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Fat Dog

“When the chaotic south London rabble known as Fat Dog formed, they made two rules: they were going to be a healthy band who looked after themselves and there would be no saxophone presence in their music. Two simple edicts to live by, and two things long-since broken by the Brixton five-piece. “Yeah, it’s all gone out the window,” says Love.

Life is too short to stick to any plans you made in the unsettling, strait-jacketed times of 2021 anyway. That was when Fat Dog came together, Love deciding to form a group and take the demos he had been making at home as a way to keep himself sane during lockdown out into the world. In Chris Hughes (keyboards/synths), Ben Harris (bass), Johnny Hutchinson (drums) and Morgan Wallace (keyboards and, umm, saxophone), Love found like-minded mavericks to help bring the dream home. “A lot of music at the moment is very cerebral and people won’t dance to it,” says Hughes. “Our music is the polar opposite of thinking music.”

Hughes should know. He was a fan of the band, at that point making a name for themselves with a series of exhilarating and/or wonky shows across south London, before he was in the band. Those formative gigs formed the bedrock of what Fat Dog were all about, seizing the moment, drinking too much with the moment, going home separately from the moment but making up with the moment again the next day.

It didn’t take long for the kennel-dwellers to come flocking, every Fat Dog show in London becoming a huge upgrade on the last. They sold out the Scala in October 2023 and, in April, played a triumphant set to a sold-out Electric Brixton. There is something deeper going on here than the usual punter-goes-to-gig situation. Everyone is in on it. “There’s a sense of community about Fat Dog,” says Hutchinson. And it’s not just the capital who have been bitten; recently, the band completed an ecstatically received tour of the US that included an all-conquering set at a taco joint. No lunches were harmed. Fresh off a UK tour last month, their next run here is in November including London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town as well as performances at Glastonbury, Truck and Latitude festivals. They will also return to North America in October.