The Bon Bon Club - Sex On Fire

Now, we’ve got to admit it. We loved Kings Of Leon’s ‘Sex On Fire’. Still do actually, no matter how overplayed it gets. Another thing we really love is the, now no more, Long Blondes, and frontlady Kate is taking a hell of a long time to come out with any solo material from her Bernard Butler produced sessions. Luckily though bassist Reene is here with her all-lady (and all approximately 5’2”) covers group The Bon Bon Club which was originally formed was a side project with Long Blondes drummer Screech.

If you’ve caught The Bon Bon Club live then you’ll know that their covers of The Cure’s ‘Lullaby’ and Kasabian’s ‘Empire’ are bloody great. Stripped right down to the bear bones of the song it’s pretty much just the drums and bass, with some vocal harmonies and a tiny bit of keyboard or kazoo on top. This release is in exactly the same fashion, only this time they’ve tackled the aforementioned ‘Sex On Fire’ and backed it with covers of Dubstar (‘The Day I See You Again’) and Fleetwood Mac (‘Dreams’). All are brilliant. Obviously.

They tease out the intro to ‘Sex On Fire’, and adding a smattering of cowbell making it all the greater when it all kicks in. The “what the hell” feeling that you get from hearing this is almost equalled in the epic run through of the last chorus, which transfers really well from the original, albeit with some keyboards taking the place of guitars. In fact, we can’t stress enough how much fun it is. There’s also something fairly perverse about taking a song that’s brilliantly dumb and turning it into something arch and arty. Although, yes, it’s just karaoke really (although on ‘Dreams’ they seem to have forgotten the chorus), but these lady’s have their own sound and don’t seem to be taking themselves too seriously. So in other words it’s really good karaoke.