There's a sudden buzz around Lonelady, and there should be. The Lady (can we call here Lone for short?) has been bunkered down for a while, and someone at tonight's gig tells me that this is her first live outing since supporting Wire in 2008. The magic detective powers of the internet tell us that Lonelady is aka Julie Campbell. One of her people her tonight keeps referring to her as Julie then correcting himself. I think they like that little frisson of self created mystery or is that something that's eating it's own tail from some press somewhere?

We exchange a minimal number of words with the band beforehand, and I don't know if they're nervous - they just seem ... un-phased and focussed.

I've done my background, but obviously not well enough because I'm expecting another 2009 synth-girl. Perhaps my lazy brain is taken in by her La Roux hair cut. When Lonelady actually get on stage, they kick excellently and in a guitar oriented way. The Roland machine that I expected is replaced by a live drummer, there's keyboards and Julie herself plays guitar. The rhythm back end is as tight as Frantz and Weymouth back in the day. I'm always torn about saying that a band 'sounds like...' so I won't, and they don't but that Talking Heads thought ain't that far off the mark in terms of precision and quality.

Lonelady seem like they come from that art school end of post punk. I'm immediately impressed, they have an easy and relaxed stage presence and don't need to be chatting up the audience, the music does that well enough. They are as professional as any I've seen, keen to deliver and the sound delivered in Cargo is way up there in quality.

There's a lot of Joy Division comparison out there which the band themselves seem quite happy to indulge in. There's none of Curtis's possessed terror, but yes as far as that precise electro rock goes, I'll agree. They're confident enough to start the set with current single 'Immaterial.'

Despite the stage time getting brought forward on the day of the gig and them being up early in the night, there's a decent crowd. I wonder if any of them are the 'London scenesters' that another Manchester female singer told me about, honing in on the latest new thing.


Lonelady has been going since 2005 or so, certainly long enough to play SXSW in 2006 and have spent the last little while bunkered down. You can geek out reading about the process here LoneLady, It's a 4 part blog of setting up her own ramshackle recording process for her upcoming album 'Nerve Up'. I'm looking forward to hearing that, the more so after the live show.

Comparing Lonelady to themselves, their recorded stuff on MySpace is drier, on stage they feel warmer and less clinical.

LONELADY on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

Worth checking out? Hell yeah - you can anyway without obligation, by downloading single Immaterial from LoneLady