Music: Pere Ubu

Based in East Sussex, David Thomas and his Pere Ubu band have been making some of the most uncompromising music of the last 40 years

Responsible for the hugely influential Modern Dance album of 1978 and cited as the first art rock album, and possibly the best, Pere Ubu are still battling away at the coal face of alt-rock, avante-garage, art rock, underground rock, post punk, or whatever you want to call it.
Their last album, Carnival of Souls, was a superb addition to his extensive repertoire; intense, throbbing, atonal at times, and featuring his fiercely delivered expressionist poetry that was once compared to the likes of Captain Beefheart, but which in truth is David Thomas’ (he being the only constant factor in Pere Ubu) and his alone. In his advancing years, he refuses (or is incapable) to mellow, nor venture (or is incapable) into more commercial waters. Not everyone’s cup of tea (who is?), but for those who can’t get enough of him, he’s a constant ‘joy’ to listen to.

The American born and raised David Thomas began Pere Ubu in the mid ‘70s, following the demise of the Rocket From The Crypt name after a reference to Ubu Roi, a protagonist in a play by French playwright Alfred Jarry. He moved to East Sussex in the ‘90s, and has remained ever since, a regular fixture in the Lewes and Brighton scenes. At last year’s Cine City festival Pere Ubu ‘underscored’ the cult horror B-movie The Man With X-Ray Eyes, and he’ll be in Brighton again on 16 July, as part of a short UK tour promoting Elitism for the People 1975-78, a box set that includes Pere Ubu’s re-mastered albums Modern Dance, Dub Housing, The Hearpen Singles and Manhattan, a live recording from 1977. All the albums have been re-worked from the original two-track analogue mix tapes.
Thomas has been quoted as saying: ‘We are the longest-lasting, most disastrous commercial outfit to ever appear in rock’n’roll. No one can come close to matching our loss to longevity ratio’. That may or may not be the case, but he and Pere Ubu appear to be alive and kicking. And hard, as always…
Komedia, Thursday 16 July, 7.30pm, £14