
The quality of the track inspired the pair to embark on their own album, a record which Jon wanted to sound like 'John Barry playing with a rock'n'roll band'.
Vanity Kills was released on Monday, while the self-titled album will come out on December 28.
Support on Thursday comes from Light Effect from 8pm. Tickets cost 8 from (023) 9286 3911 or wedgewood-rooms.co.uk
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Friday 10 February 2012
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