Last Week In London
- Posted on November 19, 2007 12:01 PM
- 2 comments
Old Punks and New Poets
by Peter Coulston
Hello Ladies and gents; hope you are well and had a good week last week. I certainly did but, what's new. So starting with Monday, something was Rotten in the Borough of Lambeth, and it wasn't a load of unsold fruit and veg left around on Coldharbour Lane. No, it was Johnny and his pals reliving their youth and ours at the Brixton Academy. I was living in Toronto when these guys were hitting the headlines in the UK, and the radio stations there tended to ignore British punk in favour of The Ramones and Talking Heads. We had our own punk bands, like Teenage Head, who were pretty good, and the Disgusting Viletones, who weren't. The Clash and The Jam were pretty much ignored but The Sex Pistols were not, so “God Save The Queen” was played regularly on breakfast radio along with “Psycho Killer”. I have good memories of those days and enjoyed this concert from a different perspective than most of the audience.
The show opened with The Cribs, a band of three brothers from Wakefield who played a sound and competent set. I would like to see them in a more intimate venue, and recommend that you look out for them when this tour is over. I don't know who had the brilliant idea of filling the time before the main guys came on with a DJ playing drum and bass. This really wound the audience up, which could have been intentional, as they were ready to rock by the time the masters of anarchy hit the stage.
Johnny was his usual obnoxious self from the outset, and “Pretty Vacant” set the mood for the evening. The pace was relentless and Steve Jones's block chord solos took no prisoners. In short, they were tight and loud and delivered exactly what those middle aged mohicans had paid for. “Holidays In The Sun”, “God Save The Queen” and “Anarchy In The UK” were there and so was the attitude. Providing you can handle a 52 year old man singing “God save the Queen, she ain't no human being” you had to love this gig. Not so sure about the Vera Lynn anthems to open and close of the show, but so what, it's just Johnny taking the **ss.
Tuesday found me back in Brixton again, at the Academy again, in fact; for some very heavy hardcore. All three bands were in the same genre and the audience had an average age of 13, which was cool as they had a ball while behaving themselves, which leads us to question all the criticism and concern that we constantly hear about British youth culture. Give them a break, the kids are alright. The gig kicked off with Ghost Of A Thousand, a Brighton based band who kept the pace up throughout. Tom Lacey's vocals seemed a bit strained, but overall the boys did the business and succeeded in warming up a half empty venue. Saosin are from California and delivered a solid set of hard rock material which was well played and well written. All three bands were strong an vocals and harmonies and you can check it out as these guys are on myspace and Capitol Records.
The headliners, Alexisonfire, are from St Catherines, Ontario, just down the road from my former home, Toronto. These guys were very visual and the lead singer should not count on additional income from advertising on his tee shirt, as he removed it before we even had a chance to check out what colour it was. Mostly up tempo hardcore material with very good vocals from three of the frontmen and lots of stage gymnastics, but the anthems such as “Rough Hands” showed another side of this band. A solid, if somewhat short, set from these guys, but the kids loved it. The are on myspace and on Vagrant Records in the US and Distort In Canada.
To close the week, I opted for an acoustic night at The Troubadour in Earls Court. Thursdays is usually an electric band night but this week the bands and performers were very much in the singer/songwriter mode. The show was opened by Orlando Seale and his fine musician friends and was a joy to experience. This guy writes songs about the most miserable of subjects (suicide seems to be a particularly popular theme along with doomed relationships), and
makes them entertaining. “Abdication Song”, “I Have Forgotten How” and “Devil's Bath” were masterpieces of the macabre as was “Your Clown Isn't Funny”, which he duetted with Edith Bentall. There were lighter moments such as the folksy “The Cross”, and his backing band of keyboards, trumpet, cello, guitar and bass were the icing on the cake. All these songs are on his myspace, so get on to the net right now.
Talking of great backing bands, Steve Dagleish is certainly blessed in that area also. The guitar, mandolin, fiddle, bass, flute and percussion gave the finishing touch to a great set of urban folk songs. Switching between his debut album “”Angel To Ancient” and his latest “The Morphine Diaries”, he and his backing singers covered a wide range of material that linked dark ballads to love songs and folky rock. Steve has a single out now on Dagelfish Records called “4X4”, a rocker that can be heard on myspace along with other good stuff. Check out this fine singer/songwriter if you are into quality material, well performed.
Fear For Fever are a four piece electronic rock band from Shepherds Bush, except that, last night, they were a duo playing an acoustic set. They have a myspace, but I do not imagine it sounding anything like the set I heard last night. The songs and vocals were great and guitars and numerous keyboards were used to good effect. If the songs that the full band perform are half as good as this, they are worth a listen. We all wanted more, but their acoustic repertoire was exhausted, so we left the gig being thankful for all we received. I hope be with you all again next week, but I could get a little sidetracked by the birth of my first grandchild. I will, however, try to ensure that this event causes the minimum of disruption to the cause of live music. Keep gigging and stay safe and well.
Comments (2)
Colin Brunton
Well, they weren't the "Disgusting" Viletones, just The Viletones. And at their best -- especially with the original line-up of Leckie, Pompeii, Haight and Motor X -- they rivalled anyone on the scene, anywhere, anytime.
Posted on November 20, 2007 3:30 PM
john trow
hi when i went to see the pistols,,they were spot on!!!but i was told by the doormen not to jump around and stop enjoying myself as this was wrong!!!!!well i cleaned that statement up,,,,ha,,anyway am off to see them again in june,,cheers bud..........
Posted on March 28, 2008 11:36 AM
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