Bye bye Baddies

I woke up in London excited to download the new Bad//Dreems album, only to hear the news that the band is going on an ‘indefinite hiatus.’ 

As an expat living in the UK for close to 20 years now, the Baddies were like a crackling long-distance transmission from back home. It was the rough and ready pub rock I grew up listening to, but with a strong sense of social justice that called out racist and misogynistic bullshit, all while knocking back a few tinnies and kicking a footy around.

Over the years, I’ve managed to catch a couple of their gigs, mostly tiny, sweaty gigs in the UK and Europe. The last one I saw was at Mary’s Underground in Sydney, which coincided with a trip back home to see my mum. The gigs were always thrillingly intense and cathartic, and the guys always humoured me with a bit of a chat afterwards.

My favourite gig was at the Komet in Hamburg a couple of years ago. A cramped, sweaty underground venue, packed with appreciative Germans wishing they had their very own Baddies (I know, they told me, while buying me drinks because I was an Aussie).

More importantly, it was my daughter’s first Baddies gig – a really cool experience we got to share, for which I’m forever thankful.

In fact, my daughter has a pic from the gig hanging on the wall in student digs in Sheffield. It was taken by the band’s photographer/friend, Sam Brumby, looking out over Ben, the singer, towards the crowd, crammed under the low roof. If you squint, you can just pick out me and my daughter.

After the show, we chatted with the guys, and they gave my daughter one of their tour posters.

The poster featured a croc, which caught the eye of the guy sitting next to us on the underground train back to our hotel. He showed us his gold crocodile ring and then photos on his phone of his collection of snakes and alligators on his farm on the outskirts of Hamburg. He took a note of the band’s name and promised to look them up.

Anyway, sad as I am, I know the Baddies’ legacy will live on. 

Maybe, hopefully, being over speakers at a reptile farm in northern Germany, right as we speak.