Widely regarded as the hottest band in the UK right now, art-rocking “glamorous punk” quintet The Long Blondes are the ultimate fantasy pop group – Nico, Nancy Sinatra, Diana Dors and Barbara Windsor – saucy, literate, flippant and heartbreaking all at once. Opening with Hitchcock-inspired Appropriation (By Any Other Name), protagonist-in-chief Kate Jackson spells out a warning to any would-be domineering Svengalis out there. Sporting a beret, thick-rimmed specs and a skinny cardigan, the sardonic style icon looks like a librarian who’d be up for a spot of naughtiness among the Mills & Boon’s…although I reckon she’d probably just tease you. (I later find out that Kate is, in fact, the only member of the band who hasn’t actually been a librarian!) What the Long Blondes have realised though is that great pop bands pay as close attention to their clothes as to their chords - a new-wave bomb has clearly exploded in their vintage dressing-up box and Kate, along with bassist Reenie Hollis and keyboardist Emma Chaplin, clearly wear the (Farah) trousers in this relationship – but this isn’t girl power, it’s a sassy and sexual supremacy. Forthcoming Rough Trade single, Weekend Without Makeup, displays many of the already established hallmarks of a Blonde classic – witty, yet disturbing narratives, barely contained guitar lines and drum crashes – like The Slits featuring a special guest appearance from none-other-than Debbie Harry. The Long Blondes are one of those rare bands for whom the leap from underground to overground seems like a foregone conclusion. | 
