Royal Treatment Plant

by Jon Fletcher

New pop punksters get everything right bar the names

"The calls for an encore are so vociferous a stage lackey is spent chasing the band backstage, only to be told they have no more songs to play."

All pictures © Jon Fletcher

Royal Treatment Plant may have a truly dreadful name, but on the evidence of tonight’s show at Madame Jojo's, they are rapidly becoming a live force to be reckoned with.

The band is an intriguing prospect before they even play a note. Miniscule bass player DJ (we know, it’s annoying, but that's what it says on their myspace) sports the sort of semi-shaven haircut that normally deserves a solid head butt on the nose, but pulls it off with a kind of geeky cool. At the other end of the spectrum towers keyboard player Tommy T (the monikers don't get any better), a Tapei 101 of a man topped out with a fuzzy white man’s afro who is, apparently, an understated musical whizz. Singer PP (maybe names just aren’t their thing) is a fidgety blond and not unattractive, though her performance is oddly androgynous. We’re told Australian-born PP (real name Paula Steel) spent her early years chasing her Seventh Day Adventist parents through the jungles of Papua New Guinea in search of fresh converts, but it’s a difficult image to tie up with the beer swilling dynamo on stage.



The band’s sound has been likened to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and L7, but this may have more to do with the fact that (a) PP is a woman and (b) many of RTP’s songs are built on solid punk foundations. PP’s voice can at times sound like Karen O but it can just as easily bring to mind Gwen Stefani, Debbie Harry or, much less predictably, Kate Bush. When she hits the high notes, she’s almost always supported by equally high pitched harmonies from DJ, a technique that softens the band’s hard edge with a touch of class.

One of the huge strengths of tonight’s short performance is its variety. While PP takes a while to warm to her role, by the end of the show the audience has visibly swollen, the calls for an encore so vociferous a stage lackey is spent chasing the band backstage, only to be told they have no more songs to play. It’s a rare treat for a support band, but fully deserved.

Single ‘Get Played’ is out now with an album due in July.

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