The Molotovs + Jeanie and the White Boys @ CHALK, Brighton 5th September 2026
The Molotovs arrive in Brighton to promote their soon-to-be-released album Welcome to Urbia. In support, they bring with them Jeanie and the White Boys. I’ve seen them a couple of times before, and they are absolutely explosive live. Since I last saw them, one of the guitarists has moved over to bass. This is a huge improvement as their sound did tend to be a little ‘tinny’. Now it’s much fuller.
From the first song, Jeanie is everywhere. She’s jumping off the drum riser. She’s on the rail. She barely stays still for a second. At the end of Queen Bee she leans on the guitarist until eventually he’s playing on the floor of the stage. Big Udder Blues, which was a single, rocks out in its fast coda. Jeanie tells us that she likes to write songs about her “evil ex-partners”. One such is Don’t Look Now, Satan’s Over There. She tells us that hatred equals great art. Well, seemingly so!
I’m A Man is about another ex-partner. Boo Hoo Girls is dedicated to Dolly Parton. Jeanie tells us that what matters is not how trashy you look, but whether you’re a good person. Dolly was a good person. The song is actually about sleeping with a posh man and being criticised by posh women. It has a striking, clear and angular guitar line.
Girlfriend is about Jeanie “not liking one of the boys’ girlfriends”. They happily all sing backing vocals to it, so they can’t have been that bothered. Rock And Roll Man was written about Jeanie’s husband George when she was “very, very angry with him”. Unfortunately, the guitar solo is much too quiet. The final song is called Rectum. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song in the rock canon with that title! It’s very stop-start, and in terms of that and its pace, it reminds me of The Who’s My Generation. This set has hurtled along at around 1,000 mph, and Jeanie and the White Boys might just be the perfect openers for The Molotovs.
The Molotovs
The anticipation at the sold-out CHALK reaches almost stratospheric levels before the band comes on. The audience is a mixture of blokes well into their sixties, teenage girls and every age group in between. It doesn’t matter what age they are, they’re all focused on the as-yet unoccupied stage.
When The Molotovs do take the stage, I notice that drummer Noah Riley has had his hair cut short and is wearing a jacket and tie. The venue is very hot, so I wonder about the wisdom of that. Bassist Issey Cartlidge is wearing a white jacket and a green dress, whilst singer and guitarist Matt Cartlidge is wearing a buttoned-up striped jacket. The Molotovs are a band for whom sartorial elegance is very important.
More important than that, though, is the music, and they’re even more focused on that. Opener Johnny Don’t Be Scared immediately reveals a band who are totally on fire. The crowd applaud during the break in the song, so there are clearly quite a lot of new converts in the crowd who are possibly not that familiar with the band’s back catalogue. A mosh pit breaks out as early as the second song, Rhythm Of Yourself, and remains for most of the rest of the gig.
Issey loses her jacket before tonight’s first new song, Born In Society, which features some cool harmonies between her and Matt. Matt swaps over to a Guild guitar for Daydreaming. Noah also loses his jacket. Looking smart is one thing, but keeling over from heat exhaustion is not a good look.
A bloke is up on his mate’s shoulders for Geraldine. Issey ends the song playing her bass over her shoulder. Join Us is another new song. Something about it sounds particularly mature, but not in a boring way. It sounds like a step up from much of their earlier material.
Matt moves over to a Rickenbacker for Today’s Gonna Be Our Day, which is accompanied by some very loud singing from the crowd. Matt still has his jacket buttoned up and is clearly sweating like a dog, but still somehow manages to look immaculate! How does he do that?
Matt’s lead guitar playing is bang on. Is There Any Hope? is home to a particularly fiery solo. Matt tells us that they’re all coming down with a throat infection, but they’ve managed to make it onstage. He’s worried that his vocals are soon going to start sounding like Freddy Krueger or Mickey Mouse. Notwithstanding that, they play their latest single, Urbia, which sounds absolutely fine.
Matt’s vocals are a bit croaky. The band are clearly not well, but they’re “going to do a few more”. They play More More More, with its instrumental section highlighting drums and guitar. After a cataclysmic ending, Matt asks us for a couple of minutes and the band troop offstage.
They come back after a few minutes, Matt finally without his jacket, and crash into Father Flag. This is really powerful, despite the band ailing. Issey thanks us for being a patient crowd. She really doesn’t need to, though.
Before Newsflash, Matt tells us that they’ll try to sort out another Brighton gig for us. There’s a very fast version of David Bowie’s Suffragette City, during which Matt looks like he might just be on the verge of smashing his guitar!
The set closes with Come On Now from their debut album, Wasted On Youth. Matt apologises for not being able to finish the set, and someone in the crowd shouts, “Don’t worry about it.” The band have played for the best part of an hour, and I really don’t think anybody feels shortchanged. Many headlining sets only last an hour. Indeed, I once saw the Pixies play for only an hour, and they have a far larger back catalogue than The Molotovs.
The Molotovs have played a cracking set in very difficult circumstances. Tonight’s set has done nothing to change my opinion that they are one of the best live bands of their generation. Luckily, they have a few days off before their next gig. Go see them. They really are on top form.
WORDS: MARK KELLY PHOTOS: CRIS WATKINS
