“To the window, to the wall, till the sweat drops down my balls
awwww skeet skeet skeet skeet”
Opened in 1951 for the Festival of Britain, and recently revamped for a cool 90 million, The Royal Festival Hall can’t often have reverberated to the sound of a couple of thousand people bellowing about their sweaty balls, but that was before George Clinton brought his laws of Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication to town. A hall full of mostly English people going “awwww skeet skeet skeet skeet” has to be one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, and this being the internet you can always find a good online row over what the word means. I’m sure it’s all entirely innocent, and George is merely a keen Clay Pigeon shooter.
For the first 15 minutes, George is no where to be seen, and its left to Garry “Starchild” Shider to lead the funk with more panache than a 55 year old man in a large cloth nappy has any right to. Initially he teams the nappy with shades and the type of jacket not seen since Cameo’s codpiece was causing grannies to choke over tea time top of the pops. However the jacket is soon dispensed with and its just one man at one with his diaper and guitar, he owns the stage during “Funkentelechy” as only the original Cosmic John the Bop-tist can.
The place is so wrapped up in the wonder of “Cosmic Slop” that when George strolls on unannounced midway through, it takes a few moments before the place erupts into a 10 minute standing ovation.
As the Guardian observed “Clinton showed he’s still a style leader - rocking multi-coloured Evisu jeans, a neon T-shirt, gold hoody and hair that is best described as Tina Turner meets Don Letts“.
Pulling down the hood and shaking his multicoloured locks loose, he greets the packed and on their feet festival hall with the most charming, largest and warmest of grins. His grey beard, and shock of hair for some reason put me in mind of Harry from Bigfoot and The Henderson’s (Youtube), but that’s probably just me!
George and his P-Funk All-stars are not just visually brilliant, it’s the sound, the vision and the fun, as blogger Strawpig puts it:
“I’m not entirely sure how to describe it other than WOW! It was truly awesome. So much power and energy and fun and funk, the band were SO tight (despite quite clearly being totally off their faces in some cases). Easily one of the best gigs I’ve ever been too”.
Clinton’s voice was perhaps the biggest surprise of the night, his vocal chords seemed to generate so much power that if hooked to the London Eye it’d be less big wheel and more spin dryer. I’d not expected a roar with so much soul, while his spoken voice was more predictably baritone.
The show is very much in the spirit of James Brown’s ensemble style, only crossed with a touring theatre company, and then soaked in vat of something very trippy.
They even bring along their own “Bad guy”, Sir Nose D’VoidofFunk, dressed in puffy white fur like Snoop Dogg playing Huggy Bear. He’s the voice of anti-funk, with “Fuck George” daubed on the side of a large fake nose, and constantly appears holding up banners like “GEORGE CLOWN ASS”. Eventually of course, the funk defeats him and he clambers to the top of a speaker stack and shakes what his mamma gave him.
Word on the web is he’s also quite “buff”:
“Oh and Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk is HOT. THIS is the only picture I can find and I don’t even know if that’s the same guy plus I wasn’t really looking at his face (he could have one eye for all I care his body was slammin’).”
So here’s a shot for the appreciation of that lady alone.
George is certainly not afraid to share the limelight with each of the three female vocalists taking a song each. Hippy chick Kendra Foster had the crowd singing along on “Bounce to This”… “Everybody just bounce to this”, although my own lyrics were slightly amended to “Buy a bra… for gods sake Buy a bra”.
Another singer Kim seems to have received an online slagging for “destroying” “Red Hot Mamma” but I thought her voice was pretty good considering she was rollerskating at the time!
She was certainly skilled in the looking good in a one piece cat suit and roller skates department; I thought Ricky Rouse was going to have a seizure when she skated over him as he lay on the floor. Earlier she’d also excelled at standing in front of a large spotlight that accidentally shows the outline of your entire body through your very tight yellow dress.
Gene ‘”Poo Poo Man” Anderson (God I love these names) led one song as if James Brown was being channeled through his body, and another guitarist who’d come dressed as Zorro was on his knees on the front of the stage by the shows climax.
Then there’s Michael “Kidd Funkadelic” Hampton’s whose moment to shine arrived with the axe wielding monster that is “Maggotbrain”, voted one of the 10 greatest guitar solo’s of all time in a poll I just made up. It started chaotically with a bum notes on both drums and guitar but although some of its recorded subtlety was lost, the power of what is essentially a 10 minute guitar solo is still immense. He also displayed good ingenuity in employing his v shaped guitar as a makeshift towel rack.
After mass stage invasions, and as much dancing as the Royal Festival Hall can manage (i.e. not that much really) at twenty past eleven, three hours after taking to the stage the roadies resorted to dismantling the equipment while the band continued to lead sing-along’s. Kash, the lycra clad drummer took his kit being dismantled as an invitation to lead the crowd in one final chant of “WE WANT THE FUNK, WE WANT THA FUNK” as he disappeared.
Setlist:
Did anyone get one?
Funkentelechy
Up on the Down Stroke
You and Your Folks
Cosmic Slop
Maggot Brain
Red Hot Mama
Bounce to this
One Nation Under A Groove
Atomic Dog
The glamour and decadence of seventies Disco beats at the very heart of Hercules & Love Affair and the sleazy streets of Soho somehow seem a fitting setting for their London debut. Hurrying through the rain sodden streets, along Old Compton St - the capitals historical home of homosexuality - before turning into “Porn Alley” otherwise known as Walker’s Court with its XXXX shops and flashing “Live Sex” signs.
When Soft Cell wanted to capture the sordid essence of their “Non Stop Erotic Cabaret” album - example song titles, “Sex Dwarf“, and “Seedy Films” - they snapped Walker’s Court for the back cover. Indeed Almond once lived over the streets most famous venue, Raymond’s Revue Bar, his bedroom window looking in on the dancing girls and strippers as they changed between numbers.
The famous neon of Paul Raymond’s Revue Bar once proclaimed itself “The World Centre of Erotic Entertainment“, opening in 1958 as the UK’s first legal striptease venue. The doors closed a few years ago to be re-branded as the Soho Revue Bar.
As someone who grew up passing by on the way to the record store mecca of Berwick Street it feels very very strange to be going in… for a gig!
Inside is a world of wall to wall purple crushed velvet, it appears vast at first but as you take the walkway from one side of Walkers Court to the venue on the other, peering out over Soho as you cross, the main room turns out to be surprisingly intimate. It also still has dancing poles wither side of the seatng.
Back in April 07 I described Hercules & Love Affair’s debut as my most anticipated album for 08, verbally salivating at the prospect of Anthony Hegarty (of “and the Johnson’s” fame) riding a stomping Chicago house / disco beat. The place was understandably buzzing with the anticipation of seeing Hegarty in his new found role of Disco Diva, but perhaps it was a little naive to expect him to be out on the road with H&LA and as they took to the stage it was clear Anthony was still with the Johnson’s.
GEEZER MINNELLI
“OK I want everyone in the crowd to welcome us by shouting…. Hi-za Minnelli!” It’s a little game we play on tour explains H&LA main man Andy Butler, who, and I don’t wish to shock or “out” anyone here, may be ever so slightly gay. The diminutive vocalist Kim Ann - introduced by Butler as the ultimate “gay boy” continues the theme… “When we leave, you all have to shout Bye-Za Minnelli“. As befits a group born out of New York’s East Village club scene they are as one reviewer put it a “bunch of beautiful oddballs“. And they seem relaxed for their first London outing, with the bassist finishing the Minnelli themed crowd warm up in cod theatrical German “and when in Germany you must say unt Shiza Minnelli“.
Aside from Kim Ann, the main vocalist stepping into Hegarty’s shoes is Nomi, a stunning statuesque woman in the tightest shortest skirt with legs that only stop where the clouds begin. What most of the salivating straight men in the audience probably don’t realise is she was actually born a he. Me? Well obviously I knew she was a transsexual before the gig and at no point was I admiring her/his curvaceous figure…ho ho.
The rest of the band sport black tshirts with a Greek head and the word “Banjee” in large white letters (apparently a Banjee is a kind of buff urban hip hop style gay… think 50 cent if his “Candy Shop” only stocked chocolate willies.
Perversely they start with the piano led album closer “True/False” and over the coarse of this and “Blind” B-side “Shadows” it becomes clear that despite Nomi’s fine voice and dominating presence the rel stars are to her right. The two guys on brass or “My horny men on brass” as Butler calls them are simply phenomenal. Before the gig I’d thought the band might be a little weak live, but would be rescued by the presence and voice of Hegarty, but it unfolds that Anthonys absence is more than made up for by the live band and the horns in particular. Track after track outdoes its recorded counterpart, songs that appeared weaker on record transform into complete belters live. Its simply the clearest, brightest and most urgent brass sound Ive heard in a long long time! Stunning.
Some reviewers focused on the albums obvious reverence to late 80’s dance and 70’s disco, ignoring the sheer depth of musicianship and songwriting on display. “Blind” i clearly one of the anthems of this year, but its disco stomp is topped off with a dose of masterful lyrical melancoly. Nomi may strike a note of hope when she sings “When I was a child I knew, That the stars could only get brighter‘ but its the crushed idealism of the next lines that make the song.. “Now that I’m older, the stars should light up my face… But when I find myself alone, I feel like I am blind‘. Again the brass that sounded thin on record explodes live taking the song to another level.
One of the albums other highlights, the glorious Hegarty penned “Raise Me Up” kicks off a killer three song section, although to my mind Kim Ann doesn’t quite do the song justice. That’s followed by an inspired take on the Blue Oyster Cults “Don’t Fear The Reaper“, covered by the Beautiful South a few years ago, who knew it could be so effortlessly transported to the Paradise Garage!? Finally the song that first put me under H&LA’s spell way back in March 07, “Classique#2“:
“The opening thud thud of the 4:4 house drum, a burbling acid bassline, snatches of twisted vocal samples and I’m in heaven. Even better god’s thrown some classic Chicago house on the turntable.”
Nomi exits for a wardrobe change, returning looking pretty in a bright pink number for her duet with Anthony, “You Belong“. With the crowd baying for more its time to say “Bye-Za Minnelli” with one encore. The album’s littered with Butlers fascination with Greek mythology and closer “Hercules Theme” was by all accounts imagined as a chorus of women singing to Hercules. Its a fine end to the show, with the brass section given space and time to astound yet again.
And so its time to depart back into rainy London, exiting you nearly bump into the ordinary grey suited, maybe married men darting out of doorways, avoiding eye contact as their sweaty palms stuff paper bag covered copies of Barely Legal 17 into executive briefcases. A reminder perhaps that not all in the great gamut of human sexuality is as glamorous or as enriching as Hercules & Love Affair.
Setlist:
True/False
Shadows
I’m Telling You
Blind
Athene
Raise Me Up
Don’t Fear The Reaper
Classique (Change!!)
You Belong
Hercules Theme
“Think of this MP3 as a first glimpse of a glass dorsal fin approaching in the water, then holler Brody like “We’re gonna need a bigger boat!”.”
It was late 2006 when Glass Shark first featured on this blog causing me to exhaust all my nautical fish related puns in one over excited froth of enthusiasm. “Clap your hands, say hit“, “will exercise your grin like an idiot muscles as well as those required to shake your ass“.
You could say I was impressed, even going so far as to jokingly ponder if this was the new LCD Soundsystem LP sneakily released under a pseudonym. Dancefloor mayhem and immediate stardom seemed guaranteed but the Shark seemed unwilling to venture outside of their native Cornwall. A regular check of their myspace revealed the Glass Shark 2006/2007 tour consisted of playing a different Cornish venue 365 nights a year, with no room for a even a solitary trip elsewhere.
Now after 2 years of constant gigging and perfecting their live show, Glass Shark are ready! So watch out world the Shark are on the move, venturing into warmer waters, and like that big rubber fish visiting Antiga Bay in Jaws 4: The Revenge they’ll probably eat your helicopter, dancefloor and for good measure Michael Caine.
They say good things are worth waiting for and boy did we wait, with the support acts intent on upping the anticipation levels by playing endless sets. 10.30 came and went, and to my silent despair they declared “we’re going to play a couple more“! With only the Championship Play Off Semifinal on the pub tv to distract me it was 11pm before Tam hurriedly took to the drum kit announcing “Phew I’m exhausted, I feel like I’ve played a gig already“… perhaps they’re ardent Bristol City supporters!?
Word has spread of the mightiness of the Shark, with a gaggle of Shark-ettes on their feet dancing from the second the first drum beat hit, disappointingly none were dressed as Disco robots (pics here). During the wait I’d also found my own fan - of a less welcome kind - in the form of a very drunk middle aged Irish man who rambled incoherently while swaying and covering my face in spittle as I waited for Glass Shark to take to the stage.
Shamefully I only had opener “I Love my Disco Robot” as the 54th finest song of 2006, it should have been much higher, but what a way to start a show! The awesome bass slaps, clattering drums, “on and on and on” chorus, and singer Tam out James Murphying James Murphy as he spat “You, are a terrible dancer, with your arms everywhere…. you look so hottt!!“. After 2 years waiting to see Glass Shark on stage, cooly clad in all black with pink ties - like The Hives doing a breast cancer awareness gig - I should have been in seventh heaven, but while most saw the track as an instruction to dance, my new found drunken pal chose the moment to lean forward and inform me “you have a lovely smile!!“ I checked if he liked my scowl as much then resorted to intently staring through him at the band.
My recollection of the exact setlist was slightly marred by my new found status as a drunken gay Irish man magnet, especially as he followed up his chat up line with the more direct approach of touching my knees during the second track. Thankfully, and they should put this on their press releases, Glass Shark are so damn good even being touched up by a drunken Irishman wont spoil your evening!!
Oscar Nominations are all well and good, but I’m sure Toni Collette would be far more honoured to discover she now has a song in her name. Not everyone can claim to have inspired a chorus as genius as “Make It Wet, Make It Wet, Like Toni Collette“. With vocoda vocals, lines about drinking and screwing, and Jimmy Green going crazy on the cowbells, it sounds - as do half a dozen Glass Shark tracks - like a smash hit.
With a small but very happy audience either dancing or playing air cow bell, the Shark stormed through other gems such as “You Got Served Again” and “Take It Off“. The latters refrain of “Do It, Do It, Just Dance, Dont’ Don’t Dance” possibly going down the best of all aired on the evening.
Often bands with a drummer doubling as the lead singer suffer from the lack of a focused front man, but Glass Shark just about pull it off due to the sheer energy of Tam Johnstone on drums and vocals.
The only down side of the evening was the shortness of the set, due probably to the extended support acts. “Have we got time for one more” pleaded Tam to a bar manager who was having none of it. No room for the brilliant “Clap Your Hands” or any of the rumoured random cover versions of The Police or Pink Floyd talked about in other reviews.
Fortunately Tommy Flynn’s recognise a good thing when they see it and have invited Glass Shark to bring their “Disco” night back for a residency. As they posted on their facebook “We have returned triumphant from Camden“, Glass Shark are set for many more triumphs across the country. Visit their myspace, add them on facebook, download and buy the tracks, but most of all GO SEE THEM LIVE!
The obscenly talented Tam also has another band “The General Store” generating feverish press with a sound that couldnt be further removed from the guitar disco of Glass Shark. “Very highly recommended” by Rolling Stone Magazine, “The Best West Coast Pop Record in decades” said Popmatters while Tam describes the sound as being inspired by Neil Young, The Byrds and The Beatles.
“Do I amuse you? Am I a musical whore? Do you mock me?” Gonzales theatrically implores, drenched in sweat, exhausted after delivering the best 90 minutes this year - outside of their bedrooms - for almost everyone present. Actually even “time spent with loved ones” doesn’t usually pack vaudeville, theatre, comedy, classical piano, rap, power ballads, and actual physical assault into an hour and a half… if it does can I have your number?
Its a few years since I witnessed Gonzales on his Solo Piano tour entrancing an audience with a bizarre mix of classical piano recital, and music lesson. He had the crowd providing basslines, recreated daft punk classical style, donned a lab coat and tutored random members of the crowd in keyboard skills, all while explaining the difference between major and minor (and how Stevie Wonder can make minor sound happy).
The marvel of Chilly Gonzales is that unlike even the greatest of acts, there’s no one easily comparable to him. Nothing else like a gonzo gig. Prince live is a bit like Sly Stone or James Brown, Duffy’s indebted to Dusty, Timberlake feels like Jackson, and U2 like slow painful death. Gonzales is like no one… but himself.
Tonight’s gig, in support of his new album “Soft Power” (even though inexplicably its not out in the UK till September?) is the full gonzo experience, with backing from his Canadian friends the Le Together Ensemble.
Akira The Don - of whom there will be more later - summed up the great mans eagerly awaited return on his guaranteed to make you chuckle blog:
“Chilly was everything he used to be and more. The most entertaining thing you will ever see. The most sweat ever seen on one stage. The cartoon ego. The amazing ballads. The showmanship. The piano skills. The implausibly memorable and hooky raps. A brilliant backing band - SoCalled, Katie Moore, Matthew Flowers and Handsome Mocky doing Animal drums“.
The backing band were indeed brilliant, seemingly capable of switching instruments at will, even with Gonzales hammily pretending to correct SoCalled’s faultless piano. The man known as SoCalled may look like someones balding science professor but he’s certainly got skills, taking centre stage with a fabulous few bars of rap as unlikely as finding Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters suddenly spinning on his head while rhyming isotope with dope. It was so good Gonzales stopped the music and insisted he did the whole thing again.
Relations with his ensemble are not always as smooth and a mock argument broke out after “Lets Groove Again“. The band tiring of Gonzo’s constant criticism and storming off stage leaving a distraught Gonzales alone with just his piano for company. Looks like its time for the solo piano segment of the show!
Stood barely a metre behind his piano stool, the sight, sound and speed of Chilly’s fingers as they dart around the grand is simply mesmerising. From the subtlest almost caress of a key to frantic rushes where it seems implausible that two hands alone can create what youre hearing. One bit in particular reveals previously hidden similarities between classical music and the pounding piano sound of Chicago house.
Throughout the first half of the show one audience member high on drugs or his own self importance (possibly both) took every opportunity to bellow incoherently. At first Chilly responded with only withering put downs “oh look we have a fucking arsehole in the crowd“. His irritation grew as the pin drop silence of an impossibly beautiful piano solo was shattered by another idiotic outburst. One more shout and Gonzales leapt from his piano stool raging towards the guilty party, swearing and shaking the sweat from his hair onto him like a dog freshly out of a stream. Still enraged he aimed two great globules of spit at the neanderthal followed for good measure by a swift kick from his elegant shoe.
Although shocking it seemed strangely justified, so much effort, soul and concentration is poured into Gonzales on stage that gobbing on a member of the audience IS transformed into a hugely endearing act!? Stunned audience members pondered whether their own spittle could be put to good use, although thankfully the perpetrator was ejected before a mass phlem-fest could break out.
The band slowly reemerge with Katie Moore and Gonzales singing “You Are” to each other and then Gonzo issues an “Apology” to the band (one of my favourites off the new album):
“I’ve failed as a lover and I’ve failed as a friend”
“You want hits… oh I got hits” Gonzales proclaims before “Let’s Groove Again” his 1999 Kitty-Yo smash, but its “Take Me To Broadway“ that gets the biggest reaction. Gonzo is more Groucho in full Jewish Supervillain MC persona as he bounds the stage, crazy inventive rhymes bursting forth. His Fiest collaboration “Shameless Eyes” keeps the pace suitably high as well as offering Matthew Flowers the chance to step forward and demonstrate his perfect R&B vocals.
When Akira The Don sent me his wonderful unofficial remix of Gonzales’s “Working Together” he probably didn’t imagine a little over a month later he’d be onstage performing it with the man himself! By all accounts the band have been playing it to death on the tour bus, and why not its a work of genius. Akira explodes on like a man who’s spent all evening poised in the wings! After being chastised by Gonzo for bringing a drink with him, he spent most of the song airbourn, twisting, leaping, and crashing down onto the stage. All this and he only did half his verses. Sadly the lyrics were a little lost in the mix but “Working Together” is still the finest song Rolf from the Muppets never wrote.
A faithful cover of “Easy Lover” reminded even those that celebrated Phil Collin’s recent retirement that the guy wrote some great tunes. “Do you really like that!!??” demanded Chilly as the crowd went mad. With braces dangling by his side Gonzo then grilled the audience over what they thought of him, finally admitting that he was only talking so much because the guy backstage said he’s only allowed to play one more, and he wanted to piss him off.
The final piece of pantomime for the evening sees the band trying out that old management bonding technique of standing with your back to a person and then trusting they’ll catch you when you fall back. “You Snooze You Lose” was a fine ending to another magical night with Gonzales and his cohorts.
As Akira The Don deftly concludes:
“Go see them, your life will be enriched”
Setlist:
Unrequited Love
Map Of The World
So Called Medley
Why Don’t We Disappear
Slow Down
(The Band Thinking)
Let’s Groove Again
Solo Piano
You Are
Apology
Salieri Serenade
Take Me To Broadway
Shameless Eyes / Friend
Working Together (feat. Akira The Don)
—-
Easy Lover
You Snooze You Loose
What’s worse than not going to the Camden Crawl? Answer: Not going and unknowingly giving them your mobile number. There’s nothing like an hourly text message telling you the length of queues at the various venues to remind you just what you’re missing.
Fortunately London offers plenty of alternatives to the £50 Crawl, Rough Trade celebrated World Record Store day with over a dozen acts performing in their East End store, and the mighty Superimposers put on a night in Kings Cross. Total cost = Nowt.
More importantly no trip to Rough Trade is complete without stumbling across a release the existence of which would otherwise have passed you by. Visits have to be strictly rationed as its impossible to leave without £50 quids worth of music you had no intention of buying when you went in.
JOHN FAIRHURST
Humble Soul is not a label with a huge release schedule, but you can guarantee that everything they put out is just that little bit special. Last year, they produced a meagre 500 copies of Denis Jones’s “Humdrum Virtue” album, but 500 people will not have heard much that surpassed it in 2007.
Despite all this I failed to notice their latest release “Joys of Spring” by John Fairhurst until idly passing time on a Rough Trade listening post while waiting for Lykke Li to come on stage.
Its the sound of the spirit of Django Reinhardt, Ravi Shanker, Bukka White, and Nick Drake all channeled through the body of a humble soul from Wigan. Thanks must go to John’s dad who introduced him to slide blues at an early age, while he was obviously a late comer to indian classical music, getting in K.Sridhar at the age of 8 (an age at which my tastes were more Shaky than Sridar).
Instrumental guitar albums can flag over the course of a dozen tracks, but John takes his broad musical upbringing and mixes it with years of travelling the world and South East Asia in particular. His website says he “worked alongside Maori gangsters, played slide guitar in a Bangkok blues bar, wrote for a traditional Thai dancer, and was tattooed with protective blessings by monks.”
No track on the album sounds the same, yet it all gels perfectly together like a wondrous journey around the globe. The Blues bar romp of “Obnox Stomp”, the plucking English folk harp on “Passing Time” and the slide blues of “Yew Tree Blues”. That Indian classical influence is very much in effect on several tracks, so much so that one listener subjected to me playing the album for the umpteenth time penned her own mini review… “Jesus Christ…thank god thats over I thought I was trapped in a bloody Indian Restaurant!“ Not a review that musiclikedirt would of course endorse… buy this record!
Lykke Li (along with Billy Bragg) was one of the main draws for Rough Trades all day celebration of Record Store day. She’s been likened to both Robyn and Bjork, and both hold true as she combines a lovely quirkiness with a definite pop sensibility.
She’s destined for huge things, having progressed from bloggers favourite to Jools Holland in the last week alone. This short set contained most of the future hits from her debut album Youth Novels, produced by the Bjorn from Peter, Bjorn and John (”Young Folks”).
While it wasnt a performance that will stay long in the mind, the quality of the songs and hints of her inventive full show were on display.
The Superimposers are putting on a free night every 6 weeks or so at The Duke in Kings Cross. Last weekend I caught them live for the second time in a month, and in the Duke’s tiny basement room you can’t help but be sucked in by their charming sound (which I’ve already raved about on this blog quite enough).
Soon to be released single “Northern Song” is an undoubted highlight but in truth there’s not a duff track all evening. On top of that they always invite along a favourite band to support them, in this case The Occasional String Band featuring Mick Talbot on Keys (but I cant find anything on the internet about them?).
Check The Superimposers site below for news of the next freebie gig, and a release date for the single.
The Superimposers are guests on Jonny Trunk’s OST Resonance FM show this weekend. OST is two hours of radio dedicated to the soundtrack - this includes film music, TV music, library music, film music cover versions, advertising sounds, film stars singing, anything that can be placed under the broad banner of soundtrack music.
Saturday 26th April 4:30pm - 6:30pm LIVE
Wednesday 30th April 3:00pm - 5:00pm REPEAT
Heading off on a slight tangent can I recommend Jonny Trunks, Trunk records website. Its a great way to lose a few hours with his incredibly off the wall taste in music, sex and nostalgia!
Ranging from Dirty Fan Male (the letters blokes sent to glamour girls), the shortest and catchiest ever hit single 36 seconds of “Ladies Bra’s“ (youtube), to gems from The Radiophonic Workshop. There’s also Dereks dishes featuring themed collections of 60’s and 70’s nude and semi nudes organised under headings such as “Making tea”. Very kitsch!
It’s like stumbling into the craziest most fascinating second hand shop, finding bizarre new oddities with every click. 1970’s celebrity cook books anyone!
These are serious times for Archway. First Quasar closed down, depriving Londoners of one the few chances to run around shooting your mates on the roof of a Co-op superstore. More importantly Puregroove Records, an institution on Holloway Road for as long as I can remember has announced it’ll be closing its doors at the end of the month and moving to a place where the haircuts are more angular.
As a thank you, Puregroove are holding a final wave goodbye festival in some of the areas less well strummed locations. The glorious Rumble Strips are playing the island in the middle of Archway swimming pool while their fans twirl in formation around them, and saxophonist Tom Gorbutt wistfully dreams of recreating Madness video’s.
For this gig, Noah and The Whale - purveyors of fine uplifting indie folk - have set up stage in the children’s book section of Archway Library. With 15 minutes to go it looks like the kids will be part of the show. One group intently plays a computer game just below the keyboards, others read, some run amok, and one ambles upto Puregroove staff-er Ben to ask if he can look after his Transformers DVD while he gets his mum! Meanwhile I discovered what may just be the best pre-gig entertainment ever. In all seriouslness venues should really think about providing a collection of Asterix books for those awkward lulls between bands!
Dressed in bright primary colours as if ready to look through the round window, they avoided library late fees and kicked off just after 6.30 with a rousing “Give a little love“.
“In that perfect moment I nearly ruined it, by saying I love and nearly meaning it”
With room for only 50 people there’s a lovely intimacy to the gig, a perfect setting for tracks like “Mary” with its violins and mid west sound, although as it breaks into almost a hoe down at the end attempts to get a library dancing proved tricky.
Former member Laura Marling may be off to solo stardom, but The Slow Club’sRebecca Taylor stepped in with her own beautiful vocals, working particularly well on the almost obscenely upbeat and joyful last single “5 years time“. It’s mix of whistling, sunshine, ukuleles, violins, zoo’s and even elephants bursting with love is pretty much engineered to put smiles on audiences, and this gig is no exception.
They even segued it into a cover of “Sweets for my Sweet” made famous by The Searchers in the UK (although I have a soft spot for a rough reggae version i’ll post below).
Any disappointment in finding out new single (May 5th) “Shape of my heart” isnt a Backstreet Boys cover is tempered by its fantastic horn sounds, military drum, and perfect bitter sweet chorus.
Ending the short set with “Rocks and Daggers” this is a band on top form in an inspired setting. Stage right of the A-Z of Jamiacan heritage the brass burst forth, by picture books the Harmonium was glorious, in front of “Wibbly Pig’s Silly Big Bear” Rebecca sung her heart out, by a picture history of the 1950’s the violin player excelled, and Winnie the pooh can rarely of witnessed better drumming. In the center of it all lead singer Charlie Fink couldn’t look happier.
Now can anyone tell me what happens at the end of Asterix & Cleopatra, some band interrupted my reading!?
Setlist:
Give a little love
Peaceful/Jocasta?
Mary
Shape of my heart
Five tears time
Rocks and daggers
For the first 15 minutes, George is no where to be seen, and its left to Garry “Starchild” Shider to lead the funk with more panache than a 55 year old man in a large cloth nappy has any right to. Initially he teams the nappy with shades and the type of jacket not seen since Cameo’s codpiece was causing grannies to choke over tea time top of the pops. However the jacket is soon dispensed with and its just one man at one with his diaper and guitar, he owns the stage during “Funkentelechy” as only the original Cosmic John the Bop-tist can.
Clinton’s voice was perhaps the biggest surprise of the night, his vocal chords seemed to generate so much power that if hooked to the London Eye it’d be less big wheel and more spin dryer. I’d not expected a roar with so much soul, while his spoken voice was more predictably baritone.
So here’s a shot for the appreciation of that lady alone.
Gene ‘”Poo Poo Man” Anderson (God I love these names) led one song as if James Brown was being channeled through his body, and another guitarist who’d come dressed as Zorro was on his knees on the front of the stage by the shows climax.
Aside from Kim Ann, the main vocalist stepping into Hegarty’s shoes is 
One of the albums other highlights, the glorious Hegarty penned “Raise Me Up” kicks off a killer three song section, although to my mind Kim Ann doesn’t quite do the song justice. That’s followed by an inspired take on the Blue Oyster Cults “Don’t Fear The Reaper“, covered by the Beautiful South a few years ago, who knew it could be so effortlessly transported to the Paradise Garage!? Finally the song that first put me under H&LA’s spell 
They say good things are worth waiting for and boy did we wait, with the support acts intent on upping the anticipation levels by playing endless sets. 10.30 came and went, and to my silent despair they declared “we’re going to play a couple more“! With only the Championship Play Off Semifinal on the pub tv to distract me it was 11pm before Tam hurriedly took to the drum kit announcing “Phew I’m exhausted, I feel like I’ve played a gig already“… perhaps they’re ardent Bristol City supporters!?
Often bands with a drummer doubling as the lead singer suffer from the lack of a focused front man, but Glass Shark just about pull it off due to the sheer energy of Tam Johnstone on drums and vocals.
Throughout the first half of the show one audience member high on drugs or his own self importance (possibly both) took every opportunity to bellow incoherently. At first Chilly responded with only withering put downs “oh look we have a fucking arsehole in the crowd“. His irritation grew as the pin drop silence of an impossibly beautiful piano solo was shattered by another idiotic outburst. One more shout and Gonzales leapt from his piano stool raging towards the guilty party, swearing and shaking the sweat from his hair onto him like a dog freshly out of a stream. Still enraged he aimed two great globules of spit at the neanderthal followed for good measure by a swift kick from his elegant shoe.
When Akira The Don sent me his wonderful unofficial remix of Gonzales’s “Working Together” he probably didn’t imagine a little over a month later he’d be onstage performing it with the man himself! By all accounts the band have been playing it to death on the tour bus, and why not its a work of genius. Akira explodes on like a man who’s spent all evening poised in the wings! After being chastised by Gonzo for bringing a drink with him, he spent most of the song airbourn, twisting, leaping, and crashing down onto the stage. All this and he only did half his verses. Sadly the lyrics were a little lost in the mix but “Working Together” is still the finest song Rolf from the Muppets never wrote.
JOHN FAIRHURST
Former member Laura Marling may be off to solo stardom, but 