Yabba Dabba Doo! Prehistoric Rock 'n' roll comes to the South Coast With The Tridents and Joanna & The Dropouts along for the ride..
Tonight was the night that Cavegirl & The Neandergals came to town. I think you’ll agree that they are, without a doubt, everyone’s favourite prehistoric three-piece all-girl Rock’n’roll beat combo. All the way from Bedrock too! Fronted by the formidable Cavegirl on lead vocals and double bass, Suzi Sabretooth on the jungle drums and Betty Brutal on guitar, they officially formed in the year 2022 (This was, of course, after being re-animated since being frozen in time when dinosaurs walked the Earth).
Cavegirl & The Neandergals have since taken their bone-rattling roadshow all over the UK, Europe and the USA, so we were surely in for a treat – at a Saturday Matinée show!
The opening act this afternoon, were the Brighton/London-based Joanna & The Dropouts. Formed in 2019, this band plays garage rock/pop fusion, and have shared the stage with us and coming acts such as The Darts (not the late 70s pop act), ARXX and Gen & The Degenerates. In 2024, they even graced the ‘Croissant Neuf‘ stage at Glastonbury Festival. Tonight’s line-up consists of Joanna on vocals and guitar, her husband Ross on bass guitar, Charlotte on the keys and Cheryl on drums.
We’d just been to visit Spike’s Punk Photography Exhibition beforehand, so what better way to follow that up than to get to Prince Albert for early doors, to witness Joanna & The Dropouts. The room was already quite full at this point, and the band took to the stage in front of eager faces. They opened their set with “George Baby!‘, treating us to some pop-infused rock ‘n’ roll with a dash of surf thrown in for good measure. Joanna’s guitar was joyously fuzzed out and Charlotte’s keyboards were transmitting some nice kooky sounds, not too dissimilar to the B-52s at times. ‘Bad News‘ was up next (nothing to do with that classic fictional UK rock band), followed by ‘Mr Honey Pot‘, which I managed to film on my camera for posterity:
‘Bad At Being Good” was particularly rocking and a rolling, and ‘Miss Frankenstein’ kept up with the Halloween theme of the season. Joanna said at one point, that the band were feeling a bit poorly at the moment, but her husband Ross helpfully proclaimed “I feel great!“ He even treated us to some of his kazoo skills at one point!
We were led into a singalong of “Na Na Na’s” before Joanna & The Dropouts played their last song of the afternoon, in the form of ‘Sold Your Soul’. It was a cool start to the day, and the band won the crowd over well and truly, with their poppy, Garage Punk, B-movie soundtrack of a set which left us all with a few earworms to go to the bar with.
The main support of the afternoon were The Tridents, who are based in Brighton, and who helped organise the event today along with Stay Sick promotions. They formed in 2022 and have played their self-described “spaghetti-flavoured surf music” all across the UK, releasing their debut EP in 2023 (‘Fiat Panda Escape Sequence’). They have a new album coming out soon, titled ‘Creature From The Hove Lagoon‘, from which a few songs can be heard on their bandcamp page. The band is made up of Kevin (Guitar, vocals and whistling), Ross (guitar), Jamie (bass) and Chris on the pots and pans.
Before we knew it, Surf’s Up time was here, as The Tridents marched onstage, looking resplendent in their stripey green and black attire. The first song was amusingly titled ‘Creature From The Hove Lagoon’ (Any local people in the audience would have surely chortled at this). Surf music is predominantly instrumental, and these guys are very good at it. Not many people can pull off that ‘Dick Dale‘ sound, but this band sure can. The follow-up song also had its tongue firmly in its cheek, going by the catchy name of ‘Fiat Panda Escape Sequence’ (see video). This song also had a guitar hook not too dissimilar to the B-52s ‘Rock Lobster“, and that’s a good thing.
‘Secret Agent Man‘ saw the addition of some Elvis-styled vocals from Kevin, and by the last song, the guitarists in the band leapt off the stage and played their tunes amongst the audience (I’m sure the drummer Chris would have joined them if he could). A top set by The Tridents to get hip to, daddio!
This afternoon’s gig had totally sold out, so by the time Cavegirl & The Neandergals took to the stage, the room was a bit of a squeeze. The band had played in Weymouth the night before, so their feet must have been sore after that journey in the ‘Cavemobile’. The 3-piece didn’t let that put them off though, as they launched straight into ‘Neanderthal Man (Run Run)’ whilst looking resplendent in their native Bedtock attire, complete with trademark bones in their hair.
‘Hound Dog’ was up next, giving Cavegirl and the gang a chance to add their own flavour to this old classic. ‘Savage Breed’ was a bluesy affair and Betty Brutal more than proved she has the guitar chops. Cavegirl’s double bass was covered in leopard fur (probably from a previous hunt), and her banter with the audience was very entertaining.
Many of the songs had a feminist theme, but ‘Ooga Booga Kinda Love‘ was an ode to a male brute, with some amusing ‘spear’ metaphors in the lyrics (Cavegirl mentioned that this particular song was a little awkward to perform in front of her dad during the previous night’s gig). The band’s tribute to the iconic Bettie Page was up next, called ‘The Tragic Tale Of Bettie Page’.
George Thorogood got a mention shortly afterwards, and that could only mean one thing.. a prehistoric-flavoured version of ‘Bad To The Bone‘ of course! Suzi Sabretooth began to hit her jungle drums with a pair of bones at this point, and Betty Brutal played slide guitar with a beer bottle (surely the only way how!). This signaled Betty’s exit from the stage as she wandered through the audience, inviting people to participate by grabbing the beer bottle and getting in on the slide action. My wife was the first unsuspecting victim, but she soon realised she had a new-found talent!
‘Psycho Bitch‘ was a standout song for me, which went up a few gears into a full Psychobilly freakout, showing off Cavegirl’s fine double bass playing skills in the process. It was fast approaching the end of the band’s set, but not before they played a Rock’n’roll number, ‘Past Your Prime‘ to the sweaty crowd. They said that this song was about 1950’s male musicians who wrote about chasing much younger women than themselves – so young, in fact, that the musicians could end up on a register.. ‘Rocker’ was the band’s last song and it did exactly what it said on the tin. Betty Brutal wandered through the audience again, but this time she laid on the floor at the foot of the stage. She was quickly revived though, and she re-joined the rest of the band for a wig-out climax to the final song. The band delivered a ‘Yabba-Dabba-Doozie‘ of a set today, and I sure hope to see Cavegirl & The Neandergals back in Brighton soon!
Main Photo Credit / All Photos And Videos: SONNY TYLER
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I have been writing reviews for Brighton & Hove News, and more recently Vive Le Rock magazine for a few years now. Previously, I could be spotted playing drums for many a band over the decades. A noisy habit developed whilst wearing short trousers at school, and one that has had me touring around the UK and Europe. Punk rock is my life, but I am also quite eclectic. I am an avid gig go-er and music devourer, and can feel out of sorts if a gig date is not on the horizon. I have also been known to put gigs on myself in order to fill those gaps.
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