It’s lunchtime in sunny Stoke Newington, the part of London that really feels like a village. Most of the crowd lined up outside the historic Old Church are making this the first stop on their weekend, and as they mingle among the old tombstones with beers in hand, the anticipation is fizzing in the air. For the fourth year in a row, Pet Needs are about to kick off their Fractured Party weekender, and we’ve so far beyond ready for it.
Pet Needs
“Welcome to London’s only surviving Elizabethan church!” Johnny Marriott beams. The punk-ish frontman wouldn’t seem like a likely figure to rejoice in trivia like that, but so much of this show is an unexpected delight. Their last record, Kind Of Acoustic, sent the grassroots heroes spiralling into new reimagining of their first four albums, and in a setting like this, taking a back to basic approach feels like a riot. Scratchcard shoves Marriott’s street poet side to the foreground, with gorgeous starts and stops and the first hint of a roar in his voice. We raise dust from the stone floor as we jump, and a couple slow-dances to the side, overwhelmed by seeing their favourites in person.
This connection between Pet Needs and their fanbase is what propels this show: in between crazy golf stories and familial anecdotes about midlands accents, we feel like we’ve come to know the band personally, following their stories immortalised in song. Fingernails, all roots and rough edges, boosts this organic flowing of feeling and sends the frontman bouncing across stage. He flicks out his arms to direct us through Ibiza in Winter, twitching amd emoting his way through a chorus we repeat like a mantra of hope. When they take on tender, slice-of-life songs like Fear For the Whole Damn World they do it incredibly well: it’s as raw as a confessional, with a twist of anger at the end of each line. “Can you play that again please?” A Scottish guy sheepishly shouts as the last chord dies.
They’re completely unphased by their setting, and as a framed contrast for their rowdier numbers, it only serves to make them seem louder. “This song is a punk song, it’s a dance song!” Marriott shouts, and Lost Again creates the effect every guy with a guitar at a party hopes for, an absorbing golden dance off, spontaneous but necessary. Self Restraint bursts with everyday joy as guitarist George Marriott raises a shout and a holler into the sky before Punk Isn’t Dead; It’s Just Up For Sale starts a fists up jump that fills the compacted stone floor. Someone climbs onto the lecturn and shouts her heart out across the sacred space. Their acoustic experiment has proved a success as Sleep When I’m Dead drags us back away from the real world, dancing shadows across brick walls.
Pet Needs
It’s their willingness to completely open themselves up to us that only makes us love Pet Needs even more. Dear Abi, Marriott’s song to a long lost sister, is a beautifully simple diary of what he wished he could say, a building set of wishes poured into a rough tune from a single guitar. The tiny narrative crammed into Prime Time Entertainment expands in the pauses and whispered echoes, more powerful than the chords themselves. It’s wise and poignant, modern metaphors flowing out that crack into a roar as the light glows purple, rich yet hollow in it’s expression. “We don’t know any more acoustic songs after this,” the vocalist apologises when we scream for an encore, but the fact that their set is the entirety of what they can offer us makes it that much more meaningful. Toothpaste explodes as victorious payoff for the hardcore, it’s quickly shifting tempo with a hand clenched in our hearts creating the happiest mosh pit which opens in the middle of a the tiny floor. Our feel spill over the carpets, our voices loud.
We mill around dazed afterwards. The hardcore fans will stay for the second show at The Old Church, then head to Pet Needs’ sold out show at The Garage tomorrow night. Some of us slip away into the early evening sunlight. Wherever we’re headed, we know that this strange and unique show from underrated stars Pet Needs contained more than a pinch of punk magic.
Review of Pet Needs live at the Old Church, Stoke Newington on 3rd May 2025. Words by Kate Allvey, press photos by Vanessa Söllner.
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