You may be forgiven for thinking a band with the name 'New York Dollies' would be a female cover band of the New York Dolls, well these dollies are much more than that. Yes it is an all female punk cover band… but with a difference! Instead of doing straight punk covers this is much more in the vein of Nouvelle Vague or Dread Zeppelin, bands who mash different styles together. New York Dollies do punk covers in '1950s style close harmony', with a lot of humour thrown in, think of bubble-gum pop with lots of do-be-do-wop, sha-la-la's and the like. With each of the dollies dressed in bold 50's primary colours they certainly look the part on stage.

Central to the performance is Heather Urquhart, with her ukulele providing the only musical accompaniment, either side of her on vocals are Li Mills and Kate Holder, who are also members of the Jam Tarts indie choir (Li is in fact the mastermind behind the choir and the Dollies). The songs they cover included The New York Dolls, obviously, a couple of songs by The Clash, The Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Sex Pistols and The Dead Kennedies. Each song had its own unique style with some of them sounding scarily like they were written that way! It was the first time the trio had performed the set live so first time nerves were evident but they still put on a tight slick performance.

All three dollies sing, with a nice mixture of sharing lead vocals and lovely sustained harmonies throughout. They have cleverly found the right mix of styles and hooks to give all the songs the right twist. Along with the music the Dollies have got their 50's dance routines sorted too, with lots of synchronised hand gestures to back up the songs. The songs are performed dead-pan with the comedy coming mainly between tracks, like Heather's story about almost getting crushed at a Clash gig and jokes about how bizarre it is what they are doing. It's early days for the New York Dollies but if you want a light hearted fun night with great music then they are definitely worth checking out next time they play.

Jonski Mason