Festival Review: LYNKS + Girli - Meltdown Fesitval, Southbank Centre - London 18/06/2023
Lynks and Girli throw a queer pop party to end all parties, for the climax to Meltdown 2023.
While London Southbank’s Meltdown Festival has long been a diverse and wide-ranging musical affair, this year, curated by the ever-evolving talent of Christine and the Queens, it proudly culminates with rising LGBTQ+ legends Girli and Lynks.
As the curator himself reigns over the Royal Festival Hall next door, we’re in for a full-on pop showdown in the Southbank’s second grand hall, where a new prince and princess of having a good time are crowned.
In what seems absurd to be a seated event, Girli begins proceedings. Dressed in glittering jeans, platform boots, a sheer feather robe and corset, and her signature hot pink hair, the singer stomps the neon-lit stage joined by a live drummer and backing vocalist. What they deliver on the surface are big rock beats and infectious pop hooks, but what’s underneath are the relatable themes of young female life, stemming from Girli (Amelia Toomey)’s struggles with her mental health, anxiety, queer identity, and feminism through the lens of an artist in an industry where you’re constant put down and doubted.
From the first song small groups of people start getting to their feet, unable to be restrained by the expectations of such a high-end venue, and eventually more, and more. Single “Has Been” is a fully jump-up-and-down-punch-the-air anthem about fighting the pain of a break up and taking back ownership of your life, and you can see the young empowered people in the room feeling every word.
Although her image is bold and abrasive Toomey proves to be completely down to earth and vulnerable when chatting between songs. She expresses how much it means to have the opportunity to play the Southbank, being a queer kid growing up in London. She also proves her integrity in stating that all of her team and touring crew are women and LGBTQ+ people, a welcome sentiment in the room. “Imposter Syndrome” from her new EP why am i like this?? is a heartfelt address to all the questions she has with the music industry, and being made to feel like you don’t belong. Her voice is powerful and faultless in every register, going from the more tender songs to belting hits.
“More Than A Friend” is her true life experience of falling in love with a girl for the first time, while “Friday Night Big Screen” puts into the words the feeling of falling so hard in a way that you thought was only meant for movies, and you can see that these songs hit the hardest with universal appeal. A big plus to the unconventional gig setting is that the artists can so easily come down into the audience and see each and every fan singing the words back, allowing for incredibly heartwarming moments of contact for the people feeling every emotion with her. And what was initially quite a reserved night becomes beautifully intimate and affecting when you see the joy this kind of pop music brings to the fans. It’s a fierce and triumphant first half.
Following the interval the stage is laid out for the arrival of Lynks, set to look like a living room, but decked in Burberry. Burberry sofa, Burberry lamp, Burberry vase. Anyone that knows Lynks knows he creates a lot of his own costumes, with some of his iconic looks made with a variety of tartan fabrics, and you just know that this extravagant set design is his own. Sure enough his three backing dancers, Lynks Shower Gel, come out in tartan looks, before he jumps out from behind the sofa in what he calls his demonic Scottish gimp outfit. It’s already a brilliant show.
The anonymous creature and his gang open with “Hey Joe (Relax)” and from the first song of this half everyone is on their feet, warmed up, refreshed, ready to party. It’s an undeniable, irresistible dance beat, but with entirely unserious lyrics to make you laugh and cry and move all at once. A personal favourite: “Opinions are like arseholes, I don’t want yours!”
The trio and their leader have a dance routine for every song, and every time it’s a bit messy, they’re not completely in sync or doing the same thing, but it’s entirely intentional. They can go from amateurly messing around on stage to seriously cool breakdowns and rehearsed steps, making for a very engulfing and unique performance. But it doesn’t feel like a performance, it just feels like fun. After Lynks finishes his jumped-up disco version of Courtney Barnet’s “Pedestrian At Best” there’s a whole bit where one of the Shower Gel, a new member to the team, starts choking and lies down on the sofa, and in an uncaring casual tone Lynks tries to carry on. “Aw she can’t handle it, bless”. “She’s dead? Oh well”. It’s so much more like a physical comedy skit than a music gig, with the others running around her and performing CPR. But this interlude strengthens Lynks’s egotistical persona, an untouchable character while the dancers are below him. He does “Perfect Human Specimen” alone in an exaggerated self-absorbed performance.
But you know it’s just an act. They’re clearly like a family with great chemistry, each with their own individual quirks to make the show as a whole just hilarious. In a new, absurdist turn, the next scene is basically modern art. Titled “How To Make a Bechamel Sauce in 10 Steps (With Pictures)”, it teaches you just that. Set to a heavy beat, and with Shower Gel holding up badly printed black and white diagrams, Lynks reads a recipe for bechamel sauce step by step, sounding increasingly sexual and breathing heavily. And that’s it. That’s the song. It’s bizarre and surreal and brilliant. And that’s Lynks.
They end with one of their biggest songs, a bouncing bop, “Str8 Acting”, about straight culture and toxic masculinity. It’s great to see everyone in the room just move around and have fun, a crowd of outcasts and misfit being represented and being seen. The whole night has been a camp explosion of positive energy, and like Lynks says “Why the fuck should [we] ever want to be straight acting?”.
Words by Alice Jenner
Photography credit: Victor Frankowski (Provided by Southbank)
