Mignon heads from the city of Electro music, Cabaret and derelict buildings, Berlin. This crazy, diminutive singer is not afraid of anything. Much like Peaches, (Mignon’s been her sidekick several times), she spends most of her time on her own on stage, walking backward and forward like an enraged animal, teasing the crowd. She’s the Rock Chick from Hell, her look a mixture of She-devil and blood-thirsty Kylie Minogue. The voice is high-pitched and the music - electro beats and trashy guitars - comes from a machine. Mignon is assisted by a sado-masochistic pin-up who makes most of the male members of the audience rush to the front. It’s fun, it’s politically incorrect, it’s a bit naff and a bit rude. But as she says: «I’m a bad girl/I’ll never be a nice girl/I’ll never be a Lady». She hasn’t got to worry about it: we prefer them a bit raw…

In 1999, Glaswegian Rico enjoyed good reviews and a relative success with his dark, uncompromising and introspective album Sanctuary Medicines. Some described him as a cross between Kurt Cobain and Trent Reznor, the latest being an obvious influence in the lyrics: extremely cynical, self-loathing and misanthropic. Then five years of silence…

And now, Rico is back with Violent Silences, and doesn’t seem to have compromised anything, especially not to his pet-hate, the music business and its corporations. He’s got a lot of fans in here tonight, and he looks determined to give them everything… Dressed like a modern day Johnny Rotten, Rico picks up songs from both albums. Violent Silences opens the night, and gets us into gear. Old songs show off Rico’s style, his capacity of mixing punk attitude, light industrial and rock with a certain sense of pop (This+That, Aeroplane, Attack Me and the haunted, poisonous Sanctuary Medicines). New songs are performed with the help of two guests.

Gary Numan, born-again godfather of electro/industrial, joins Rico for Big Black Sea and the encore, Crazier. Tonight’s highlight for me though is the fabulous Recommended Dose (a collaboration with Tricky, absent tonight), a song with a pounding, hypnotic, terrifying sound that owes a lot to Martin McCarrick’s tortured cello (a prestigious guest, as Martin is a former member of Siouxsie and The Banshees, This Mortal Coil and Therapy?.). New single Psycho Killer (cover of Talking Heads’ hit) suits him really well. We definitely need more psychos like him around!

www.mignonmusic.com
www.rico.co.uk