| Live In Performance - New Wave and Wombles |
| Chris Spedding - 14th March 2006 The Borderline London Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!! This looked promising when it was originally advertised. A crack band line up consisting of Glen Matlock, Mick Green (the Pirates), Paul Thompson (original Roxy Music drummer and later with the Upstarts, not many that can say they've been on "Supersonic" and an Oi LP!) and Spedding himself, he of "Motorbikin" fame and of course produced the Pistols first demos and was even (falsely) rumoured to have played on "Anarchy In The UK" (as well as all the Wombles stuff!). So an intriguing proposition, if a little "muso". In the end, Apart from Spedding himself, only Paul Thompson of the proposed group played (though Matlock was in the audience) and playing bass was some bloke called Mark Smith. I know it wasn't the real one as he didn't fire the band mid-song. So far, so bad. Apparently Chris is now 62 and when he came on stage I'm sad to say despite a rockabilly quiff, he looked all of his years. In fact he was the double Mr Brandon, the father in excellent 70s comedy "I Didn't Know You Cared". In fact I imagined that his wife probably said to him before the gig "if you think you're going down to play sub-standard blues rock with your mates at the Borderline Lesile Brandon, you've got another thing coming. There's the dog to bath and our Carter's bring Pat over for cheese and biscuits". Oh, where was I? Oh yes, to cut a long and grim story short, Chris Spedding played a set of unremarkable rock n roll, the kind that you could hear in pubs all over the country on a Sunday evening, but wouldn't pay for the privilege. A couple of songs stood out, like the cover of "Wild In The Streets" (slower than the Circle Jerks go at it, but still I was glad to hear it), "Hurt" and of course "Motorbikin" but to be honest it was mediocre. You can see why Spedding was a sessionman rather than a star in his own right. |
| Lene Lovich - 3rd April 2006 - The Metro, London For the uninitiated, Lene Lovich surfaced in 1978 on the Stiff label, knocked out some disposable but pleasing "New Wave" singles including the number 3 hit "Lucky Number" and a couple of decent LPs ("Stateless" and "Flex") and promptly disappeared altogether sometime in 1982. Though I bought the singles and LPs at the time (and "Say When" remains a particular fav, a manic sand-dance with the line "you and me, I'm a lady" that these days always makes me recall the crap transvestite in "Little Britain"), I found the image a little contrived and looking back she seemed the epitome of the old stager cashing in on the Punk boom, being around 30 when "Lucky Number" hit. The Stiff press that made a big deal of her screaming in horror films didn't help the case. She did have a pub rock past in a band called the Diversions as well. And she did look like a trendy auntie dressed in punkish garb. Nevertheless I look back these days fondly on those singles especially as they were smart, fast and fun in a way we don't see much these days. And so I found myself in any L shaped bunker along with Rob Chester and Emma, the South Coast's Marianne Faithfull (tm Ged Throwback) in London's swinging Oxford Street on a Monday night to see if the golden summer of 1979 would come alive before our eyes. I didn't like the support band, I think they were called Parka, an outfit from Scotland who played what was trendy in the lasy six months. They would have been a Britpop band in 1996, a baggy band six years before and no doubt a poor relation of the Rich Kids in 1977. Faddy and lacking anything approaching substance. Anyway they didn't stay long and it was time for Lene, accompanied only by long term co-hort Les Chappell. The fact he was bald to begin with meant he didn't really look any different than back in the 70s, Lene was still recognisably Lene despite the years. They played a shortish set of about 45 minutes, but were pretty fab. Most of the material was from the early years, including "Monkey Talk", and Lene was in fine, powerful voice. Indeed when she did "Bird Song", after a brief Percy Edwards impressions she hit a note that could have shattered every pane of glass in the bar! I was surprised Rob Chester's specs didn't go! Shorter than you would imagine but still given to the extraordinary vocal and visual kinks, it was clear I was wrong and Lene Lovich lives Lene Lovich 24 hours a day. Even the vampire song, which was more Munsters than Edgar Allan Poe, was a joy of Hammy Horror. They finished on the hightpoint of a great version of "Home" and lastly "Lucky Number" which had the almost capacity crowd singing along every word. A good night's work for the creatures of the night. . |
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