Placebo, Hammersmith Apollo

Although Brian Molko may once have vowed to “see you at the bitter end,” Placebo show no sign of stopping. After twenty years and seven albums – most recently 2013’s Loud Like Love – the band continues to tour and record new music. Now, on their latest jaunt, around the British Isles and Iberia, Placebo are performing at the Evertim Hammersmith Apollo.
When they formed in London in 1994, Placebo were a markedly different prospect from much of the laddish Britpop riding the charts at the time. Frontman Brian Molko was an emaciated, androgynous figure whose lyrics toyed with openly bisexual and drug-based imagery. He met guitarist and bassist Stefan Olsdal outside South Kensington tube station, quite by chance. The pair immediately struck up a musical relationship. Soon after the release of their self-titled debut in 1996, they had become a trio with drummer Steve Hewitt, who remained with the band until his departure and replacement by Steve Forrest in 2008.
Debut album Placebo – which reached fifth in the UK album charts – was inspired by the gender-play of David Bowie and the toe-tapping glam-rock of T-Rex, with Molko’s reedy, nasal voice and Olsdal’s muscular musicianship adding some of post-punk’s jagged edges. Lead single ‘Nancy Boy,’ with its explicitly homosexual lyrical content, was a powerful rallying cry for teenagers who felt distant from the predominant culture of the time. It was also, like many of the band’s subsequent singles, a first rate piece of pop music.
Sophomore record Without You I’m Nothing (1998) brought massive critical acclaim as Placebo refined their songwriting, with singles like ‘Morning Light’ and ‘Every You, Every Me’ taking Molko’s self-examination to a new level. By fourth album Sleeping with Ghosts (2003) they had begun to dabble in electronics and consolidated their reputation as one of the most consistently enjoyable in post-millennial British rock. With a singles catalogue almost unrivalled amongst their contemporaries and no sign of encroaching staleness, Placebo look to offer a mesmerising evening.