Tab Meets: Dirty Blonde

This week I had the pleasure of meeting Dirty Blonde, a 6 piece self-styled Blues-Rock band and one of the most exciting student acts around.

The group, which draws inspiration from artists spanning from Hendrix and Muse to the Black Keys and “The Band”, have a busy week ahead of them, playing Trinity’s Main Stage at 11pm, Queens’ at 10 (“just before the fireworks” George Longworth, frontman, told me, adding that “we’re going to try to time them with our last power chord”) and Corpus at 1am for the stragglers.

Looking very angelic

Since their last meeting with The Tab they’ve acquired lead guitarist Chris Diamand – “he’s one of the best jazz guitarists I’ve ever seen” said George, “we try and throw that in as much as possible” – to which Chris sheepishly smiled.

A bit like this. But he’s very very good

George shares front of stage with his sister, Ester, a relationship he previously described as “tense”. The band talked about what it was like before Ester joined:

“We used to be very much a boy’s band”, said George “we’ve been reformed since my sister joined”.

He went on to tell me about some of their escapades, such as an ill-fated trip around London – drunk on Boris bikes – which culminated in a visit to a strip club two years ago.

Guy Clarke, the bassist, made it very clear that he didn’t go, and that such behaviour was in the past.

A chariot of morals

He went on to tell me about the unromantic origins of the band’s name – based around George’s choice of hair dye – which was decided upon because “we’d been arguing for so long and we just thought that was the least shit”.

Also in the band are Ed Dakin on keys and Jack Mowat Maconochie on drums.

The whole gang

Though there is currently no merch on sale, the band are planning on recording an EP and a music video, before looking to play festivals next summer: “then it’ll all come out: dirty Blonde Dominos, Dirty Blonde monopoly sets, dirty Blonde wigs” quipped Guy.

The group have also recorded a video of their most recent performance at the O2 Academy in London as something of a preview for fans.

With a promising lineup, and eclectic mix of influences and a varied set of covers and original material, Dirty Blonde are certainly one to watch out for this week.