Transvision Vamp, The Ritz. 20th October 2026

Last night, I saw an old band for the first time and it was a revelation. Can lightening strike twice tonight? I’m hoping my expectations aren’t too high. Transvision Vamp are a pop band, sleazy pop rock, but pop all the same, although perhaps when that identifier had some interesting fluidity. They remind me of taping songs off the radio and putting posters on bedroom walls. I loved the singles and never thought I’d get to see Wendy James singing live, but for the first time since 1991, here we are! I’ve long since dug into the back catalogue and honestly, the first couple of albums are absolute gold, even now decades on. Now let’s cut to the chase, this band are for sure about sexy rock riffs and a cool 60s lounge vibe, but really it was always James’ vocal. Yes she leaned hard into the bombshell sex appeal, or was encouraged to, but it’s that breathy vocal delivery that was the cherry on the top of their sound. Did anyone back then sound like Transvision Vamp? If they did, they didn’t crack the charts, this lot were the danger and excitement between the bubblegum. As intros go, ‘Trash City’ is a belter. The riffs are heavy and as James saunters on in a t-shirt and hot-pants and lets rip, it’s reassuring to hear the cool vocal is stilll there. The crowd are warmed up immediately, singing along to to ‘Tell That Girl to Shut Up’ and it kicks up a gear with the spring loaded floor doing its thing on ‘I Want Your Love’. These are the songs I’m here for, we’ve been promised a crowd pleasing set and this is exactly what we get. The band aren’t all original members, but they’ve got the brief, especially the guitarist in polka dots, going wild on ‘Speedball’ and throwing shapes throughout. The lad in the hot pink jacket is no slouch either, attacking his guitar like it’s trying to kill him. It’s not all rawk of course, they’re as much about sultry slow ballads like ‘Sister Moon’, that builds to its lovely jangle pop chorus. It’s here James comes into her own, with a mix of narration and singing that shows off her deceptive range. We get a nice story about the changing music scene in the 90s and how Madchester (as no one called it at the time) changed things for the band around the release of songs like ‘Pressure Times’. Their third record is a really interesting album and this sounds great live. Now we do also get some of James’ post Vamp solo stuff, like ‘You’re a Dirtbomb, Lester’, that although I don’t know and it seems much of the crowd don’t know it either, still sounds pretty good. It’s quite the opus. I might have to dig in further to this stuff. There’s an impromptu Q&A, as the keyboards run into trouble, but they soon roar back into life on ‘The Only One’. They have to fight with those big filthy riffs and a full voiced crowd though. I wasn’t expecting this atmosphere, it’s awesome. James looks thrilled as they glide into and through ‘If Looks Could Kill’. It’s cinematic menace laced with roadhouse scuzz. ‘Born To Be Sold’ takes us into classics territory and is worth the admission alone. Fuck me that bassline is iconic. It really is everything I’d hoped for and a lot more. It’s possibly played too early, but honestly you can tell they’ve confidence in this set and with ‘Down On You’ following, I can see why. Its monstrous dust bowl swagger is monumental, but speaking of monstrous, I see you bald guy with glasses (this sadly doesn’t narrow this crowd down) trying to take a photo of a James every time she lifts her leg in those short hot-pants. What is wrong with people!! ‘Revolution Baby’ takes us right back to the start, with some doo-wop glammy rock and or roll that really gets the dancefloor swinging. They’re a good time band, with fun songs and they’re bloody good fun to watch. ‘Pay The Ghosts’ sounds great, but they all do. They’re kinda tight, but with a raw energy that’s palpable and oozes from the stage. ‘Landslide of Love’ sounds like it should be on an old film soundtrack, an 80s teen romcom, possibly staring Molly Ringeakd. That’s a positive thing incase any Ringwald haters are reading. It sets up ‘Baby I Don’t Care’ perfectly. For a moment I’m transported back to teenage parties filled with confusing hormonal lust, but I’m quickly back in the room, this is just too good. I’m not sure I’ve felt pure joy like this at a gig in a while and I’m not the only one it seems. As we wait for them to return for the encore, a chant of “No Wendy, No Party” breaks out and ushers them back for ‘The Impression of Normalcy’, another post Vamps tune, this time packed with punk venom. I’d suggest they swap ‘Bad Valentine’ and ‘Baby I Don’t Care’ over, although this should probably shufffle further forward, but what do I know. It’s nice, but slow and although this could work, it feels a bit like the hand-break has been pulled. It’s let go though as they finish with ‘Velveteen’, which is a bit of a sprawling epic, with its twists and turns and proves to be the perfect finale to a set that easily blew away my expectations. I was in here a few nights ago, watching Florence Road headline Neighbourhood Fesrival and it was packed with teens and 20-nothings. It’s fair to say that this is a crowd of a certain vintage, but they did this band proud tonight. A great performance all round. If you’ve never heard of Transvision Vamp, give them a listen, they’ve aged beautifully.