There’s a lot of The Loves in the room.

So yes.  Goodbye The Loves.  From Cardiff.  Some three thousand members later, Simon Love and his current co-horts brought down their 11 year ‘career’ on Sunday at the Lexington. And it was a fitting way to go out.  An all day rumble with special guests. I could go on about how freakin’ amazing it was to here Jamie Holman (as MickTravis) rattle through a set that was largely made up of Tompaulin classics. Yes, I could. But I won’t. I could also go on about howsparkling and bright The Lovely Eggs were. I could even tell you about The School’s set of Loves related songs, led by one time love, Liz. I could even mention Comet Gain. But I won’t because they were dull. But this night was all about The Loves. And they owned it.

The Loves have been a constant during my stay in London. I got here in 2000 around the time the band were hatching in South Wales. So I’ve happy memories of seeing the fledgling Loves breeze in to Track and Field nights and then seeing them do all manner of gigs on the toilet circuit over the intervening years. Some great, some shit, most entertaining. Back in my Lostmusic days I even put the band on. They weren’t their best that night but that was always the chance you took with The Loves. And since the band relocated to London and stole a few Pocketbooks for their rhythm section I found my fondness for The Loves returning.  And like I said this show had dancing girls, guests galore (including Sean Price (Fortuna Pops’ head honcho) reprising Doug Yules’ (DOUG YULE!) role as the voice of Jesus, a backing handclap section made up of The School and a string section! And Kermit the Frog. This was a fitting end. It was fun. It was as it should’ve been. I’ll miss the Loves.