The Primitives @ The Horn, St. Albans 27.03.25

A reassuringly solid, if not quite as longstanding a presence as the city's cathedral, The Horn, St. Albans has been a firm fixture on the gig circuit since the 1970s. More capacious than expected, the live room tucked behind the back of the bar, is full to the brim for venerable indie pop specialists The Primitives.

The intrumentalists strike up and lead singer Tracy Tracy makes her entrance last, as the quartet breeze through an opening double hit of superlative bubblegum flavoured garage rock, Stick With You and Thru The Flowers. Wielding what appears to be a brand new, baroque semi-acoustic Gretch, Paul Court supplies guitar motifs, reaching a pinnacle on a gorgeous rendition of You Are The Way, possibly the band’s most underrated single.

The group's gnarlier, punkish material lands particularly well this evening, a snotty version of Petals driven by bassman Paul Sampson coaxes out the phelgmatic lyrics at the core of the song’s chordal melodicism, with Really Stupid also marvellously stroppy. Sick Of It All bounds along with supreme authority courtesy of tubthumper Tig and the Motown-style stomp of Rattle My Cage are dispensed with maximum zeal, alongside Buzz Buzz Buzz, flagged up by Tracy as “Here comes the rockabilly one”. In softer pastures a poignant Lose the Reason showcases the strength of Tracy's vocals as does the sighing resgination of Nothing Left.

Recently issued archive trawl Let’s Go Round Again: Second Wave Singles & Rarities, which parcels up the band’s astoundingly good era from 2011 to present, is highlighted via tracks released this decade. Amongst the recent output, Don’t Know Where To Start is greeted like an old friend, while new single Sweet Sister Sorrow is a sixties chamber pop gem. Hitting the final stretch, similar to how I Can’t Explain was The Who’s debut 45, it remains scarcely believable that Crash was one of the Primitives' first ever demos, sung word for word by the capacity audience.

Paying homage to The Velvet Underground – where The Prims’ sourced their name from – a slowly building rendition of early landmark We Found A Way To The Sun provides the psychedelic closing scene to a superb evening’s feature.