Be in Coldplay? Respected by mature and responsible citizens? Have your music given away free with a broadsheet newspaper so that its readers can listen to it with their posh friends and say 'Hmm, this is quite nice...'?

Bah! Who needs it! Now that the Manics have gone away to live in their nice houses with their wives and Placebo have taken to politeness and sensible clothing, there seems to be a gapin themarket for a controversialand loudmouthed band; a group who can fuel opinions divided between passionate loathing and obsessive devotion.

At the moment, this kind of attention is being given to a four-headed gilttery sex beast called King Adora. This can be gauged tonight by the group of eyelinered men and women screaming 'I LOVE YOU!!!!' at the band's lead singer.

Matt Browne is lapping up the adoration. It looks good on him. A sort of hybrid of Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison combined with a touch of Dame Edna Everage, he sashays on stage a master of carefully debauched glamour.

The music is pure glitter: Matt screeches like a banshee over slices of grubby glamglam-rock such as Scream and Shout and Bionic. The single Smoulder is utterly self-indulgent and brilliantly sleazy.

The trouble with King Adora however is that is is not their songs that shine through so much as their image. When watching the band thrash their way through the set, I can't help but get the feeling that all the glamour and se-talk is designed to attract attention from the controversy-hungry music industry. I do not connect to the band on a personal level the way I did with Mansun or the Manics; I simply want to look at them rather than listen to them.

Still, you will never find Muff Diver being given away free with The Guardian...

review by Ruth Williamson

ps. apologies for the groanworthy headline - Karl's creation not Ruth's..!

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