Have Love Will Travel is a raw and irresistibly primitive slice of Garage Rock from Thee Headcoatees, featuring the distinctive voices of Bongo Debbie, Holly Golightly, Kyra LaRubia and Ludella Black. Closely associated with the Medway Garage scene and the musical world of Billy Childish, the group deliver a wonderfully scruffy collection of fuzzed-up guitars, pounding rhythms, infectious melodies and no-nonsense Rock 'n' Roll attitude.
The album opens with Richard Berry's classic Have Love, Will Travel, sung by Kyra, before moving through a series of Billy Childish originals including Baby Please, Don't Try And Tell Me, Mess Of Pottage, You Know You Can't Resist and Louis Riel. The vocal duties are shared throughout, with Holly Golightly, Ludella Black and Bongo Debbie each bringing their own character to the band's rough-edged sound. The second side includes Baby Come Closer, Come Into My Life, Tear It To Pieces and Something Went Wrong, alongside the blues classic Big Boss Man and the gloriously cheeky My Boyfriend's Learning Karate.
Originally released in 1999, Have Love Will Travel captures Thee Headcoatees at the heart of the Medway Garage movement. Raw, catchy and defiantly unpolished, it's a terrific example of the band's ability to turn primitive Garage Rock into something both infectious and completely their own.
