Affection Place - Metronome, Nottingham, 2485/2024

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 29 / 10 / 2024

intro

Dave Goodwin watches French electro band Affection PLace with guest Magazine's Dave Formula on keyboards play a polished seet to promote their forty-years-in-the-making debut album.

Can a band go for over forty years without ever releasing an album? That’s the question finally answered by synth/goth pioneers Affection Place. Legendary keyboardist Dave Formula, once of post-punk proggie Magazine and New Romantic/Blitz clubbers Visage provides the link between then and now. Formula is currently touring with Affection Place, and halfway through this gig, lead-singer Tim Petersen mentions to him that Affection Place supported Magazine way back in the seventies and eighties. As this mini tour coincides with the band launching their debut album, it doesn’t take Inspector Clouseau to work out the maths. The original line-up played from 1979 to 1981, performing in France and Switzerland and touring with groups such as Magazine, The Cramps, A Certain Ratio, and Marquis de Sade. After some serious interest locally in their home town of Lyon in France, the band officially reformed in 2019, with the two original members Peter Petersen (vocals/guitar) and Christian Bonnet (drums) being joined by Tim Petersen on bass and vocals and Hamish McKay on guitar. The new line up also started writing new material, and moved on to recording, producing videos and performing live. This is the point where we meet Dave Formula again, as he played on and produced all the tracks on their debut album, which was recorded in his own studio, The Sweet Factory in Louth, and was invited on the tour. If you are new to Affection Place’s sound, think Magazine-ish tendencies along with shades of Killing Joke-style goth-pop, mixed with smatterings of Sisters of Mercy and the Damned, and a large helping of Bauhaus/Pete Murphy to finish it off. Touring in Huddersfield, Sowerby Bridge, Nottingham and finishing in Coventry, Affection Place’s quality needs to be seen to be believed. The polished sound they create deserves to be witnessed by more than the sum of the crowd on show at this gig for sure. The band are all so easy with each other - each member knows what his job is, and knows what all the others are doing too - and to be fair they are as tight as un cul de canard. Merveilleux!

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