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| The Boss @ �THE LORD NAPIER� Ilford Saturday 28th Feb. By Bounce |
| The precedent for the night was set with a car missing the junction and driving into a wall outside the venue, it was going to be a night of foot to the floor music, letting fate steer the night. What a night it turned out to be! The Boss, a four piece guitar based mod/fast inspired music band have been on the scene since the 80�s, but like a fine wine they seem to be improving with age. Within the previous two years they have played Kenny Jones Polo club and The Small Faces convention at both going down a storm. It was good to see the boys playing at a local boozer. The pub itself had all the ambience you would expect from the east end of London, the compulsory drunk in the corner, his mini skirted girlfriend draped over him and the pea souper fag smoke lingering in the air. This all changed with the arrival of the �Saturdays kids!� The Saturday kids were all there that night Fester, Maz, Rob J, Mick, Claire, Zoe, Steve, (dances with talc) Karen, Ebay, Joe and tribe. There was great turn out from the Specials S.C and local Ambulance station. The ingredients were all there, a big crowd, a great band and beer on tap once this was all thrown into the mix, only one result was to happen�.magic was to be made that night! |
| The opening chords of �Do anything� started the musical express ride of excitement off that night, passing through �Can�t explain�, the Zoe dedicated �Natural Blond�. When Danny (Lead singer/guitar) announced they were doing �Teenage Kicks� you could only pray that Busted were lerking in the pub (with a bottle of coke and bag of crisps) because a music lesson was to take place. The first half finished with �The Jam�s� �Funeral pyre� which left the crowd smouldering for more! During the interval more beer was consumed and much talk of the scooter ride out that had taken place that morning, accounting for the many scooterists and Mods in the crowd that evening. The Boss are to play a scattering of scooter rallies this year and I am sure they will be well received. The pub by now had come alive aided by Rob�s (drums and wannabe vocalist) previous quintessential drumming. Even the regulars had woken up to the fact that their pub was being grabbed by the shirt collars and shaken violently in an effort to wake a normally sleeping East-end watering hole. The second half kicked off with �Up against a wall�, �World stops turning� a self penned number. �In the crowd� encapsulated the feeling in the room. The Boss proceeded with Small faces, Slade and even a Blur number for the younger members of the audience. �Joseph Green� was dedicated to Fester (21 again) who has followed the Boss from the start, as luck would have it this was the only number that begun a little shakily but was soon overcome and forgotten. |
| By the time �Maybe Tomorrow�(a personal favourite) was being played the crowd was in a state of hedonistic euphoria. Large outbreaks of dancing blew the cobwebs from the many recesses of the Victorian building. �David Watts� and �Watcha do about it� brought the evening to a brief pause but as always the Boss had saved the best for last �5.15� took the Boss into an almost deity like music level, you could envisage Jimmy�s (Quadrophenia) turmoil. The evening came to an end with �All or Nothing� a now anthem like song that surpasses any �Old blue eyes� New York, New York ending to the school disco�s you had as a kid. The crowd cried for more but like previously stated fine wine is to be sipped and enjoyed not guzzled like cheap plonk. |
| As I walked out into the cold crisp air that February night, warm with the feeling of what I had witnessed that night. I turned the corner to the scene of the previous car accident that had started the night off already the builders has begun to rebuild the destroyed wall. While in years to come that accident will be a distant memory, what went on inside the �Lord Napier� that winter's night will live on in an urban-myth like way. |
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