ANNY CELSI & NELSON BRAGG

GIG: Anny Celsi & Nelson Bragg
DATE: Wednesday 28th April 2010
VENUE: “What’s Cookin’” @ The Sheep Walk, High Road, Leytonstone, London, E11
COST: free but donations collected for the band
RATING: Volcanic Ash can’t stop these two!

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/nelsonbragg

www.myspace.com/annycelsi

http://www.whatscookin.co.uk/

Leytonstone High Road has a bit of a nugget in terms of a music venue, and we found it tonight when we went along to see Anny Celsi and Nelson Bragg on their 2nd European tour. The Icelandic volcanic ash had threatened their whole tour (indeed a few gigs in Holland had been cancelled due to the travel restrictions) but we were certainly pleased that they had managed to get back to the UK for this gig.

From our seat, Anny was almost hidden by a big floral arrangement that framed the stage area. In fact the whole venue looked very much like a Nudie suit, but that did not detract from the music, and they launched into their opening number “Little Black Dress”, the title track from one of Anny’s albums. The set included some songs that are really well embedded firm favourites with us, “She Walks In”, “The Night She Learned To Drive”, “Empty Hangers”, “Tangle Free World” and “Summer Fling”. Some covers were also done, including the ever popular Lee Hazelwood “Some Velvet Morning”. Nelson’s “Forever Days”, a track from his solo album also went down a storm with the audience.

It is amazing to hear how just an acoustic guitar, 2 great voices, a snare drum, 2 tambourines tied to Nelson’s feet, and a shaker around his wrist can give such volume and depth to the sound of an acoustic set. Anny and Nelson’s voices compliment each other and are really harmonious, whether it is Nelson adding a few ooohs and ahhhs and harmony backing to Anny’s songs or Anny adding a bit of backing vocal to Nelson’s songs, the chemistry works.

The audience at the gig was quite sizeable, claiming all of the chairs around the tables, and seating along the back wall, with some standing (because that’s all they could do) and seemed to really enjoy Anny and Nelson’s music. Among the audience were a few of Nelson and Anny’s UK friends they have met along the way and the guy who ran the venue seemed genuinely pleased that Nelson and Anny’s pot of donations was growing.

“What’s Cookin’” is described on their webpage as “its a little bit country, a little bit rock'n'roll, with the best dressed little stage in London” and that describes it completely. Having been to a few pub gigs, we really expected the room above the pub to be dark, dank, and standing only. We were pleasantly surprised to find it carpeted, tables and chairs laid out and a bar too! The stage was decorated with plants and flowers, almost to the point of us asking whose funeral it was (!) but the venue as a whole gets a big thumbs up. Not so sure about the loos though!

This gig was well worth the hours drive each way!

JOE MEEK - THE FAREWELL CONCERT

GIG: Joe Meek – The Farewell Concert
DATE: Saturday 10th April 2010
VENUE: White Eagle Hall, Polish Club, Raans Road, Amersham, Bucks (Amersham Rock & Roll Club)
COST: £13.50 in advance
RATING: Quiffsville

LINKS:
www.myspace.com/joemeeksociety
http://www.joemeeksociety.co.uk/

The evening at the Amersham Rock & Roll Club kicked off at just after 7.30. Being resident in the Polish Club, a minutes silence was held in respect of the Polish president who tragically died in a plane crash that very morning.

The compere for the night was Robb Shenton(who has played in/been associated with many Joe Meek bands) and he introduced the first band on stage – The Saints. This band was the original house band for Joe Meek productions. Theirs was a fairly short set and included a Hank Williams number, complete with a lapsteel, a great version of Heinz’s “Just Like Eddie” which they had originally played on, and their final number (which was also their only hit from the 60’s) was “Wipeout”, featuring original drummer Ricky Winter.

Robb Shenton cracked a few jokes to keep the audience occupied while The Saints packed up their gear, and The Triumphs took to the stage. The Triumphs covered a couple of Joe Meek numbers, “Bless you” and “Telstar”. They introduced Bobby Rio to the stage and then were his backing band as Bobby launched into “The Wanderer”. Also included in Bobby's set was “My Prayer” the 1952 Platters’ hit, which needs a strong voice to sing it, and Bobby did just fine. The set closed with a cover of “Have I The Right” which made us realise just what a great crowd pleaser this song really is. We’ve never heard this song being done live before, but it certainly proved to be a dance floor filler tonight.

Next up were The Flames whose set included “Shakin’ All Over” and a Packabeats track. They then became the band in residence, as Charlie Gracie who had travelled across from the USA came on stage and started a great set of real Rockabilly type tunes. His guitar playing on some songs was fabulous (was he the forerunner to today’s guitar shredders?) and the crowd were up and dancing throughout his set, and demanded an encore, which Charlie obliged with.

After a short interval, the Flames came back on stage as the backing band for Mike Berry. Mike was dressed in black and started a rock and roll set, kicking off with “Hello Mary Lou”, “Summertime Blues” and “Please Don’t Tease”. His set also included a couple of Buddy Holly songs, and Alvin Stardust’s “Pretend”. Mike also did a couple of his own numbers – his own “Tribute to Buddy Holly” (which had been produced by Joe Meek) and then his 1980 chart hit “Sunshine of Your Smile”. He also came back on for an encore (he said he was coming back on anyway!) which was “High School Confidential” which sounded absolutely great. Again the crowd were up and dancing throughout the set.

Another short interval, and then the headline act, John Leyton was on stage, again backed by The Flames. Dressed in black leather with "J.L" embossed on the back of his jacket, he went straight into “Shout! Shout! Knock Yourself Out” which set the tone for the rest of the night – a great mix of good old rock and roll. His set was interspersed with recollections of his film and TV career, with some fond memories of Charles Bronson, with whom he had starred in “The Great Escape”. Highlights of John’s set in terms of covers were “Poetry in Motion”, “Oh Boy” (which had great backing harmonies from The Flames) and a Gene Vincent tribute with a teaser of “Be Bop A Lula” and then the full “Say Mama”. From his own repertoire of songs, we were treated to “Wild Wind”, “Tell Laura I Love her”, “Son This Is She”, “Make Love To Me” and the quintessential John Leyton classic, “Johnny Remember Me” which closed his set. Again the crowd filled the dance floor throughout and demanded more and they did get more.

As the music finished, John was called back to the stage, along with Clem Cattini (the original drummer and leader of the Tornados) who had been sitting in the audience, to be presented with a special commemorative award to mark the 50th anniversary of their musical careers by the Joe Meek Society.

This gig was quite special – it is not likely that these names will be back on stage together again, especially given that many of them are hitting 70 (if not already past that milestone). No wonder this was a complete sell out.

We had a great evening and The Beeb had the opportunity to chat with Clem Cattini (did you know that although he is 72, he has not hung up his drumsticks yet and is the drummer on Paul Weller’s new record?) and have his picture taken with him, and likewise with John Leyton.

PIPELINE CONVENTION 2010

GIG: Pipeline Convention 2010
DATE: Sunday 4th April 2010
VENUE: Metropolitan Police Sports Club, Bushey, Herts
COST: £16 in advance
RATING: Twanged Up

LINKS:
http://www.pipelinemag.co.uk/

This was our 3rd Pipeline convention, so by now we knew more or less what to expect…… an afternoon of sorting through racks of CD’s and DVD’s for sale interspersed with live bands playing.

First on the bill was a band from the Oxford area, The Vicars of Twiddly (www.myspace.com/vicarsoftwiddly). A tremendously religious band, wearing the clerical robes, blessing the audience, this band was very much Ventures influenced, and also quite heavy on the organ. Not a bad act at all, and supplemented with the go-go dancing Sister Jules they were a great fun act to kick off the convention. Although we would have to say they would be better placed in a pub / club at night rather than performing on Easter Sunday! Their set was definitely entertaining, and even included the old favourite “Churchin’ Safari”

Following another browse of the mounds of CD’s for sale, we took our seats for the next band on the bill – Apollo 11. The stage curtains had been drawn while this band was setting up and the programme introduced this band, from France as having been “invited to play at the annual Spotnicks festival – and you will soon see why”. The reason for the curtains soon became clear as the curtains were pulled back, the band were dressed in the Spotnicks’ space costumes. Dramatically they were good, however their set was quite mediocre and quite melodic, rather than guitar twanging rhythm. We think the fastest track they played was “Mona Lisa”, and were quite classical with their guitar playing.

The convention timing does not allow much time for eating and in order to grab some mid-afternoon sustenance, we missed the 3rd band on the bill, The Vintage (http://www.thevintage.se/) from Sweden. This is a young band, and from the last 3 years we have been to Pipeline the younger bands have always brought a lot of vitality and edge to the convention. After returning from lunch, we felt there was a bit of a buzz about the band so we did buy their CD and from the quality of that, we were sorry to have missed hearing them play live. We are glad we bought their CD though – the guy who sat beside us said we should get the CD signed as he felt this band was going to be big.

Next up on stage was The Shadowers (http://www.theshadowers.com/). From the name you can tell their influence is The Shadows, and the lead guitarist was certainly a doppelganger of a young Hank Marvin. Indeed, Bruce Welch from the Shadows was in the audience to watch this band. Coupled with a few years of experience in the band, from ex Shadows bassist Alan Jones and rhythm guitarist Steve Longden, this was a class band. They were tight. The lead guitarist, Justin Daish (the Hank lookalike) although young, was brimming with confidence and obviously loved playing his guitar and coaxed the notes out with seemingly little effort. This band stood out due to the fact that on occasions, Steve switched from electric guitar to acoustic (for tunes such as “Moonlight Shadow” and “Sound Of Silence”) which really made a difference. The drummer also had a spotlight slot, with a great drum solo.

The last band on the bill was a Duane Eddy tribute act. The Twang Gang started off with “Peter Gunn” with a very strong sax player. They did a few Duane Eddy numbers but in the spirit of Pipeline also did a number of other instrumentals, including a Chet Atkins number. The front man of the band also played a fantastic looking 1950’s Gretsch guitar which had actually been lent to Duane Eddy when he re-recorded a version of Pipeline. We had reservations about this band when they gathered on stage as we realised that some of the band had been guilty of constantly chattering in the background while the other bands had played, but their stage presence and great guitar & sax playing won us over and we found we really enjoyed their set.

So to sum up – another good convention day. We left the sports centre having seen some great bands and with some good CD’s ranging from Jan & Dean Take Linda Surfin’ to a Dick Dale plus some DVDs.

DICK DALE

GIG: Dick Dale
Date: Friday 2nd April 2010
Venue: The Luminaire Club, Kilburn, London
Cost: £22.50
Rating: Truly the King of Surf Guitar

www.dickdale.com
www.myspace.com/dickdalecom


This was a highly anticipated gig, with the Luminaire’s website stating it was a sell out, and as we drove past in search of parking slot off the Kilburn High Road, we saw an orderly queue already formed ahead of the club’s doors opening at 8pm.

The support act was a 3 piece rock instrumental group from Philadelphia, Stinking Lizaveta. Their songs started with quite a surf guitar sound and ended with the gentle crescendo of cymbals, as if the surf was gently washing against the shore, and in between was a quite heavy, almost Black Sabbath sound. Not really our cup of tea.

During the Stinking Lizaveta set, the club was gradually filling and by the time the support had twanged their last note, the space from stage to the bar was filled solid with bodies.

Dick Dale took to the stage at about 9.50 and started what was a storming, bitchin’ 90 minute set which included an incredible “Ghost Riders In The Sky”, “Smoke On The Water” and “House of the Rising Sun” which had the audience singing back at Dick. He had not done a sound check so there was a bit of banter as Dick taught the sound engineer the “old school” needs of just a bit of bass, bit of treble and a bit of volume, before he got sexy with the gals at the front and then did a great “Ring of Fire” in homage to Johnny Cash. He also did a little wordy tribute to the memory of John Peel.

A set list did not exist, and Dick very much improvised and mixed songs whilst being the coolest guy in the venue, strolling around the stage playing his Fender Strat. “Let’s Go Trippin’” went down a storm, as did a tune where he played the harmonica fantastically (after professing to not know how to play it!) and another tune with a trumpet, which was very Louis Armstrong influenced. In fact, not only was his trumpeting Louie like, he did a fine vocal impersonation too.

There was also a running joke going with the bassist about him being fined $5 for basically not being able to read Dick's mind every time he went into a totally unreheased number. Dick also proved himself to be a bit of a racontour throughout the gig. That comes with playing so many gigs in such a long career.

“Hey Bo Diddley” was a particular highlight, with Dick taking up a spot alongside his drummer, and proceeding to do a fabulous tribal drums duet and ending up playing Sammy’s bass guitar with the drum sticks. This man was amazing.

There was no way the crowd was going to let Dick leave the stage without “Miserlou” and sure enough that ever so famous tune was played which had everyone stomping.

The final tune of the night was introduced after Dick thanked the crowd, and told them “you are my medicine”, a rather poignant remark given his recent battle with cancer which he seems to have won, and a remark which brought tears to Minty’s eyes. His rendition of “Amazing Grace” was just that – amazing. An incredible choice to end the night.

He left the stage to enormous applause and within minutes was back out among the crowd, giving his time generously, very kindly agreeing to have his picture taken with many of the audience and also signed photos.

This was probably the best gig of the year so far. The atmosphere was absolutely electric; some of the audience were dressed in 50’s style, with great quiff hairdos. The Beeb felt as if he could have been wandering around the set of “Grease” for a while!

Dick was a great personality on stage and the crowd loved him. He was totally amazing, as was his drummer (Brian) and his bassist (Sammy) and the sound was great.

One can only believe Dick when he explained that he'd never end his days in a wheelchair in a nursing home, and that he intends to blow up into a thousand pieces on stage during a gig. What a great attitude to have.

The Luminaire is a great venue too. It’s small enough to be a really intimate gig and frowns on people chatting over the music (which is a great policy to have!). The club encourages graffiti in their loos, and Minty even spotted a bit of graffiti promoting The Dotted Line, a band fronted by Scott Bennett, a member of Brian Wilson’s amazing band.

THE CADILLAC KINGS

GIG: The Cadillac Kings
DATE: Friday 22nd January 2010
VENUE: The Old Town Hall, Hemel Hempstead, Herts
COST: £10
RATING: Definitely catch this band again

www.myspace.com/thecadillackings
www.cadillackings.co.uk

The Old Town Hall could not have stood up to any more shaking that it did tonight when The Cadillac Kings rocked it to it’s very foundations. This was an evening of 40’s and 50’s West Coast Jump, Jive, Boogie and Swing songs performed brilliantly by a band who’s love and enthusiasm for the music was plain for everyone to see and hear.

The old songs are complemented perfectly by the bands own original songs.
The band is a great mixture of experience and youth. From Mike Thomas’ avuncular vocals, to new kid on the block Henri Herbert’s virtuoso keyboard playing, the band played almost 30 songs over two sets in the fastest couple of hours we’ve known!

Gary Potts wailed his harp all night hardly coming up for breath apart from when he did his vocal duties. Mal Barclay played an old guitar that came straight out of the 50’s. Looking nothing less than a plank of wood with strings attached, the different tones he squeezed out of it all night was miraculous. This was all done without the aid of any effects pedals too, making his guitar playing all the more impressive.

Paul Cuff on double bass and Roy Webber on drums provided a great foundation for the band to build on.

The opening number, Jimmy McCrackin’s “Gonna Tell Yo Mama,” set the tone for an energetic, foot tapping evening. What followed was some astounding keyboard tinkling from Henri, who was looking so laid back at times you would almost think he was asleep. His effortless playing was like watching a DVD on fast forward.

Mal came to the fore on songs like T Bone Walker’s “T Bone Boogie.”

A good helping of humour was added to the evenings show on songs like “Who’s Bin Lickin’ My Chicken?” and “Mr Nip And Tuck.” These original songs are mixed seamlessly with covers of James Harman, Brook Benton and Champion Jack Dupree. “The Spirit Is Willing,” was dedicated to a couple in the audience who were celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary!

It’s no wonder that this band has won so many awards from the Rhythm and Blues fraternity over the years. They are such a good live act, and after listening to the CDs we bought they’re a great recording band too. We were lucky to catch them in an intimate venue like the Old Town Hall, but it’s possible to imagine them rocking a festival crowd too.

This is one band we’ll definitely be going to see again.

THE UNION GAP & THE FORTUNES

GIG: The Union Gap & The Fortunes
DATE: Friday 27th November & Saturday 28th November 2009
VENUE: Hoburne Naish Holiday Park, New Milton, Dorset.
COST: accomodation for the weekend in a rather nice Lodge
RATING: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

This “gig” was in fact, a girls weekend away, in a 3 bedroom lodge at Hoburne Naish Holiday Park on the south coast, and included 2 nights of cabaret. Just Minty along for the ride, no Beeb at this one.

On the Friday night, The Union Gap were performing in the club. We entered the room as Reg, the entertainments manager was in the middle of the 60’s music quiz. Too late to participate, we found a spare table, ordered our drinks and made ourselves comfortable.
Around 9pm, The Union Gap took to the stage after what was probably one of the longest introductions I’ve ever heard:- a Top 40 style recorded countdown, which covered many places in the chart before the No 5 chart position was announced, at which point the band struck up with one of the 2 hits I know of – “Lady Willpower”, but without Gary Puckett fronting the band, it didn’t sound like the version I was familiar with.

The rest of the first half of the show was filled with 60’s covers, including “Out Of Time”, “Flowers In the Rain”, “Great Balls Of Fire” and “Daydream Believer”. On their rendition of Runaway (and a bit of a Del Shannon medley tagged on the end) you could hardly hear the keyboard / organ being played (which is the soul of that song imho).

Overall, this was just a 60’s covers band, and a fairly poor quality one at that, trading on a name associated with a couple of hit singles. There was nothing to make this band stand out, and although some of the audience did get up and start dancing and jiving, the fairly lengthy song introductions and general banter from the band members meant any momentum they got going came to swift end at the end of each song as the audience sat down during the chit chat!

We retired to the bar at the interval and didn’t go back for the 2nd half.

Saturday night, and seizing the moment when the rain let up briefly, we crossed the mud laden park to the club for that night’s entertainment. Tonight we were settled at our table before the quiz, so we took part this time, eventually winning it after a head to head with another team! A sparkler and a washed old sock were our prize!

Around 9.30, The Fortunes took to the stage and started with “Here It Comes Again”, a cover of Dusty Springfield’s “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself” and the Everly’s “Cryin’ In The Rain” which had a bit of a Moody Blues feel to it, with some effects from the keyboard. The keyboardist was introduced to the audience, Bob Jackson who had previously been with Badfinger, which led right into a Badfinger song, “No Matter What” and later in the set “Without You”. The audience were up on their feet, dancing for most of the time, and other highlights included “Here Comes The Sun”, “You’re My World”, “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore”, “You’ve Got Your Troubles” and as they came to the end of their set, the band reacted to audience calls of “more, more” were with “Wonder Of You” which had everyone waving their hands in the air and singing along. The final song really rocked, “Hold On Tight To Your Dreams” and ended a really jolly night.

Afterwards, the band made themselves available to sign copies of their CD and pose for pictures, which was a really nice gesture.

So, Saturday’s entertainment went down much better than Friday’s. The Fortunes really stood out as professional musicians, encouraged the audience and sounded very good, not only performing their own songs, but doing the covers too.

LARRY & THE STREAMERS

GIG: Larry & the Streamers
DATE: Saturday 7th November 2009
VENUE: The Sutton Arms, Southchurch Road, Southend on Sea, Essex
COST: Free
RATING: Like the drums..SPARKLING.


Larry & The Streamers, a 3 piece (drums, guitar and bass) took to the stage not long after 9.30pm, and performed a blazing first set. Interspersed with whimsical and informative comments from Mark, the bass player, filling in background to the songs and song writers (Graham Gouldman featured a lot). Just some of the highlights of the first set were, “For Your Love”, “I Like It”, “Pictures of Lily” and “Waterloo Sunset” which, from the second the intro started, you knew it was going to sound great.

Their set list is not your standard covers fare. Although the bulk of the songs played were from the best British bands, like The Who, The Kinks, Beatles etc…there was also a healthy helping of lesser heard live covers like The Hollies and The Move. They also threw in some US hits, such as the Everly Brothers’ “Cathy’s Clown”, and Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco” to name just two! This variety really gives the band an edge over other covers bands.

The Beeb’s 12 string Strat, “Twiggy” had her debut tonight, when Eddie, the guitarist tried it out on a few songs, starting with the jingly jangly “Mr Tambourine Man”, leading into “California Dreamin’” (including a stunning lead break) and then a reflection of the Kinks’ “Days”.

By the end of the first set, the floor in front of the stage were filled with some of the crowd jiving and dancing, some even dressing the part with quiffs and brothel creepers as though they were back in the late 50’s / early 60’s. It was obvious some of the audience were regulars who knew what to expect, and this helped create a great atmosphere in the venue.

The 2nd half started as the band meant to go on, straight into “Doo Wah Diddy” which had everyone up jiving again. And it stayed that way for the whole of the second half. Larry & The Streamers’ repertoire is vast and some of the highlights from the 2nd set were “Flowers in the Rain”, “Pretty Woman”, “Baby Come Back” which went seamlessly into “Glad All Over” and then into “Hold Tight” all of which sounded superb.

Even “Daydream Believer” had Minty singing along, and it was a shame when time was called just after mid-night, and after more than 2 hours playing, they ending with “Sunny Afternoon”.

These guys are consummate professionals, not only did they wear matching suits, but what really made them stand out from many other bands was that they didn’t need to hold a discussion about what to play next – and if they had a set list, it wasn’t on show anywhere. There were no mistakes, no false starts. Just pure entertainment and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute.
This was such a well prepared and thought out set, it really came across as a perfectly paced night of music.

Check out their MySpace page which lists their forthcoming gigs – these guys are in demand and are BUSY! After hearing them live, it’s easy to understand why.

And the customary round up about the venue and loos – the pub lends itself to live music, with a decent stage area and wooden floor with plenty of room around the stage. The staff were very friendly, and remembered our round! The loos….. Clean, the air hand dryers worked and there was still loo roll after 11 o’clock!


http://www.myspace.com/larryandthestreamers

THE BEACHED BOYS

GIG: The Beached Boys (appearing at Beach Boys STOMP convention)
DATE: Saturday 3rd October 2009
VENUE: The Canal Suite, Lakeside Complex, Frimley Green, Surrey
COST: Included in £25 cost of convention ticket
RATING: As close to the original sound that you’ll ever get


The Beached Boys provided the musical entertainment at this year’s Beach Boys STOMP convention, kicking off at 12.30 with the classic opener “California Girls”, swiftly followed with two of the early surfing songs, “Surfin’” and Brian Wilson’s first composition, “Surfer Girl”. That was a terrific start, with great vocals, tight harmonies and great sound coming from the guitars, drums and keyboard. The next song, “Catch A Wave” was exceptional, with the 2 members of the band sharing the lead sounding superb (Alan and George aka Bruce Johnston & Carl Wilson). Band introductions led into “Little Deuce Coupe”, then “Surf City” which had a great falsetto (from David aka Brian Wilson), “All Summer Long” and then slowed down for a great a capella “Then Your Dream Comes True”.

A switch around on stage allowed the drummer (Paul, aka Dennis Wilson) to come out from behind his drum kit and take the lead on “Then I Kissed Her” before taking his seat back behind the kit for a fantastic version of “Hawaii”. Next up was a bit of a treat; the harmonious “Don’t Worry Baby” with a bit of “Hushabye” segued into the instrumental break. This was totally flawless and worked so well….. many of the audience commented on this afterwards.
Next up was one of our favourite tracks from the ‘Today’ album, “Good To My Baby” which flowed seamlessly into “Darlin’”.

The next song is a bit of a rarity when it comes to a Beach Boys playlist, let alone the set list of a tribute band - “Aren’t You Glad” from the ‘Wild Honey’ album. This type of surprise always goes down well with a Beach Boys fan-base in the audience, and there was no exception to that today.
Then it was back to the earlier part of the Beach Boys’ career, with “409” and “Sloop John B” followed by another treat for the audience, “Breakaway”. This is not an easy song to perform and in the past Brian Wilson’s band has even struggled to get it right. The lead (John, aka Alan Jardine) today on this song was suffering a bit from the effects of a cold and sore throat, but still coped admirably with the lead vocal and the backing harmonies were absolutely spot on.
The last two songs of the first set, “God Only Knows” and “I Get Around” were very much appreciated by the audience and as the band left the stage, we were left to comment on just how good they had sounded.

The Beached Boys took to the stage again 3 hours later and enhanced their reputation as being the best Beach Boys tribute band on the circuit with their 2nd set. Most of the audience did a double take when they saw the lead vocalist (Kevin, aka Mike Love) – he had donned a peaked cap and looked alarmingly like Mike Love! Kicking off with yet another ‘treat’ with “You’re Welcome” and then a totally terrific version of “Little Girl I Once Knew” before leading into one of the big crowd pleasers, “Fun, Fun,Fun”. By this point the rhythm guitarist (John) had switched to a lovely acoustic ovation which really stood out during “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “I Can Hear Music” (which had yet another terrific lead vocal). The lead guitarist (George) also switched to an Ovation acoustic guitar and we were delighted with 2 tracks from the ‘Party’ album, “Mountain Of Love” and “Tell Me Why”.

Back to the electric guitars and the band performed another highlight of the afternoon, “Little Honda”, and then back to the surfing roots with, “Surfin’ Safari” and “Surfin’ USA” which had some of the audience up and dancing.
Next up was “Car Crazy Cutie” another song you would not expect to be in a tribute band’s set list. This sounded really fresh and seemed to go down well with the fans. “Cottonfields” was really enhanced with the cotton-picking guitar licks throughout the song, and then the audience was truly spoiled with a “Til I Die” which just oozed harmony. “Sail On Sailor” has been a regular addition to the Beached Boys set list, and they do the song justice.

“Dance, Dance, Dance” led straight into “Do You Wanna Dance” and then the Beached Boys asked if we wanted to “Do It Again”, which was another highlight for us. “Help Me Rhonda” was the penultimate song, the final one being the infamous “Good Vibrations”.
Calls for more from the audience brought the band back to the mics, and with instruments set aside, our ears were filled with a luscious a cappella version of “Heroes & Villains”. The audience’s appreciation for this terrific tribute band was still reverberating around the hall long after the band had left the stage.


That was the 3rd time, this year that we have seen this terrific Beach Boys tribute band. They are not your usual run of the mill tribute band – they are fans themselves, and really endeavour to re-create the vocal arrangements and harmonies that Brian Wilson produced on record. Today, you could have closed your eyes and really believed you were listening to the real thing.

If they were a traditional tribute band, covering only the big hits, we would quickly become bored but the variety of their repertoire (whether their audience are casual or die-hard Beach Boys fans) always means that we get something that surprises us, whether it’s a new song added or a slightly different vocal arrangement. They certainly deserve the accolade of being the best Beach Boys tribute band on the circuit, and if they make an appearance near your home town, make sure you get along to see them.


www.beachedboys.com

MARI WILSON

GIG: Mari Wilson
Date: Saturday 26th September 2009
Venue: Old Town Hall, High Street, Hemel Hempstead, Herts
Cost: £12
Rating: Happy In Hemel


It has only been a few weeks since we last saw Mari performing (see the review from 6th Sept) so we did not expect a major deviation from what we had experienced with that show. We were, however, treated to another great performance, the sound was well mixed, Mari sparkled, and the set list had two extra songs included.

An addition to the line up from the last gig was guitarist Matt Backer who contributed some wonderful bits of lead as well as some gorgeous and sympathetic accompaniment to Adrian York's old school teacher's upright piano. Well it LOOKED like a school piano, but Adrian still managed to make it sound like a Steinway! It's still open for debate as to who had the most shimmiest shoes on tonight - Mari's white-silver shiny glitzy heels or Matt's dazzling shiny silver trainers!

The Beeb was excited by Matt's choice of gig gear. A vintage Gibson 335 was plugged into an old 1949 Fender amp. It sounded amazing. One minute there was honey dripping blues wailing out, the next it was the coolest laid back jazz chords. Wonderful stuff. And for some of the softer numbers in the second half of the set, he switched to a Taylor acoustic.

Adrian sat back behind the piano looking quite relaxed for most of the gig. He really looked like he was enjoying trading licks with Matt whenever they had the chance to do so. As always, his piano solo on Wild Horses (not the Susan Boyle version) was a highlight.

With the set list similar to the last gig, we won't comment on all of the songs, but will highlight a few that really stood out tonight. Mari's singing seemed to come effortlessly on all of the songs and she sounded particularly exquisite on the Paul McCartney song, “My Love” and another stellar performance was delivered on the emotional "I'm Getting There". “Do You Mind” had a nice guitar solo and a great boogie-woogie piano break and Mari’s version of Ellie Greenwich’s song “Be My Baby” is fast becoming a treasure. The additional songs in the set tonight were “Right For You” and "Have You Got What It Takes" both from the ‘Emotional Glamour’ CD, the latter being a very a catchy, Motown-like, girly type song with a "shimmy shimmy baby" hook.

Hearing Mari's new songs from her One Woman show again is quite a frustrating experience though. They sound so good and fill your head with images just like the old days before video. The frustrating bit is having to wait for the stage show to come together so that the songs can be fully realised. Still, the storylines in the songs pretty much guarantees that show will be a winner.

No two Mari shows are ever the same. Constant interaction with the audience keeps her on her toes. A great raconteur, her spontaneous stories plucked from her life's rich tapestry are always different and very amusing (the references to that morning's blow dry had the audience giggling), and now and again touched with poignancy, such as the story about her Dad's false teeth.
The Old Town Hall in Hemel Hempstead is a good sized venue for a show like this. The venue was recommended to Mari by Barb Jungr and it certainly brought out a good sized and very appreciative audience.

Mari has one more show scheduled – 1st November at Pizza Express Jazz Club in London. Check out her website or Myspace page for more details.

www.mariwilson.com
www.myspace.com/mariwilson


For those not familiar with Matt Backer, his CD 'The Impulse Man' is worth checking out. Not only does it demonstrate his strength as a guitarist and vocalist, the songs (all bar one written/co-written by Matt) are strong too.
The songs are all filled with rockin’ riffs and clever guitar licks and will have you tapping your feet along to the powerpop type tunes.

www.mattbacker.com

BMX BANDITS with The Primary 5 & Randolph's Leap

GIG: BMX Bandits, The Primary 5, Randolph’s Leap
DATE: Saturday September 12th 2009
VENUE: The Classic Grand, 18 Jamaica Street, Glasgow
COST: £8 (plus handling fee)
RATING: Classic Gig on a Grand Scale

The gig kicked off slightly earlier than we had expected, so we missed the first 20 minutes of the first act. Randolph’s Leap, a conduit for Adam Ross, played primarily an acoustic set. The group included a cello and a violin player which made this slightly more interesting than the usual run-of-the-mill acoustic type band. With vocals provided solely by Adam, it was a gentle start to the night, easing us into what was a brilliant night of music. Randolph's Leap may be an aquired taste to the casual listener, but there was certainly something intriguing about the songs.

Next up was a band we have heard about, but not really listened to before. The Primary 5 is actually a six piece and their first number had 3 electric guitars, 1 acoustic and a bass. By the end of the 2nd song, (which had a very “Spector influenced” drum beat), one of the guitarists demonstrated his diversity by taking up tambourine, hand clapping and also a bit of keyboard. Vocals were delivered by Paul Quinn (ex Teenage Fanclub) and Jamie Houston and they sounded great. There is a fixation with West Coast of Scotland bands emulating the sound of the West Coast of the US, and when one of the guitarists swapped his electric guitar for a 12 string (a Rickenbacker look-a-like), the Byrds influence came through.

There was quite a bit of guitar tuning in between songs, and this gave Paul Quinn the chance to explain that the black and white striped top he was wearing was in honour of Jimmy Johnstone, a Celtic Football club legend. He went on to quip that it wasn’t green and white stripes as it reflected the days when he used to watch the football on a black and white TV!

We are not familiar with their material, so we can’t really provide song names, but for their penultimate number, the Spector influence was back, with the distinctive Wall of Sound drumbeat and sleighbells at the start. Their final song (which we did catch the name of), “Mailman” was a rousing number, and was a very strong song to finish the set with.

We were delighted with their performance, and we’d certainly take the opportunity to see them play live again.

The headline band, The BMX Bandits, has been around in a few guises for over 20 years, and tonight was the first time we were seeing them with a slightly changed line up –the return of Jim McCulloch into the band, and also Findlay McDonald and Jim Gash . We had no reason to be apprehensive of anything sounding different, because the Bandits’ songs are strong enough to hold their own. We had driven 400 miles in order to see this gig and we were not disappointed at all. The band was tight, the lead vocals and the harmonies sounded really great throughout, and the sound was excellent (can’t remember the sound engineer’s name, but Duglas gave him a well deserved mention at the end of the show).

The set started with the bright and chirpy, “Do You Really Love Me” which included a short kazoo solo from front man, Duglas Stewart. The set list tonight really allowed Rachel Allison’s vocals to shine, particularly on “Doorways” from the ‘Bee Stings’ CD, and “Thinkin’ ‘Bout You Baby”, a Brian Wilson song, which was recorded by his then wife Marilyn with her group Spring, and which eventually morphed into the Beach Boys’ “Darlin’”. Rachel’s vocals on this song were fantastic, and Minty thinks they should put it up on their MySpace page again, because everyone deserves to hear it!

A particular highlight was a song from the new BMX Bandits album, “Help Me Somebody”, which is extremely catchy, with terrific harmonies from Rachel and David Scott. Other songs included in the set list were E102 (which was the Bandits’ first ever single, back in the Mid 80’s,) "Elegant Lines" which had a young competition winner given the chance to play extra keyboards with the band, "The Sailor's Song" and "I Wanna Fall In Love."

We had an encore tonight – 2 quick songs as the curfew was tight in the venue, and they were very much appreciated by the audience.

Duglas was on top form tonight, eating his customary apple on stage, and providing lots of humour; encouraging the audience to gather closer to the stage (because we smelled nice!), reminding us of Zammo’s warning to ‘just say no’ when he introduced the song “Serious Drugs”, commenting on his new (short) haircut (people were starting to mistake him for Rachel!) and changing his shoes on stage for one song.

The Classic Grand is a fantastic venue, with reasonably priced beer. The bar staff is either very well trained or we just drink a lot, because they remembered the order every time The Beeb visited the bar for our refills! The loos were OK too.

And a final word on the music that was being played in between the bands…. Sounded like a fantastic selection of Girl Group related songs, which we found out afterwards, had been handpicked by Duglas…. Great choice of songs.


www.myspace.com/bmxbanditsgroup
www.myspace.com/theprimary5
www.myspace.com/randolphsleap