Artist: His Lordship

Venue: The Hope and Ruin

Town: Brighton

Date: 15.11.25

It was Saturday night, time for some gut busting guitar to blow the wax from your ears. The Hope and Ruin provided the treatment area needed with the assistance of His Lordship and their 21 tracks of rock 'n' Roll medicine, raw unadulterated crazy times.

James Walbourne plies his trade as main guitarist for The Pretenders, a task he has been proving extremely capable in and has followed a line of top division guitarists before him. He has played with many artists including The Pogues, Edwyn Collins and Dave Gahan though currently he is concentrating on His Lordship a band with 2 albums in circulation and formed with Kristoffer Sonne a Danish drummer who has also worked with Chrissie Hynde.

His Lordship make up a trio for the Bored Animal Tour with The Pretenders current live bassist Dave Page, quite a line up if you like your music raw and ready baked.....

The songs on Saturday night sat between traditional Rock 'n' Roll and sixties garage with a topping of New Wave and Power Pop - a heady mix which made for a dazzling affair. Tune after tune, relentlessly rip snorting while Walbourne's incessant vocal delivery left the attendees breathless to watch, such a full-on engaged persona.

The song titles hark to an era of The Sonics and The Seeds, where the raw, audacious drums, bass and guitar were up front and delivered mostly simple lyrics with throw away names. Of course not to belittle the lyrics though I don't think it was the poetry that was moving the feet of the audience or their primary motive in coming to the gig.

Walbourne demonstrated his prowess on "Gin and Fog" the touch and feel on his Gibson SG brought a hush to the room. A celebratory response was deserving and also for the fact it was dedicated to Shane Macgowan. "Jackie works for the NHS" bristled with a punky late seventies sound, like a spikier version of The Cars.

Drummer Sonne took to the microphone for a couple of numbers, as the old adage goes beware when the drummer leaves his kit - anything can happen. Sonne did start a Daltrey style microphone display and I thought to myself I hope the mic and cable are well connected as it swung around again at fantastic speed.

The gig flew by as did the microphone, we all survived! and the end was forthcoming. A rare experience to see a "class A" guitarist letting rip as if Walbourne's life depended on it I won't hesitate to catch up on His Lordship arriving again on Tour.

His Lordship - website

Review and Photographs by Dan Reddick for Return To Sound