I’m always dubious about getting behind “chick” bands. This is because chicks in rock are flaky as fuck. Blokes stay in bands because most of them are pretty autistic and wouldn’t have a chance getting off with chicks anywhere else—yes, Mick Jagger, I’m talking about you.
Girls, however, find “being in a band” a bit of fun at first, but, after the first year or two, it's more grot and grunge, and gets in the way of other feminine imperatives, like taking care of the grandpa or finding Mr Right.
This is why the PISTOL DAISYS are now sadly no more, just days after I managed to catch them in all their glory at a small, cosy gig at Irvine's Harbour Arts Centre, before jetting off to Tokyo.
I mean, why even bother to write a review now that the band has gone and disbanded? So, why was I here?
I mean, why even bother to write a review now that the band has gone and disbanded? So, why was I here?
First, there was the thrill of the cool name, like a glorious feminine riff on the legendary SEX PISTOLS, then there was the half-interested process of checking them out on YouTube, followed by the flickering enthusiasm of thinking, “Yeh, typical pudgy zoomers, but they’ve got something.”
That something was a kind of alt-pop sensibility with an intriguing, girl-on-girl, interracial chemistry fizzing between chunky red-head and guitarist/singer/songwriter Lorna Lynne and Chinese Malaysian singer/rhythm guitarist/songwriter “Belly” Rachel.
Hell, that’s worth an evening out of anybody's time on a damp February night in Irvine!
The band were packing them in at the Harbour Arts Centre. It looked like over a 100 at the small venue located near the beach park where OASIS gave one of their seminal live performances in 1995 (and also near the now demolished Magnum Leisure Centre where THE SMITHS debuted five songs, including "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side," "Frankly, Mr Shankly," and "Bigmouth Strikes Again," in 1985).
Yes, Irvine is rock history, as BIFFY CLYRO front man Simon Neil, who was born in this town, will tell you. Tonight the rock history was Belly and Lorna having a big emotional girlie goodbye party between and during the songs.
They came on strong with the hammering rhythms of “Whisky & Wine,” showcasing the musical muscle of third member drummer/producer Lewis Kelly, ably assisted by one of his pals on bass.
This was followed up by “Wolves” and “DSYS” and then one of the band’s minor hits “Saint Glasgow,” which Belly was inspired to write after seeing a pervert hanging round a primary school, if I heard her right. The audience were invited to join in the catchy if somewhat unchallenging chorus of “na-na nah nah, na-na nah nah.”
The "alt" in the alt-pop of the Pistol Daisys is the sense that things are maybe a bit better if they are a bit shit and sloppy, a credo that definitely defines the city of Glasgow of today, and counterpoints the overstrict Scottish precision and puritanism which once made this country the spearhead of the industrial revolution. The Daisys and their fans embrace that release, which is also visually signalled in the plus-size curviness of our two glorious front women.
Lorna and Belly are “big girls,” but are still young enough for the pudginess to be kinda cute and feminine in a Robert Crumb cartoonish way. And just like Robert Crumb’s female creations, they also have that cheery street-smarts that can take a few knocks. As usual in Scotland, the gig had a heckler or two (no, not me, I'm a gent), especially when the rhythm section disappeared for a bit and the girls went into their acoustic set, which involved a bit of live guitar tuning.
This channelling of JOAN BAEZ was a nice gear change and deepened the mood, allowing things to be ramped up again when the boys returned with “Funeral Song,” “Calling Your Name” and “Crying in Marseille,” another minor hit, which all seemed to draw strength from the rather bruised and battered love-lives of Lorna and Belly. Maybe this is why Belly’s bought the tickets back home to Kuala Lumpur.
But, at the end of the day, the Daisys are/were just a typical chick band. Just as they had done enough to make you think they were going somewhere (not Malaysia), they threw it all away.
With Belly gone, the plan is to plough on and, who knows, something might come of that, as both Lorna and Lewis are talented, but it’ll be a different band, and it won’t be this one.
Colin Liddell
Revenge of Riff Raff
25th of February, 2026
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