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popular beat combos, a few days later
Nov. 5th, 2006 08:48 amThursday night, I went to see the Durutti Column at St George’s. I’d not realised until I read the handout (which, in turn, seems to have been a print of their Wikipedia article) that the misspelling was originally down to a 1961 SI poster. Now, was that carelessness or by design? A distorted reflection or a deliberate Spectacular introduction?
Anyhow, the night opened with Westcott and Rodway who, I must say, and in the absence of much of the audience who only turned up for Vini and friends, were for me the most interesting part of the night. They’re very young, and exhibit their influences in what was, to me, a charmingly naïve way; but what influences! They started with a relaxed soft jazz vibe with William Rodway’s piano sounding uncannily like Steve Miller (no, not that one) with Adam Wescott’s guitar resonating with Jukka Tolonen at his most laid back and pastoral. From there to flamenco, Philip Glass and Penguin Café and more. There was easily enough individuality and promise in there to carry the set off, and I look forward to hearing where they might go from here.
After the interval, Vini Reilly hit the stage, with Bruce Mitchell on percussion and Keir Stuart on bass. They presented in an engagingly laid back way, informing us that they hadn’t rehearsed at all and Vini starting the first song in the wrong key. That could have been irritating and arrogant, but it just felt relaxed and charming. The first few songs were fine, a nicely balanced stream of Mancunian angst above all showing off Mitchell as the very fine drummer that he is, and were followed by Vini swapping his strat for a Les Paul: he told us that it was new, and the song was a bit of silliness they were doing just as am excuse for him to play his new guitar. They launched into a full on British Blues Trio workout, and very fine it was too with the added edge of the archetypal emaciated Factory Records Existential despair survivor as full on guitar hero. Two couples got up and left in the midst of this that I could see (there may well have been others ;), but I must say that I enjoyed the irreverence immensely - as, by the signs, did Vini, Bruce and Keir.
Thereafter, though, things became less satisfactory for me: I was sat in the middle of row B, in direct line of fire for Vini’s guitar 4x12, and that fucker was, for the rest of the set, loud; to the extent that I could barely hear what was coming out of the PA. Vocals vanished, as did (mostly) the bass, and even the drum kit was subdued. As far as I could tell, the music would have been fine if it were even remotely balanced, but balanced is the one thing it was not. How much this was down to the St George’s acoustic (it really isn’t a good venue for amplified music) and how much unfortunate positioning on my part I’m not sure, but it did somewhat spoil what should have been a fine night. A pity.
Anyhow, the night opened with Westcott and Rodway who, I must say, and in the absence of much of the audience who only turned up for Vini and friends, were for me the most interesting part of the night. They’re very young, and exhibit their influences in what was, to me, a charmingly naïve way; but what influences! They started with a relaxed soft jazz vibe with William Rodway’s piano sounding uncannily like Steve Miller (no, not that one) with Adam Wescott’s guitar resonating with Jukka Tolonen at his most laid back and pastoral. From there to flamenco, Philip Glass and Penguin Café and more. There was easily enough individuality and promise in there to carry the set off, and I look forward to hearing where they might go from here.
After the interval, Vini Reilly hit the stage, with Bruce Mitchell on percussion and Keir Stuart on bass. They presented in an engagingly laid back way, informing us that they hadn’t rehearsed at all and Vini starting the first song in the wrong key. That could have been irritating and arrogant, but it just felt relaxed and charming. The first few songs were fine, a nicely balanced stream of Mancunian angst above all showing off Mitchell as the very fine drummer that he is, and were followed by Vini swapping his strat for a Les Paul: he told us that it was new, and the song was a bit of silliness they were doing just as am excuse for him to play his new guitar. They launched into a full on British Blues Trio workout, and very fine it was too with the added edge of the archetypal emaciated Factory Records Existential despair survivor as full on guitar hero. Two couples got up and left in the midst of this that I could see (there may well have been others ;), but I must say that I enjoyed the irreverence immensely - as, by the signs, did Vini, Bruce and Keir.
Thereafter, though, things became less satisfactory for me: I was sat in the middle of row B, in direct line of fire for Vini’s guitar 4x12, and that fucker was, for the rest of the set, loud; to the extent that I could barely hear what was coming out of the PA. Vocals vanished, as did (mostly) the bass, and even the drum kit was subdued. As far as I could tell, the music would have been fine if it were even remotely balanced, but balanced is the one thing it was not. How much this was down to the St George’s acoustic (it really isn’t a good venue for amplified music) and how much unfortunate positioning on my part I’m not sure, but it did somewhat spoil what should have been a fine night. A pity.