Northern Hospitality – Lust for Living (2024)
Northern Hospitality, a rock band playing under the influence of punk, is based in Hartlepool in the UK. They formed in 2023 with frontman and guitarist Gaz Price, lead guitarist Sean McCloskey, bassist Nico Mouissie, and Georgia Smith on drums.
‘Lust for Living’ is their fourth single and the first of 2024. It carries on the band’s penchant for anthem rock numbers and cool guitar breaks “completely unleashed with malicious intent,” as they describe their sound. For the record, we don’t think they’re all that malicious but are inclined to agree with how they describe this single as “a tour de force, topped with a brotherly hand on the shoulder, towards a better life.”
Indeed, Price sings with the conviction of an older brother warning of a nasty situation that is brewing: “It’s gonna be one of those nights/ and I bet that someone here has got a knife/ and it’s a scumbag that you know.” After continuing to build the tension around a dancefloor of some dingy dive where tempers are flaring and some people (aka scumbags) are itching for a fight, Price comments, “Don’t be naïve/ everyone thinks it won’t be me/ then you end up in the scene.” Then the band kicks off into the chorus and Price sings, “So don’t be afraid to seize the day/ show me some lust for living.”
That’s a nice turn of phrase. Stories with morals often include warnings of detrimental forces preying on those whose “lust for life” leads them into the wrong place at the wrong time. Here, Price advocates a lust for living as a way of getting out of negative and potentially harmful situations.
Gritty guitars, a solo that’s begging to come unhinged in a live setting, and unflagging energy help steer this “message tune” away from cringy moralism, showing an obvious debt to punk rock’s modus operandi: you can say anything as long as you say it aggressively.
For more from Northern Hospitality, check out their Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Spotify.
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