Artist - The Armory Show

Venue - The 229

Town - London UK

Date - 14th February 2025

Early into what was in essence an album release show, Richard Jobson explains the name change from The Armoury Show back to what he originally intended the name to be Armory Show. It may only be a difference of one letter but the name matters to Jobson as does the music. The Armory show were originally named after a 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art, so now the name s restored for this second phase of the band.

After the end of The Skids Jobson put together The Armory Show in 1983 and as was plainly obvious from this event at The 229 it was an itch that still needed scratching. This included creating new material in the musical style of the original band members. No mean feat as among those originals was none other than the extremely talented John McGeoch on guitar. His name is mentioned many times through the evening as a clear influence on Jobson, not just in musical talent but also in the way McGeoch lived his life, a point Jobson mentions as being very tough to manage for him.

Connor Whyte now had the task of reproducing those original guitar licks and sounds live, which he did immensely well, the rest of the band are also part of The Skids live team with the addition of keyboards which really filled out the live sonic palette.

The band were exceptional, Jobson's vocals were straight back to 1985, you could see him relishing each and every song whether from the eighties or from the new album Dead Souls.

The set started and finished with the same song "Harry Dean Stanton" a stand out number which shows Jobson's love of cinema. The second to last song of the night was a tribute to the missing enigma that was John McGeoch and a song from his earlier band Magazine, "The light pours out of me" With the album available there will hopefully be more shows upcoming for The Armory Show, on this showing it was an itch well scratched by Richard Jobson.