High Llamas - Moth Club - Hackney 22-2-2025

Full disclosure that this is going to be part gig review and part love letter to the High Llamas.

At the beginning of the 90’s I have some recollection of going up a steep hill or mountain humming “Checking In and Checking Out” in my head. I’m trying to work out the chronology but it would be around the time I had been one or two years of working as a Local Government Orifice at Hackney Council. I was in my early 20s and very much a shy naive making my way in the big city.

Lots of changes: A few years of moving between Romney Marsh, Sussex and London while I was training and then a short period back on the Marsh before getting the Hackney job.

The Llamas I think appear around the time I am listening to the late great GLR radio. A very young Gideon Coe was a sports presenter there in a former life before BBC 6 Music rose from the ashes of GLR.

For context, the 90’s were a strange time for music. The horror that was Britpop then Grunge and just NOTHING that stuck with me apart from the more interesting sounds coming out of Bristol like Massive Attack, Tricky and Portishead. Oasis got binned fairly quickly after that introduction form one of my little sister’s boyfriends who came fro, Bristol. Little sis would also play Dubstar loudly from the room below in the chaotic Deptford house the three of us siblings shared.

It was such a chaotic and odd time that it will get written about another time but let’s stick with the Llamas.

The Llamas were Sean O’Hagan and his band who was in cult Irish band Microdisney with Cathal O’Coghlan before they split around the late 80s’

“Gideon Gaye” was the first album I had of his but not their first recordings which were pretty hard to get hold of until recently. Gideon Gaye was unlike anything else from that time. It was a quiet record with long songs and incredible string arrangements and owed more to late period Beach Boys and Steely Dan that anything contemporary. They were such a refreshing antidote to the laddishness, boorishness and anti-intellectualism that became a big part of the 90s.

Rather fittingly it became a soundtrack to leaving that life behind and moving out on my own into different circles. The Deptford house became too chaotic and I went to Edinburgh on an accidental holiday - again a story for another day. Coming back from Edinburgh I moved out on my own to Hither Green and lived in a flat by myself for the first time.

The High Llamas were played regularly there and soon Gideon Gaye would be joined by the double “Hawaii” which was an even longer masterpiece.

The Llamas would again deliver the goods when Hither Green became too chaotic and I left completely for Watford. The Brazilian music informed “Snowbug” would be timed as I left one life behind and started a new one with my now wife. It was a gateway to a LOT of Brazilian music for me.

“Buzzlebee” with its chirruping electronics would signify a time between leaving Hackney and joining Camden. Sean would often play as a member of Stereolab and there is a massive cross pollination between Sean and Tim Gane of Stereolab. Sean would become a very busy and in demand arranger for Super Furry Animals, Stereolab, The Coral and others.

And so with some circularity, I arrive back at Hackney and Mare Street - 30 odd years later to see The High Llamas at The Moth Club -

The Memorable Order of Tin Hats (MOTH) was established in South Africa in 1927 as a brotherhood to help support fellow comrades in need. The Hackney headquarters opened in 1972. Christine Walton has been coming to the venue with her husband Brian for over 20 years. “When it first started there were just two barrels with a plank across,” she says. “Everyone donated the drinks to the bar.”

It’s a working man’s club with military memorabilia and a low vaulted ceiling covered in glitter. A strange 1970s time capsule.

I started my London work life in nearby Morning Lane: Out of curiosity I walked there before the gig to see what remained. The office has long been demolished - It was the former factory for Berger paints and batteries and even back then it was falling apart and probably quite toxic. I though of a lot of people who worked with me there who are now dead - not all of them from old age. I remember the kindness of my first manager and mentor who taught me so much.

I spent nine years at Hackney: It could be hard going and when I did eventually break, The High Llamas were what I listened to to repair my damaged brains.

Last night The Llamas were at Moth and it was strange seeing them in this old working man’s club turned music venue. We’re all looking older and not always wiser. Sean O’Hagan had his own battles with health and Cancer but he’s out the other side of it with an unexpected album “Hey Panda” which is a delight. The first part of the set featured a lot of these songs and they are quite different to his other albums in that it embraced modern R&B/Hip Hop production mixed with Sean’s delicate songs and spare strings and nylon guitar. Perhaps confused a few people expecting more of his style but this is a man with extraordinary ears and passion for music.

The band were stripped down: Rob Allum - one of the most tasteful and quiet drummers, John Fell - The Bass and anchor of the band, Marcus Holdaway on keyboards, Sean’s daughter Livvy handling all the female vocals and then Sean on his nylon guitar, occasional electric guitar and generally disobedient electronics for the Hey Panda songs.

As with any time spent with the High Llamas it seems to go too quickly and we’re heralded off into Mare Street with “Checking In and Checking Out”. It’s a packed out room and full of love for this band who we nearly lost.