LAST WEEK IN LONDON: Les Pauls, Strats and Cowboy Hats
- Posted on August 15, 2008 3:54 PM
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Last Week In London
Les Pauls, Strats and Cowboy Hats
By Peter Coulston
Hello and welcome to the very best in live music that this great city has to offer, albeit a little thin on the ground in this holiday month of August. Many clubs are closed for the month and others are only open for live music a couple of times a week. That doesn’t mean you can stay home and watch Big Brother; there is still enough to keep us all occupied as you will see. Now, I have been indulging in a lot of pretty laid back acoustic stuff of late; not intentionally, it’s just what has been on offer at most of my favourite venues. Well, on Tuesday I remedied that with a visit to The Barfly in the Camden Town/Chalk Farm neck of the woods. The occasion was a three band, power pop line up headlined by Go:Audio and supported by some impressive young talent. The opening act was Attack Attack, who are four new wave rockers from South Wales with a very impressive sound. The quality of the songs was way above average and the two singers could switch leads and hit the harmonies with no problem. You can hear great songs like “Home Again” and download their single “You And Me” on www.myspace.com/attackattackband. I suggest you do so, boyo. Next up was Paige, a London based five piece power pop band that I would have been raving about if I had not heard the Welsh boys first. This is a good band, but the songs weren’t as good and the lead vocals sounded strained at times. They look good, make excellent use of their keyboard player, and have good stage presence and audience rapport. Worth seeing and hearing on www.myspace.com/paigeuk. As I mentioned, the headliners were Go:Audio, a very professional and commercial pop/rock quartet who seem to have quite a following already. Some may remember them as The Vacancy, but they are now on top of their form with an impressive stack of rock anthems that earned them the job of opening for McFly. Great exposure for a good looking, energetic band who can sing, play, work an audience and who will certainly succeed before long. Great songs like “Take the Floor” and “Forget About It” had the audience singing along, and some of the new material will soon be as popular. Check out their tour dates and their single “She Left Me” on www.myspace.com/goaudioband before they become mega.
Having got all that heavy rock out of my system, I decided that some good old country music was next on the agenda, which just happened to be available in droves at the Electroacoustic at the Slaughtered Lamb pub near Barbican on Wednesday. The first thing to catch my eye as I entered was that the stage had moved to the other side of the room along with most of the furniture. This was apparently due to a flood since my last visit rather than severe memory loss or hallucination on my part. Having sorted that out I settled down to enjoy the acoustic delights of the evening, which were many. To open; another modest young man who decided not to introduce himself, but who I deduced was Paul Cook. He does folk rock with some pop thrown in, and gave a pretty good performance on the dark “Rooftops” and the folk/rock “Guilt”, both of which can be found on www.myspace.com/cooksongs. “Modern Relationships” was more pop and commercial and is new and not yet available. Nice set overall. More Story Fours are a three piece acoustic band consisting of Steve Ferbrache on guitar and vocals, Siobhan Watts on banjo and Jake Wilson on violin. Steve was also the sound man for the evening which caused him some frustration which I will not dwell on. As for the band, they are the best exponents of “Olde Time” country music that I have heard in a long time. This was the original, European based American music that preceded and influenced Country & Western, Bluegrass and Country Rock, and these guys (and girl) know how to play it. Siobhan is the only musician that I have heard recently (apart from the old master, Pete Stanley) that actually knows how to play a 5 string banjo in what was known as “frailling” style. She has certainly mastered the art, as has Jake Wilson, who makes his violin sing. Lots of old favourites like “Wreck of the Old 97”, The Cuckoo” and “Cripple Creek” were played with respect and the more modern but authentic “Funny Things” can be heard on www.myspace.com/morestoryfours06 . Might be a bit too hillbilly for some tastes, but if you like a bit of authentic old Americana, give them a listen. Next up was Emit Bloch, a UK based singer with a great line in boozy but brilliant Country songs. Supported by some fine Stetsons and a good band which included Whiskey Mick on mandolin, the set promised to be anything but boring. Opening with Merle Haggards’s “Mama Tried” and followed by “Disabled by Good Looks”, it was soon obvious that we were in for a good time. Great guitar and mandolin solos supported great songs like the upbeat version of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and “Dorothy”, all of which was good country and then some. He is on www.myspace.com/emitblochcountry, but the page would not come up whenever I tried to access it. Hope you have better luck, as this guy is good. To finish the evening, there was yet more Folk/Bluegrass from The Green Rock River Band, who complimented fine vocals and harmonies with equally fine banjo, violin, flute, guitar, mandolin and rhythm section. The banjo was more modern country than Scruggs bluegrass but the violin and mandolin hit the spot. The songs were a mix of new ones like the folksy “Whiskey and Cheese” and the old style “Stranger In Town”, and traditional ballads like “Shady Grove”. Another great bit of Americana that deserves a listen, and can, in fact, be heard on www.myspace.com/thegreenrockriverband.
I tried a new venue on Thursday in a part of London that I was not really familiar with. The location was The Perseverance pub on Shroton Street. It is near Marylebone Main Line and Bakerloo Underground station and shares the area with other quaint old hostelries and a fish restaurant that also has a fish & chips takeout. The pub itself is small and a little sparse inside with nostalgic pictures on the walls which include a poster for the classic 1950’s film noir, The Asphalt Jungle, and some old black and whites of The Rat Pack. The beer and wine were all pretty standard and reasonably priced and they only serve food at lunchtimes, not allowing it to get in the way of serious afternoon and evening drinking. The club is upstairs and was, on this occasion, promoted by Dogfishtrombone Promotions. Typical of August, the club was nearly deserted apart from performers and their friends/girlfriends; in fact, at the start of the evening I think I was the only paying customer, being eventually joined by three Brazilians. We all nevertheless had a good time, which began with Hungry Dog, who is also Dogfishtrombone Promotions and lead singer with Hungry Dog Brand, who I reviewed some time ago when they opened for Sandy Dillon. I still owe them an album review, for which I apologise, and which I will do some time soon. On this occasion, Hungry Dog was acoustic and solo and made a good job of his dark and sometimes depressing (depending on your sense of humour) material. He included a Steve Forbert cover and made me promise to review his new EP produced by Reckless Eric. I will, but in the meantime go to www.myspace.com/hungrydogbrand where all will be revealed. He is back here on 11 September and I might be as well, which hopefully won’t put you off. Mark Alder was up next, but apparently there are two of them and this was not the one that I had seen previously. I have also been unable to trace him on line, but surfice to say, he did an enjoyable set of dark rocky ballads on his electric guitar to accompany nice, earthy vocals. “Scratching the Scars” was particularly good, so, Mark, if you want to send me some details via the Seatwave website I promise to print it. Now Richard McGuire from Cambridge is a very talented but quite heavy performer who is influenced by Hendrix and Dylan as well as, but not least by, Kevin Coyne. He does very clever stuff on a 12 String and a pedal and songs like “Horse Running Backwards” and “J’Accuse” are well constructed but dark and deep. He closed with “The Assembly of Birds”, which had a guitar intro that was longer than the live version of Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” and went on to cover some intricate guitar work that demanded concentration. If you like very good music give him a try, but forget it if you get bored easily. See what you think on www.myspace.com/finsburytunes. I saw Anders Dal at the Half Moon unplugged a few weeks ago and was impressed with his songs and performance rather more than his communication with the audience. On this occasion there was little or no audience to worry about, but the performance was still good in a hard, folk, protest style. Good songs like “Big City Lies, Big City Lies” and “State of Mind, Health of State” made their point and can be heard on www.myspace.com/andersdal. Well, I don’t know about you, but I had a good week. So, stay safe and well, keep gigging and see you next week.
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