It is hard not to love a band from Brighton England, who end a hard, smooth, sweet 25 minute set opening for Manic Street Preacher's at London's "Roundhouse", by singing "New York City" over and over again, as Ramona did on Sunday.
Harder still not to love a band who get a slot on ITunes highly coveted Festival without having actually released anything on ITunes.
And hardest of all not to love a band with a lead singer who is also a face and a model, but doesn't get overwhelmed by Lead Singeritus and so manages to maintain a close friendship and a tight sound with the rest of the band.
But why bother trying? I love Ramona.
I have only seen Ramona live once (though I did get lead singer Karen Anne to sing "Love At the Pier" into my recorder!), an acoustic set in the Village a couple of years ago. They were excellent and they have improved. The second song was a stunning "How Long" with an extended coda that cut the recorded version, later there will be a "Trophy Wife", a newer song, which doesn't cut the recorded version. Moral? Ramona are better in the studio than they were and they are more who they are now than they were then.
You can tell a band by its cover, on Sunday they performed a deeply felt "Five Years". In context the song is all exposition -Bowie is setting up the parameters of his story. Out of context, Karen builds to a different conclusion: she moves the song to "I kiss you, you're beautiful, I want you to walk." the sci-fi disaster awaiting Bowie's Spiders is transmuted to a different anxiety. It is a superb vocal performance and the band is atmospheric and intense. The new wave-glammy has a helplessness at odds with their persona.
The band have added a guitarist for the gig, to give Karen the opportunity to move. So it is a shame she doesn't move more. Neither do the rest of the band, but they are a good looking lot, guitarist Charlie Snelling looks like a the Strokes younger brother and bassist James Watts is all buzzcut right out of the army toughness. Ramona hold the eye.
A pin up band and while they still sound like they've heard the Ramones, this ain't punk. It is new wave refracted thru time. Tonight the first song, "Tell That Girl" sounds like early Blondie, and later "Hearts Are Made To Stray" has the rumbly power of the Pretenders. On the latter you can hear how much Karen has grown as a singer -there is an intensity in her attack and a maturity to her delivery.
But the band comes into its own, becomes Ramona, only when the moment demands it: "How Long", "Five Years" and the closing song "New York City" are signature and self aware: a melodic, guitar based hard rock out of fashion yet totally modern. Shiny like pop, shot up like rock; a glam triumph.
Incidentally, I streamed the set on iTunes so go ahead and do it as well, just go to the ITunes stores And the pix are not from the gig, and this video is also not from the gig!