French Rock and Roll for most begins and ends for mist outside the Country with Jonnie Halliday but like any local scene there’s plenty to love if you know where to look. So look this way for a little while. Nancy Boys got my attention mainly because of the name. I knew it wasn’t the band that Nigel Mogg played in as we only spoke last year and he didn’t mention anything. So I naturally assumed that they hailed from Nancy that wonderful city ‘the capital of North Eastern France’ where I had the best ever macarons and which was the birthplace of that rather elegant footballer Michel Platini!
They actually hail from Paris so I can only assume the name might be an homage to The Queerboys who went on the become The Quireboys and whose dirty Stones-like sound isn’t a million miles away.
This may only be a four track teaser but it’s well worth a listen if you love that ramshackle Blues- infused approach to rock and roll where the look and the attitude is an essential part of the make-up of any band you’d want to be a part of! This is definitely ‘of the 70’s’ and some might say rather akin to The Frenchies (a band Chrissie Hynde played in for a couple of months) a classic underappreciated Glam band from Paris whose 1974 album ‘Lola-Cola’ is well worth adding to your collection and certainly had that Stonesy twang.
You get a real taste of what might be here with the low-fi low-key stomp of ‘Nancies are Coming to Town’ which you’ve heard a million times before but not with that accent and that swagger. ‘Swap Club Stud’ even adds some cowbell to that very familiar riff and indecipherable lyrics. It’s all decidly and wonderfully shambolic.
‘Gimme Love’ Rocks a bit harder and is more Johnny Thunders than The Stones and closer ‘Bondage Love’ (the fourth of four songs ostensively about sex) that’s more Dolls than anything else here. I’m intrigued.
The press release can’t help but fill in the gaps adding that as well as these four originals the guys play songs by “artists like Streak, Billion Dollar Babies, Rosie, The Hollywood Brats, Brett Smiley… Well, you get the picture!” Indeed we do. No get back in the studio and find a producer.
7.5 / 10