After a dose of braiding at a friend’s craft event, resulting in me going a little bit overboard on the hottest day in July on Sunday, I headed over to Dalston to catch Peggy Sue  play the soundtrack of the 1963 cult film Scorpio Rising in a bunker.  The bunker looked like this – they’d transformed it into a make shift movie theatre:

Photo by Shaun Mooney

 

Admittedly, I’ve never seen the film, or actually never heard of it (I’m in my early twenties okay? That’s allowed right?). However, I enjoyed the intimate session immensely and I did know many of the songs – a lot of which I’d actually danced to in a field in Suffolk at Latitude Festival in the early hours of the morning the weekend previous.  The acoustics in the bunker were pretty spot on for projecting the stunning voices of Katy and Rosa and in fact all of the typically strange instruments involved in the lo-fi performance. Lo-fi, because, let’s face it, sorting out technicalities in a bunker is pretty hard work. They also had live clips of the film projected behind them and of course the songs were played in order of the film soundtrack.

 

The album opens with ‘Fool’s Rush In’, originally sung by Kenneth Anger on the soundtrack; this version’s a much slower, darker sounding one – a pretty standard tone for Peggy Sue.

Other highlights of the LP include ‘My Boyfriend’s Back’  which they’ve kept simliar to its 60s counterpart and a multi layered acapella rendition of ‘Hit The Road Jack.’  ’Heatwave’ is also down with these tracks as one of my favourites, probably because I absolutely love the original and they’ve stuck to it’s original style.

 

There’s also a slightly folked up version of ‘He’s a Rebel’ on there which I like a lot; maybe because it features plenty of snare drum – something I’ll always have a soft spot for.

 

The album finishes with the vocal-less yet still totally gorgeous, ‘Wipeout’; a heavily drum based track, helped by a stereotypical sixties guitar riff. A nice way to end the LP that may well become the soundtrack to my summer. If you’re looking for a nostalgic lift then this album’s for you.

 

 

Order the album here.  Peggy Sue will also be playing an instore at Rough Trade East on Saturday at 7pm. 

 

 

Words: Katie Wilkinson