Shame

Shame formed in South London in 2014, quickly becoming central to the borough's fertile guitar music scene alongside Black Midi and Black Country, New Road. Charlie Steen's vocals channel the sneering urgency of Mark E. Smith and the physical intensity of Iggy Pop, delivered with a theatrical presence that makes their live shows compulsive viewing. Guitarists Sean Coyle-Smith and Eddie Green construct interlocking parts that shift between nervous, angular jabs and expansive, almost shoegaze-adjacent washes, with Coyle-Smith's Fender Jaguar cutting through Orange amplifier overdrive. Their debut Songs of Praise was raw and relentless, but subsequent albums Drunk Tank Pink and Food for Worms revealed a band willing to slow down, strip back, and let vulnerability coexist with aggression. Josh Finerty's bass and Charlie Forbes' drums provide a rhythm section that can pivot from Gang of Four-style funk to krautrock motorik within a single song. Shame's willingness to dismantle their own formula with each release, moving from punk fury to introspective post-punk balladry, marks them as one of the most creatively ambitious bands in the current UK guitar scene.