As the Poppies’ set at Birmingham’s O2 Academy drew to an end on Friday night, co-vocalist Mary Byker barked into his microphone: “Reform is on the rise? Why is that? We shouldn’t be singing this song anymore”. The song in question had their home crowd pogoing like lunatics and howling back at the stage, “Ich bin ein Auslander auch!” at the top of their lungs.
Strangely, Pop Will Eat Itself aren’t really thought of as one of the most political bands around, even if they did also play a rerub of their 1994 collaboration with the Prodigy, “Their Law” during the evening. Early in their career the band certainly wasn’t viewed as one of the most politically correct outfits. However, they know what’s right and they aren’t afraid to stand up and say so. Nevertheless, in the part of the country where the idiotic Raise the Colours campaign first made itself known, their stance might have been seen as somewhat contentious. Fortunately, not. The Poppies’ crew made it crystal clear that they don’t stand with tin pot fascists. By any means.
At the beginning of the night, PWEI had burst onto the stage to a full throttle “Wise Up! Sucker” with Crabbi yelling into his megaphone and the rest of the band ping-ponging around the stage like lunatics. This set the tone for a wild and lively evening, playing to a crowd who looked like they’d all been present during the band’s purple patch in the early 1990s and probably don’t get to shake a tailfeather that much these days. They all went for it with full gusto right until the house lights came back up at the end of the show though.
It was set that took in classics like “Get the Girl! Kill the Baddies!”, “Def Con One” and “PWEIzation” but also the lion’s share of the band’s new album Delete Everything – and there was no obvious drop in energy when they moved from one to the other. Obviously, it helped that “Built for Fun” is a tribute to the very people who were bouncing around in the stalls, with its refrain of “Hey man! Where you from? Black Country and Birmingham” but tunes like “Incarcerate the Rich” and “Play a Fast ‘Un” got just as much love.
After a short breather at the end of their main set, the Poppies returned to the stage for a wild and chaotic “Can U Dig It?”. This extended take slid into Bocca Juniors’ immense “Raise”, with its refrain of “Raise your hands if you think you understand / Raise your standards if you don’t” and again had the audience howling along. From there, it was on to the call and response of “Mofo Face” and finally the sonic blitzkrieg of “Karmadrome”. This saw Crabbi and Mary Byker perform leaping chest bumps and Crabbi crowd surfing over the top of the sweaty masses, before the band finally left the stage with a “Spread the love, people”.
A fine evening was undoubtedly had by everyone. Both on stage and in the stalls.
