Highbury Garage, London (29/3/99)
...Anyone who heard the
yearning balladry on their debut single, 'Quarantine', might have expected Witness
to sit around onstage or drag a stool on mid-set. Live, they quickly dispelled any such notion. You only had to hear the falsetto on
the fragile, searching 'Hijacker', which provided the high point in their short set, to realise that Starkie soars beyond verse/chorus/verse.
Sonically and visually, Witness have a peculiar type of dark intensity that is difficult to sum up - but you could hear it in the aching,
strung-out blues of their latest single, 'Scars', and see it in the relentless, unblinking stare on Starkie's face.
THE TIMES