Rachel Stamp “Now I’m Nailed To Your Bedroom Wall”

There are probably quite a few bands where you can’t help but feel that in a different time, with different circumstances they’d have been truly huge. That’s certainly true with Rachel Stamp. We remember the first time we saw them live and thought they were a special band who had a great mix of glamour and punk rock n roll (what more could you want?!). Thankfully, they’ve recently produced this compilation which, with a bit of luck, will bring the band to even more people’s attention.

You will instantly fall back in love with the band from opener “Black Cherry” a song which is a great example of modern sleaze rock. Together with tracks like “Queen Of The Universe”, “My Sweet Rose” and “Twisted”, it shows the bands ability to play punk rock songs with a glamour edge. At one time they would have got caught up in the hair metal/sleaze rock genre. However, songs like “Dead Girl” and “Les Oceans De Venus” have more substance and a darker edge than the more throwaway nature of that genre.

That’s not to say there’s not an element of ‘tackiness’ to their songs. Indeed, numbers like “I Got The Worm” and “I Wanna Be Your Doll” are gloriously tacky, but we mean that in a good way. They have a bubble-gum rock feel and are as catchy as hell. When you hear tracks like “Do Me In Once And I’ll Be Sad, Do Me In Twice and I’ll Know Better” and “Monsters Of The New Wave”, it’s a puzzle why they didn’t become huge hits.

They were also capable of being a bit ‘off the wall’ as well, as shown by the sparse disco punk of “I Like Girlz” or “True Love” and “Every Night I Pray For A Bomb” which comes across like glammy Beck songs. Whilst “Stealing Clothes From Shelley Barrett” is surprising because it’s such a sparse sounding ballad. This album then ends with the brilliant “Didn’t I Break My Heart Over You”. A song which neatly demonstrates the awesomeness of this band, going from ballad to sleazy punk rock in an instance.

As we said at the outset, Rachel Stamp are a band that could’ve been huge. They certainly gathered a hardcore and passionate core group of fans. But sadly, never really went on to become more than a ‘cult’ band. That’s particularly frustrating when you saw the mainstream music press promote slightly similar but inferior bands (hello Placebo and King Adora..and even Marilyn Manson!). But hell, that time has gone now. Instead let’s just rejoice in the fact that we have this release as a perfect reminder of how bands can deliver flashy rock n roll which is as sexy as it should always be!