The Nova Twins supporting Tom Morello at Nottingham Rescue Rooms

By Claire Spencer

Fast rewind to last year’s Gibraltar Calling and the second act on the Saturday following local band April with their remarkable Gibraltarian vocalist, Holly Buhagiar, were The Nova Twins. This duo from South East London may easily have been missed by many festival goers that sultry September afternoon who had come to see Rag and Bone Man or Stormzy. However, at least three people there were suitably impressed. One of these was a well known local reggae musician, Sista Dee, the other local biker girl, Pooh, aka “Tank Girl,” whilst the third was myself.

So impressed was I with their striking on stage presence and chaotic Urban Punk style, that owed maybe a nod or two to Tom Morello and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, with some quite remarkable sounds being dragged kicking and screaming from foot pedal effects boxes, that I vowed to see them again.

That wish was granted several months later, when I was lucky enough to be given a pass to see them at Nottingham Rescue Rooms supporting The legendary Tom Morello, frontman of Rage Against The Machine, Prophets of Rage and Audioslave. Tom was showcasing a new project of his called Atlas Underground, that has had input from K. Flay, Marcus Mumford, hip hop legends The Wu Tang Clan and Killer Mike among others.

Clearly, the girls musical careers has come on in leaps and bounds as they are also booked to appear at that veritable Mecca of rock music, Download, at nearby Donnington Park, a couple of weeks after The Rescue Rooms gig. Not only this, but they are also supporting The Prophets of Rage on their latest tour this August.

This gig had sold out some weeks previously, such is the veritable reputation of one of rock music’s most innovative axe men. The Rescue Rooms is rather a smallish venue with a capacity of around 500 people, and those lucky enough to grab tickets who had come to see Tom Morello were to have the same musical epiphany that myself and my two friends had had back at Gibraltar Calling when The Nova Twins bounced onto the stage that evening in Nottingham.

Despite the sound check lasting seemingly forever, and the doors opening a quarter of an hour late, the running order was strictly adhered to, as per the posted notice. At ten past eight sharp, The Nova Twins, comprising of Georgia South on bass guitar and Amy Love on lead guitar, bounded on stage and tore into a half hour set that stunned many there. Amazingly, despite coming in late, having had a quick chat with their tour manager, I manage to get to the front just as their set began.

Gibraltar Calling was most definitely revisited as I remembered it, as the girls certainly made the best use of the effects pedals yet again as they launched into their first number, ‘Bassline Bitch.’ Georgia’s bass positively growled like a large bore motorcycle with what seemed nigh on impossible sounds being torn out by the throat, her dreadies bouncing up and down in time to the music, like some sort of rock and roll Medusa.

Amy, sometimes on vocals, was no stranger the effects pedal either, her guitar emitting Banshee like wailing sounds bursting forth like so many tortured demons from hell. Backing all this up, and almost hidden at the back of the stage, drumming frantically like an unstoppable heavy armoured division, was Tim Nugent.

An amazing eight numbers were squeezed into thirty minutes with the highlights being possibly ‘Drums’ and the finale which was ‘Undertaker.’ I am sure that many there wanted more, but there was a very tight timetable to keep to.

After their set, Georgia and Amy went into the outside smoking area to set up their merchandising stall, where I was able to catch up with them about their gig in Gibraltar. They told me that they didn’t get a lot of time for sightseeing, so couldn’t really tell me much about how they found our Rock, but they did say they got to stay in five star luxury on The Sunborn. Lucky girls, I was staying in the more salubrious surroundings of a room in Harbour Views. When the inevitable question of whether they’d be doing a return visit for this year’s Gibraltar Calling was raised, I was disappointed to learn that they wouldn’t be coming. But then, they most definitely are going on to bigger and better things in the future supporting some of contemporary rock musics greatest.