The Moonlandingz have finally returned – not when we wanted them but now that we need them – galloping in on their four horses, bareback and howling, with their eagerly awaited forthcoming album No Rocket Required.
No Rocket Required delivers brassy squawks, motorik convulsions and sinister soothing vocals from a righteous line-up of guest singers and ranters: Nadine Shah, Iggy Pop, Jessica Winter and Ewen Bremner. Plus, of course, there’s The Moonlandingz’ own front man, Johnny Rocket aka Lias Saoudi, who has the wobbly-horny voice of R Whites’ secret lemonade drinker on Give Me More and then becomes basically Kris Kristofferson of the Pennines in the middle of epic Krack Drought Suite, imparting gnomic sawdust saloon wisdom from a barstool in Huddersfield. Mostly though he’s the man we know from Fat White Family with gravelly crooning (to especially great effect in Roustabout, his duet with Nadine Shah) and camp Working Men’s Club lead singer, Syd Minsky-Sargeant.
What to do, as we potter and fret, as we watch bodies, homes and lives destroyed every day while our elected leaders, so forensic and so sensible, use their weasel words, shrug their coward shoulders and saunter off to raise our bus fares. Dancing of course and togetherness, looking out for each other, and that’s not enough. What kind of fight are we bringing? We will always need to organise, to fight, to collaborate, to connect and to dance dance dance. And that is what The Moonlandingz do.
Released: April 2025
Cat:TRANS845
Label: Transgressive
