‘Is it a person? Is it even a real thing? It’s a red skirted bitch, it’s disgusting’
The first ever Battle of the Bands at Spoilers was held on Easter Sunday, as murmurs and rumours do not a review make, I wobbled over to have a nosey. I say wobbled because I hadn’t been well the week before, so I knew I wouldn’t last for the entire show.
There was a healthy crowd in attendance, but my persons of interest were Coventry ruffians The Caroline Bomb, who braved our dustbin fiasco to add a touch of gritty glamour to our day.
Singer Phoebe Court had escaped from the ‘Chicken Pen’ along with her cohorts, Henry Fisher – bass, Joe McAvoy – Boss – guitar, and Luke Oosterbaan on drums as they clucked, ducked and dived around the stage.
Phoebe gives us a full body experience, she is an artist who is animated and visually striking, she contorts and breaks to the music, shapeshifting to each note, physically demanding, yet natural and fluid.
What I love are the images that are created in my head when I hear words like this
‘Everyone’s so wired, so I take my self out of town, find me dancing under the yellow sky’
We are dying amidst this confusion and chaos; be the reason someone wants to dance freely and fearlessly.
There is an acerbic potency to the lyrics and the melodies, they cut you deep, pour salt on your wounds and then gently administer first aid, signifying a focus and momentum that TCB have perfected.
The music is trance-like, it powers along at hyperlight, then we get lighter, gentler aspects like sunshine teasing its way in through your window. The Caroline Bomb stand for everything that is wrong and are making attempts to put things right. The responsibility lies with us to do better and be better.
We are treated to two unreleased numbers, waiting at the ‘Pearly Gates’ and ‘Murder Money Man’ as we charge graciously to the set closer ‘Marginalised’ a track that leaves impressions that will cause discomfort but it’s importance and lesson learning ability is indispensable.
The set is incredibly taut, marinated in an awareness, the kind that is reserved for those living on the edge with every breath that they take.
The band and their music reach out to those who are ready to self-destruct, those drip-feeding self-esteem, feeling like they’ve been pushed out of an aeroplane, there is only one way to go when the brakes have failed and the parachute won’t open. I collapsed on the sofa and thought about the band I had just seen.
It is a damning consequence of the times we are in; we are all fragments of a damaged and hateful world.
Broken, battered, weather-beaten, at least with Phoebe and Co, the weathers decent.
Azra Pathan
The Caroline Bomb – 5th April 2026, Spoilers – Digbeth, Birmingham.