27th July 1991 Slough, Upton Park 'Slough Festival'

MM 3/8/91
The Slough Festival

SLOWDIVE are pretty much a disaster. Under smoke and lights, emerging from the dark in some concert hall, they can assume the fascinating hypnotism of mantra. But exposed blinking to daylight, their magic dissolved. Poor Rachel sang so out-of-tune throughout that, although these things aren't supposed to matter in the hey-anything-goes wacky world of post-mod rock, it was frankly painful. "Catch The Breeze" just about survived the aural autopsy but "Morningrise" died and only Rachel's neat op-art dress and the unveiling of some new material ("Primal" and "Bright" or "Brighter") held our attention. I'm reliably and repeatedly informed they were incandescent (I think that's the word everybody keep susing) supporting Chapterhouse recently, so this was probably a one-off stinker, best forgotten.

NME 10/8/91
The Slough Festival

SLOWDIVE meanwhile are a big surprise, importantly, because, after all the pisparaging comments about Shoegazers, they are acquiring some identity. And what an identity it is... bot unlike, wait for it... Altered Images! How great is that? Rachel, dressed as a Modette, stands out front like Clare Grogan, swinging her arms around and looking impish, mischievous even. The crowd look wholly bemused, as the boys produce that whirly drone of sound that characterises their records, like 'Morningrise' and the climax to the set, 'Avalyn'. They waft dreamily around the field, and do something which sounds like 'I Could Be (Un)Happy' slowed down 1000 times.

These reviews were computerised for Slowdive - A New Dream by Darren