PUBLICATION - SOUNDS ORIGIN - UK DATE OF PUBLICATION - 24 November, 1990 SUBJECT - Live concert review, Kentish Town & Country Club, London, England. TITLE - THRILLS AND (S)PILLS AUTHOR - Paul Moody PHOTO - Alastair Indge Bellyache must be Lee Mavers' favourite word. I mean, when did you last see him smile? He's already the most miserable pop star since Kevin Rowland, and seems pretty keen to break all records. Not least his own. But tonight not even Lee vents his spleen about how terrible The La's album is ( he's wrong, it's brilliant ) or how miserable life is generally. In fact he doesn't say anything. Not a word. Perhaps when you've got songs like this, anything else is surplus to requirements. It seems that way when they crash straight into the thunderous Who rip-off ' I can't Sleep ' and epic single ' Timeless Melody '. Tripping off some Keith Moon patented drums and John Power's stockpile of Macca basslines, the songs twist and turn like toked up gyroscopes, overflowing with Lee's distinctive acid Mersey drawl and beat route guitars. Stripped of Steve Lillywhites's kitchen sink solo production, ' Melody ' is quite simply stunning and attains the near classic status denied the single. But then The La's were always a band made to be listened to on 45. To hear them on CD really is to miss the point and as anyone who has ever attempted to listen to a Kinks album would testify, some songs are best heard in isolation. Live, Lee tackles this problem in typically bolshy fashion - by ploughing through the album. The whole lot gets an airing, from the sublime youth club raves ' Feeling ' and ' Way Out ' to the acoustic pub shuffle of ' Liberty Ship ' and the ridiculous German drinking chant gone wrong,  ' Freedom Song '. It doesn't matter, though, because tonight The La's can't lose, and even a ten minute resurrection shuffle through ' Lookin' Glass ' doesn't dampen the fervour. Highpoint of the evening comes with the encores and a Small Faces style thrash instrumental followed by a final tumultuous ' There She Goes ', where Lee very nearly cracks his deadpan expression with a smile.    Young girls fall in love and pop music breathes a hearty sigh of relief. PAUL MOODY.