The Primitives – The Cords – The Tin Music and Arts – Coventry – 25th November 2025
Forty years of The Primitives? Forty years?? A tour celebrating forty years finishing where they came from in the first place with two nights in Coventry. It’s a bit of a shock to realise that the first time I saw them was around thirty eight years ago… Anyway, me and the Photographer are at the Tin alongside a crowd that all look like they first heard the Primitives when they first set out. There’s a lot of warmth in the crowd tonight.
Support are the Cords, Glasgow indie kids, and I mean kids. They look so young and they play like they mean it. The singer says ‘Hello’ in a sing-song voice and the drums echo out sounding like the pounding hard beat behind the likes of the Shop Assistants. This is a compliment, I bloody love the Shop Assistants! It’s a fast hard beat provided by the small, slight female Cords drummer and joined with distorted guitar and a high sweet vocal from the even younger looking front woman, it’s an ace poppy hard groove. They go into a slower skipping beat, guitar fuzzes in and the vocal is almost lost in the sound, another ace indie pop tune.
The singer tells us that it’s amazing to be supporting the Primitives and they go into more of the same great indie, this time with fuzzy jangling guitar, an amazing sound from only the two of them. They keep the cool indie groove, they know what they’re good at and it feels like a labour of love, and they are very good at what they do too. It’s really good to see young people playing this music and keeping it going. After every song the singer says thank you in a sing song voice.
They play an ace fast hard and fuzzy song with slow bits and sweet singing, they play distorted slow drums and strummed guitar and then hammering drums and almost lost vocals. They play a sad slow song with chords that remind me of Johnny Thunders and then a fast thrashing song, stuttering drums and fuzzed out overwhelming guitar. The drummer looks down throughout most of the gig, focusing on her playing and the drums, the singer gazes out into the crowd, drawing us into the songs.
They play more hard indie, they are very good at what they are doing and the crowd are reacting well. The singer says that the song they are about to play is so new it hasn’t got a name yet, and another perfectly formed little indie tune erupts. They finish with a slow, messy Dolly Mixture cover. It’s an ace set from an ace band.
The room fills up as people stand and chat to friends, it’s a warm almost family feel in here as Coventry welcomes The Primitives home. They are all onstage, the three guys in black and Tracey resplendent in a sequin dress, pink boots and pink leather biker jacket. She moves around the stage, dancing, swaying and obviously enjoying herself immensely. The Cords are right in the middle at the front watching too. The band are hard, loose and fast, exactly right. They go straight into Stop Killing Me, fast, furious drums and thrashing guitars, fast bass underneath and the bubblegum indie pop vocal that makes them special. Tracey is all over the stage shaking her tambourine, gesturing and singing. They carry on with a more poppy sound, it’s loud and fast but the edge is the vocal. Tracey bemoans how it can be a fortieth anniversary tour when she’s only thirty five? Then Buzz Buzz Buzz with its rockabilly groove and urgency.
I’m not going through every song, you know what it sounds like and how this feels, it feels like running around town with your friends, it sounds like the fun part of Coventry forty odd years ago, long hair, tight trousers and laughter. It sounds like being young and loud and looking around I can see that I’m not alone thinking this as the crowd are all grinning and moving.
Paul sings one, Tracey sings some more and it just fills the room and beyond. They have a false start, Paul says that they’re going to try that one again… in the right key. Sick Of It has Tracey smiling, the echo on her vocal sounds brilliant as they slide into a psych groove.
It comes to the part of the evening that the crowd are looking most forward to, Paul says, this is one of our hits, we had four, not just one. Out of Reach sounds fresh and alive. There’s another false start with the drummer saying that wasn’t what was on his setlist. They do a thunderously brilliant version of Spaceboy which they say they have to play because it’s played on the radio and then they play another one that’s on the radio.. Crash still shimmers, shines and shimmies like a slice of indie pop heaven. Then they play the last one, leave the stage and hide by the loos before an encore fooling no one into thinking they’ve finished.
They play more of the same groovy wonderfulness and then play one for Clem Burke, I’m Always Touched By Your Presence Dear which is as ace as the rest of the set, some more music and they’re gone. Forty years, how can it be forty years? How can something from forty years ago sound quite so fresh? Brilliant.
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The Primitives
The Cords
The Primitives are on Facebook and Bandcamp.
The Cords are on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
All pictures by Martin Ward, all words by Adrian Bloxham.
