One of my great friends shared a band with me on Facebook. The friend is Mr Nick Horslen and the band who are very new to me are Slowmother. Their sound has elements of classic rock, prog and a degree of dark menace, which is something that I personally love in a band. They describe their music as Chemical Blues which also works for me. Your experience of listening to them may lead you to describe them very differently from the way I have. But I will be surprised and disappointed in you if you don’t conclude that they are a bloody good band indeed!
Slowmother are based in Milan and are made up of Alessio Slowmother on vox and guitars, Grazi Mele on drums and backing vocals and Pietro The Butcher on bass and backing vocals. Obviously all their names are the names that they were born with……. right? They sound like a very tight band with some great songs, especially the phenomenal “Drugs” and “Liar”. Vocally I find them reminiscent of Stiltskin whose singer Ray Wilson also went on to front Genesis briefly in the late 90s. I would definitely pay to see this band, so let’s hope that they come to play in the UK soon. Let me know what you think of them. Check them out on Facebook, Bandcamp and Soundcloud.
So if recent reports are true we could have an Oasis reunion tour of some type next year. Click here to read the report on the NME website. I am sure that there will be many people who are very excited by this news, but I am not one of them. In my opinion the first two Oasis albums; ‘Definitely Maybe‘ and ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ remain stone cold classic albums. The third album ‘Be Here Now‘ was frankly a shambolic, over-egged pile of shite. After that they never reached their early heady heights again, although there was the occasional excellent single in that time.
I saw Oasis twice, first in a tiny dive of a pub in Windsor in 1994 with about 100 people and secondly at Knebworth in 1996. Two excellent shows in two very different venues and circumstances, but both bloody good. Personally and with hindsight I think that they should have quit after Knebworth, it was mostly downhill from there. Noel‘s subsequent solo career proves to me that he was the real talent behind Oasis. Liam‘s post Oasis activity has so far been Beady Eye and to be fair they were nothing but the remainder of Oasis but without Noel to write the songs. I saw Beady Eye at the Reading Festival a few years ago and they came across like a below average Oasis tribute band who largely wanted to perform their own sub standard songs.
But if you are a big fan or if Oasis were always ‘your band’ then just go ahead and enjoy yourself. But for me Oasis are not a band that should reform, I think that it could kill off the tarnished legacy that they have left. But no doubt the whole circus will provide copious copy on those darlings of the intellectual press the tabloids! As usual I would love to hear your thoughts on the boys from Burnage getting back together via the comments on here.
Once again I have attended a gig at the York Barbican where the sound was not great quality. Maybe that has something to do with relocating the sound desk to the side of the stage and therefore behind the main audience speakers. The support band for this gig were General Roots, an excellent reggae band from London. Initially I put the sound down to just not allowing sound check for a support band, but I doubt that was the case. They did come across as a very talented band even with the poor sound production. The biggest impact on them was not being able to hear their MC Mr Minister. I particularly liked their songs “Special” and “Walk Tall”. My beautiful wife Catherine (a.k.a. Catwoman) also loved the latter.
Now i did have some misgivings about seeing the Specials with only three original members left (Terry, Lynval and Horace). I last saw them in around 1980 and I have always felt that Jerry Dammers was the real heart and drive behind the band and I was disappointed that he chose not to get involved in the reunion back in 2008. Dammers had a writing credit on the majority of Specials songs. Having seen them again for the first time in 36 years I don’t believe that this incarnation of the band is a patch on the original line up for the first two albums.
As with the support band the sound was not of great quality and at times lacked clarity and was a little ‘muddy’. They kicked off their set with “Ghost Town” which was probably their biggest hit based on chart positions around the world. It was also their second UK number one. It remains a great song but as the set progressed I felt like they had played their set list in reverse and in my opinion peaked (if indeed they did peak) much too soon. Terry Hall was by his own admission in a shitty mood and for me this was reflected in his sullen and at times spoilt brat performance. In my opinion I felt like we were watching an average Specials tribute band. There were some highlights, notably Steve Cradock who played to his usual high standards. Lynval’s acoustic rendition of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” was alright.
I know that many people will not share my opinion given by the volume of people who sang and danced the night away. But in my opinion this is a band that should not have reformed I think they are a very pale imitation of what they were, more like The Averages than The Specials. Sorry boys but that really wasn’t a great gig in my opinion, I gave it an hour before leaving but I doubt that myself and Catwoman will be coming to see you anytime soon.
Many regular readers will know that I am not a big fan of musicals. However there have been some exceptions to that rule for me; Sweeney Todd and Grease are two of those. But a musical that David Bowie wrote with Enda Walsh which debuted in New York a few weeks before he died? Well I was never going to miss that was I? My lovely wife Catherine a.k.a Catwoman accompanied me to London on Saturday for the matinee performance of Lazarus which opened in October and runs through to January. It is in the Kings Cross Theatre which is effectively a pop-up theatre on land owned by Google at the back of Kings Cross station. For a pop-up it is pretty damned good.
Lazarus is a sequel to The Man Who Fell To Earth and most of you probably know that David Bowie played the lead role of Thomas Jerome Newton in the Nic Roeg directed film version of the Walter Tevis book in 1976. It was his first major film role. The stage musical recounts the life of Newton after he was prevented from leaving earth. He is spiralling into a total mental meltdown and spends his day becoming more paranoid, watching TV, drinking gin and reminiscing of past loves; his wife on his own planet and Mary Lou here on earth.
The lead role of Thomas Jerome Newton is taken by Michael C Hall off of Dexter. We were lucky enough to see him, despite our tickets being for the matinée. He has a great singing voice although occasionally his speaking voice did simply sound like Dexter. But that is by no means a distraction he is an incredibly talented actor and singer. In fact the whole cast are supremely talented. When I first saw the songs included within the Lazarus musical I was a little surprised. There are a few big hits and the ones that worked best for me were “The Man Who Sold The World” and a magnificent and very different version of “Heroes” which closed the show. There are some songs written especially for the musical; “No Plan”, “Killing A Little Time” and “When I Met You”. Those three as recorded by David Bowie were recently released as CD 2 of the cast recording. I have never had great affection for Bowie’s 80s albums however there were some fabulous singles in that time and “This Is Not America” and “Absolute Beginners” work incredibly well in this context.
I was amazed at how well all the songs fitted the musical’s story line so well. It was as if they were all written especially for it. I never would have expected “It’s No Game” from ‘Scary Monsters’ to work as part of a stage musical but it really does as does “Always Crashing In The Same Car” from ‘Low’. But the highlights for me were “Valentine’s Day” and “Where Are We Now” (both taken from ‘The Next Day), “Lazarus” from ‘Black Star’ and the previously mentioned “Heroes”. The story is very cleverly written and flows really smoothly. The set is quite sparse and this allows a total free space for the cast to weave their magic. The use of some very different lighting and the giant TV screen contributes in a complimentary way to the whole experience. There are seventeen songs performed during the show along with two songs that get played in the background; Mr Bowie’s “Sound And Vision” and Ricky Nelson‘s “Hello Mary Lou“. You will have needed to have watched the film of ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’ to get the inclusion of that Ricky Nelson classic.
All in all this is a magnificent, heart warming and heart-rending show and it acts as a poignant reminder of the true talent that left this world when David Bowie died in January. My good lad Catwoman said that had she not been married to me she probably wouldn’t have bothered to come and see Lazarus. However she enthused about it just as much as me afterwards. We both loved it and I am sure that you will too whether you are a Bowie fan or not. I would love to hear your thoughts if you have already seen it in London or New York.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 