There something eerily West Coast about the all-new finger- pickin', harmony-hummin' Onionhead bar-room band, and we're not talking Weston Super-Mare. They're ascendant inland beach boys surfing on a vertiginous wave of guitar noise and sheer imagination; a teenage fan-club on a Californian summer holiday.

It's over two years since Onionhead last played a hometown gig, and the big time support slot slogging they've put in since has rendered them as hard and as tight as Madonna's arse. They straddle the Sixties/Nineties style-chasm more impressively than any other band you've never heard of. Over the intricate guitar rush churned out by the back row of brashly fashionless lads, singer Jukes now wildly indulges his passion not only for Stipe and Jagger, but also the classical Brian Wilson and that fat chick out of The Divinyls. "I Touch Myself" is covered anti- religiously alongside the Stones' "Monkey Man". "KeepMe ln Touch" has Jules f**ked out of his head on the power of wearing on authentic round-collar Ajax top, singing all three Wilson Brother harmony parts over a surging power twelve-bar.

The theme druggy timescales, mental wipeout and ultimate possibility. Fantastic.

DJ SMITH (Derek Hammond).  Melody Maker.  10/08/91

NME interview May 89    Sounds interview Feb 90

Melody Maker interview March 90    Sounds live review Dec 90   

Sounds interview Jan 91    Melody Maker interview Feb 91   

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