LIVE REVIEW : THE FLESHTONES AT THE SHACKLEWEL​L ARMS 8/12/2012

As told in Joe Bonomo's book Sweat, the Fleshtones in the aftermath of a terrible English tour in the 1980's had sworn to never play a show in the UK again. That vow was first broken in 2006 when they played a one off London show and it was defintely burried this year with the short english leg of their fall 2012 tour. Organized by Dirty Water Club, the gig took place in the dancehall of the Shacklewell Pub in Hackney. The soundcheck started a bit late which meant opening act the DeRellas played to an already packed room. I must admit I wasn't very impressed by them and was glad their set only lasted 30 minutes (special mention to the bass player who despite his ugly mug was still confident enough in his "sex appeal" to display a unused condom popping up from his jeans backpocket...).

 After a short break, The Fleshtones came on stage and started playing "Hitsburg USA". The smallness of the room meant the band had to cut down on the stage antics that are usually featured in their show. We still got the wheel of talent routine where all the band members spin on themselves. The "shadows-like"choregraphed kicks in the air ended up with Keith Streng kicking a slightly over-enthusiastic female fan in the nose !!! The setlist was quite different from the show I saw earlier this year in Marmande (south west France) which shows that the band is not going through the motions and playing the same songs over and over again in the same order. Most of the bands recent lp's were quite heavily featured (for some reason I don't recall anything from "Take a good look" being played but I might be wrong). We didn't get "I want the answers" from Beachhead which is one my favourite Fleshtones track but that was more than compensated by rousing versions of "Pretty, pretty,pretty" and "Push-up-man" (followed by the usual push contest between Keith Streng and Ken Fox). The gig finished in grand style with Zaremba crowdsurfing over us which unfortunately involved him knocking a pint of cider on my girlfriends jacket...

LIVE REVIEW : THE NORTH SEA SCROLLS ST PANCRAS OLD CHURCH 6/12/2012

"Britpop survivors collaborate", that's the way Timeout summed up The North Sea Scrolls. That's selling the whole thing a bit short... Composed of musicians Cathal Coughlan and Luke Haines plus globe trotter / music journalist Andrew Mueller, The North Sea Scrolls was first aired at last year's Edinburgh festival. The show offers an alternative history of Britain where Oswald Mosley is lord protector, Enoch Powell a member of 70's prog rock outfit Gong and Chris Evans a martyr. A studio recorded version of the show has just been put out by Fantastic Plastic records and the small tour promoting it included 2 evenings at St Pancras Old Church.

For that second London date the place was packed (maybe because of that "attractive" blurb in Timeout...). Each song in the show was preceeded by a short story narrated by Muller (so hilariously good that even he struggled to keep a straight face). To give some gravitas to the proceedings, all 3 men were wearing pith helmets with added white army jackets with medals in the case of Coughlan and Muller. Songs are divided half between Haines and Coughlan. Haines songs are full of his usual lyrical wit (special mention to Enoch Powell : Space Poet) and catchy melodies, while Coughlan's ones need more repeated listenings to be fully appreciated. To add some extra sonic oomph to the Keyboard and Acoustic Guitar set-up, a Cellist was there (Audrey Riley). After concluding by inviting the audience to join in for "The Anthem of the Scrolls", the band came back for a  triumphant four song encore composed of Microdisney and Luke Haines solo songs.

LIVE REVIEW : GERAINT WATKINS THE UNDERBELLY HOXTON 29/11/2012

Geraint Watkins may not be a household name but his profile as a solo artist has increased considerably over the last 10 years. After releasing one solo album at the end of the 1970's, Watkins spent the best part of the two following decades being a highly sought after session man playing with the likes of Van Morrison, Paul Mccartney, Shakin Stevens, Dave Edmunds, Rory Gallagher. At the same time, he was the main driving force in the Balham Alligators, London's official source for cajun music, with whom he played in almost every pub in the city.

Since 1994 he has been playing in Nick Lowe's backing band. His second (Bold as Love) and third (Dial W For Watkins) albums were recorded at the same time and in the same stusios as Nick Lowe's "Dig my Mood" and "The Convincer". His latest CD "In a Bad Mood" was released in 2008. Thig gig at the Underbelly in Hoxton was a launch party for "The Mosquito EP vol1" that will be followed by a vol2 and a vol3 and the release of a full album. Watkins doesn't play many solo shows with a full band so it was a rare occasion to catch him live playing with a full band augmented by a 3-piece horn section.

The gig started at 8.30pm with just Watkins by himself playing "Only a Rose" and "Easy to Say (Bontemps Roulez)" from "In A Bad Mood". While the band was setting up, he thanked everybody in the audience for coming along and joked that as the EP is only coming out on vinyl, we could buy it but most of us wouldn't be able to play it. The setlist comsisted mainly of numbers off from "In a Bad Mood" and "The Mosquito EP vol1" intersped with a couple of numbers from the "Bols as Love" (I recall hearing "Happy Day" and "Wonderful life"). Watkins's fantastic piano playing was showcased on a several covers (including a fantastic rework of "Johnny Be goode" that has been a mainstay of his live shows for quite a few years now). I was hoping for more of my favourites to be played ("Don't Stop", "Unto You", "My Love") but the band probably didn't get much time to rehearse and they stuck to the set-list they have been playing with Watkins for the past few years. Nick Lowe was in the audience, eagerly grooving to his "ever-soulful" piano player.

Photo by Sonia Ballot

ART WILL SAVE THE WORLD : A FILM ABOUT LUKE HAINES AT THE BASEMENT BRIGHTON 24/11/2012

To celebrate our 2 years together, my girlfriend and I had decided to spend the weekend of the 24th and the 25th of November in Brighton. Being my usual "canny" self I managed to fit something musical into the proceedings by taking her to see the recently released documentary "Art will save the world" about former The Auteurs frontman Luke Haines.It was showing at a small Art Cinema called The Basement and was due to be followed by a Q and A session with Mr Haines and film director Niall Mccan.

 

 

 The documentary is quite short clocking at 1 hour and 15 minutes (could have been stretched a bit more without becoming boring) and avoids the usal rock documentary format. Apart from the appearance of the first drummer in The Auteurs in a surreal sequence where he is brushing leaves off the ground behind Haines on a stage, there is no interview of anyone who played music with Haines (not very surprising considering The Auteurs were composed of hired-hands and of Haines's former partner Alice but a bit weird when it comes to former BBR associates Sarah Nixey and John Moore). Not a lot of famous talking heads, apart from Jarvis Cocker (who makes a really great contribution to the movie), we get two writers (John Niven and David peace, respectively authors of "Kill your friends" and "The Damned Utd", Lukes former manager, his former clip director and a guy who wrote a book about him).

 

Niall Mccan depicts Haines as a man of strong principles that doesn't compromise his artistic vision to pursue commercial success ("I don't write for the man on the street" says Haines in the movie). The film is a bit pretentious sometimes but very funny (a little bit like Haines in fact). I didn't quite get the sequences of people auditionning to be Haines but the bits where Haines revisits his hometown of Walton-on-thames are hilarious (deadpanning at its best). Sometimes for plot purposes, the facts gets twisted a bit,"Bad Vibes" is presented as a kind of "career saving moment". Maybe the book sold well but I don't think it garnered Haines more record or ticket sales. He says that in 2005 he was playing to audiences of 50 people. Well I saw him at the Deaf Institute in 2009 (after Bad Vibes had been released) and there was about 50 people in the place... Shame some subjects weren't treated in a more thorough way (Das Capital, the pop strike, Black Box Recorder).There is also nothing about "Property", the cancelled musical that Haines was writing inbetween the end of Black Box Recorder and the recording of the "Off my rocker at the art school bop" album. I would have been nice to get Dave Boyd former head of Hut Records to reminisce about working with Haines. But choices had to be made and long rockumentaries are not good usually (major example : George Harrison : Living in the material). Haines appearing after the screening with the director proves that he must be pleased with the version of himself that's presented in the movie, which would mean it's probably not for the man on the street ;).

 

Link to preview : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3H61oDvflc