The Verse’s Tamara Stidwell headed down to The Undercover Hippy’s sold-out show at Komedia, Brighton on Wednesday 3rd May.
The Undercover Hippy, aka Billy Rowan, has garnered a committed fan base from his honourable devotion to spreading moralistic melodies and mighty tunes. And whilst Brighton prides itself on evoking a culture rich in depth and diversity, his call for community in times of division were certainly music to Brighton’s ears.
Dedicated fans filled to the front, caught up in a whirlpool of frisky free-spirits, spirits were not needed when the high-energy was contagious. Bouncing off the walls, the metaphorical-walls came down as Billy Rowan’s laudable lyrical skills evoked “Don’t hate. Gyrate!” Thus, The Undercover Hippy bought Brighton together, spilling the dirty on Government corruption, this cavorting crowd of free-thinkers were now corrupted by an insatiable eruption of groove!
Featuring tracks from the acclaimed album Monkey Suit, popular tracks sent everyone into a frenzied fiasco; singing along to the cheeky notes of Boyfriend, hungry for the anti-establishment vibes of Human Race and calling for love and company over corporate-company with Coming to the Gambia. Treating the crowd to his newest single, Rise and Fall, this tasty tune, rumbles the struggles of power and the power of struggle.
It is no surprise then, that Billy’s new album Truth & Fiction sticks to the roots of a renegade, packing the punches with a provocative incentive to be the change that you want to see in a world of Trump, May and the crisis in the middle-East. Beyond that, the songs are extremely catchy, optimistic and fun!
Rounding off the night, everyone gave a resounding middle-finger to ‘the system’, turning to the sound system in a royal knees-up with Last chance to dance. And as the crowd poured out onto the streets of Brighton, instead of the ode from his track, Our Streets; “My street’s in flames again / fuelled by the hype on the news at ten”, everyone was ignited by a new feeling in the night air, that everything is going to be okay, if we all stick together.
