I had a look to see if there were any gigs on my birthday this year and saw that Snapped Ankles were playing at the Brudenell – fantastic – love them and love that place – perfect! Couldn’t find any tickets on the Jumbo ticket page (my ‘go to’ site to find out what’s coming up) but just assumed they weren’t on sale yet. When I looked again last week, I still couldn’t find them…..then realised they were supporting Beak>……which had sold out – Bugger! Marc Riley had A Certain Ratio in session that night so I emailed with my tale of woe and said that hearing ACR had cheered me up….and did they remember boozing it up with Mitsu in Paris….who got them to sign this….
Well, Marc not only sympathised – but pulled some strings and got me on the Beak> guest list +1 – what a true gent. He chose their LP >>> as his album of the year and it was on his programme I’d first heard Snapped Ankles and went out and bought the LP (on yellow vinyl) the next day. Pulsating dance tunes – glorious!
Snapped Ankles had set up their kit on the floor in front of the stage and Sledge and I were standing right next to them, dressed in their full on shamanistic garb, nearly knocking out some audience members with their instruments as they wandered into the crowd. It was like an indoor rave! Watching the keyboard player use a theramin and all sorts of electronic trickery was a joy. Bring on the new LP……
Beak> make a great edgey sound that is familiar in some ways – the bass really reminded me of the band ‘Morphine’ (a good thing!) and any of their tune could be the backdrop to a cool Netflix series – intense and often brooding….but thet weren’t – joking and taking the piss out of each other between tunes. They had a great lights show with them which looked like a whole bank of speakers before it became apparent what they were. The packed crowd loved them.
Sledge was just back from China where his beard had caused a stir with folk wanting to be photographed with him (“didn’t see another beard in my whole time there”). We bumped into Gary who has similar beardage and so they had a beard-off (no idea who won). Post gig we sat in the bar, drinking and chatting away to all and sundry including a couple over from Manchester who’d never been to The Brudenell before. A great way to spend a birthday – cheers Marc
Bob the Chiropodist