A quick visit to Mama Shamone’s MySpace page tells you this:

“This is a band that makes real songs. Sex, obsession, depravity, bitchiness and coprophilia. You’ll find them all in Mama Shamone – set to irresistibly catchy tunes”.

Living a sheltered life and not being au fait with my philia’s, “coprophilia” was immediately googled… ah I see… as a one hit wonder once sang “I’m the Scatman… scoobie oobie doobie scoobie”. Not a search to try at work, and a lyric I must have inadvertently missed, but that aside Mama Shamone certainly have the tunes, and are a must see live act.

Even in a half empty Rhythm Factory on a Tuesday night there is a certain buzz about Mama taking to the stage. Following “Hobo Exile Hotel” a band surely named by some kind of random bad band name generator (press here to randomise… Sausage Tree Avenue… nah no good next… Hobo Exile Hotel… Genius! Thats the one!). To be fair they weren’t bad in a Sabbath-esque way (MySpace here).

The arrival of Mama (Vocals), Flip X (Guitar), and Ru man Chu (Bass) saw the numbers grow as the Mama fans hiding in the bar made their way through, led enthusiastically by a yeti in a parker jacket dancing like mad right from the first note. Imagine Bez if he’d been born in Hoxton, and youre someway there, although to be fair having only ever mastered the left foot right foot shuffle I’m probably only jealous, and he did buy Mama a shot midway through the set.

The first track “Heartbeat” didn’t grab me to be honest (this might have been down to initial problems with the sound mix) but the set got better and better as it went on and Mama is certainly a master of both stage and audience. “Over” and “You Got Me” are currently being recorded as a double A side with Babyshambles/Bloc Party producer Robert Harder, and they stand out as future hits. “You Got Me” in particular has been stuck in my head for weeks, and as Headphonesex put it “has more hooks than Barry McGuigan”.

Lead singer Mama is clearly a star in the making, cool as you like whether strutting the stage or dragging members of the audience up on stage with her (she even took falling off the stage with said member of audience in her stride). Tall, leggy, sexy and tonight dressed as Sinitta’s naughty big sister, she’s got the perfect combination of magazine shoot looks and a superb voice, not to mention enough “attitude” to keep the crowd transfixed.

Visit their Myspace page to download tracks, and to work out when youre going to catch them live.

MP3 (click rather than right click to save): You Got Me / Over / More available from Myspace (The demos don’t quite match the live Mama experience)

Pics: Rhythm Factory 04/04/06

Interview: Interview with PhoenixFM

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