Sledge and I had been looking forward to seeing the Rezillos for such a long time (“Oh I just can’t wait”) and they didn’t disappoint. A set full of top tunes with the energy of teenagers – they had us all in dancing around in a good mood and a fab time was had by all.

Bumped into Damien who hadn’t seen them before either…..but had seen the Revillos so won in the one-up-manship stakes…..But it wasn’t just a bunch of 40-somethings reliving their youth…….Met young Will and his fiancé at the front who I think moved when the moshing got a bit raucous (for which Sledge and I were partially to blame).

Support came from Punk band Kingcrows who dressed the part but didn’t really do it for me – I popped into the other room to watch joint hosts Poland getting knocked out of Euros 2012 and missed the poet who was also on.

You could feasibly accuse The Rezillos of being a comedy band with tunes like ‘Destination Venus’, ‘Flying Saucer Attack’, ‘I love my baby cos she does good sculptures yeah’ and certainly everyone was grinning whilst dancing along but they obviously believe in what they do and they do it very well. We got a bit giddy at the front and enthusiastically joined in the party.

After the gig I was at the bar and Faye Fife pushed past me and started snogging the guy next to me “That wasn’t advertised on the ticket!”. We got talking to a bloke at the bar who’d come up from Birmingham for the gig. We couldn’t let him go back to his hotel without taking him to the Royal Park for a beer or 2 so we ended up chatting away to the early hours……and thanks to Jo for my Favourite Rezillos’s related fact: Feargal Sharkey’s “Loving You” was co-written by original Rezillo Jo Callis, so he quite literally “got The Human League in to advise (him)”

what a great night!

When Sledge and I heard about this gig, we got on line and booked tickets right away.  In an interview, Pete Shelley revealed that their promoter had said “If you want to play bigger venues, you need a story” – So, tonight’s story was “BUZZCOCKS – Back to front” – 3 sets by the band – the first as they are now, the second as they were during the ‘hit years’ and the third as their short lived explosive genesis – all 3 featuring Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle.

It was weird going to the Apollo again. I cut my gig going teeth there, starting with the Stranglers in 1979 but hadn’t been there for 27 years (the last time was Dec 1985 to see Rick Mayall with Ben Elton in support!). Walking through the foyer brought back all sorts of nostalgic memories – mainly about dragging my dad out of bed to pick me up as I’d missed the night bus home…..

Inside it seemed much smaller than I remembered it. All the seats were gone from the downstairs thank goodness, so we easily got to the front. From there on in, it was the same as it was 30 years ago. The band blasting your ears, jumping around in a hot sweaty mosh-pit with lots of good natured banter, helping up those who’d fallen as well as some vicious drunk bastards intent on causing everyone around them physical harm – it was ace! There was one enormous guy who I nicknamed ‘the beast’ who just gently bobbed up and down all night with others just bouncing off him in a cartoon style.

Marc Riley was the compare, noting that when the Fall supported the Buzzcocks, they always stayed behind to see the main act as they never disappointed. They didn’t disappoint tonight although the sound was pretty awful – if we didn’t know the songs off by heart they’d have been pretty unrecognisable. Even between songs when Shelley or Diggle talked to the crowd – you couldn’t tell what they were saying. In some ways it didn’t matter.

When the ‘Mark II’ Buzzcocks came on, there was genuine love in the room for John Maher and Steve Garvey…..and what a set list – ‘Fast Cars’ ‘You say you don’t love me’ ‘Promises’ ‘I don’t mind’ ‘Fiction Romance’ ‘Ever fallen in love” …….everything from ‘Orgasm Addict’ to ‘Harmony in my Head’. The best sing-a-long moments we’re ‘Why can’t I touch it’ and ‘Love you more’ – just glorious.

As the evening progressed, Diggle was getting visiably worse for wear (it was funny to see Shelley, Maher and Garvey on the right of the stage raising eyebrows and shaking heads whilst Diggle went off on one during ‘Moving away from the pulsebeat’).

He was with it just enough for bass duty for the final/first incarnation with Howard Devoto as lead singer. The rest of the band came on and started ‘Breakdown’ – then Devoto ran on with the mike in both hands and started singing – it was a joy to see – hilarious! He spoilt it a bit with some stage theatrics but hearing ‘Boredom’ live was worth the wait. Things got a bit chaotic then with missed starts and forgotten lyrics and we were left with Diggle punching the air and shouting about Manchester into his microphone as the sweaty masses dispersed “….Bring back the Smiths an’all!”…..!

Home, and what did I get? The new edition of Mojo had landed on my doorstep and there was a punky version of the Beatles ‘Think for yourself’ on the CD by none other than Pete Shelley, just proving who the real star is……..

 

Bob the Chiropodist

I love seeing a band with no pre-conceptions – Lee and I went to this gig on spec knowing nothing about Sharon at all. In the Brudenell we bumped into Lee’s colleague Dave and his pals from Ilkley. We got chatting about our kids “What’s your eldest daughters name?” “Marisa” “I’ve not heard that name before”…..then on comes the support “Hi my names Marisa Anderson” Dave turns to us with raised eyebrows “That’s the second time I’ve heard that name tonight!”

Marisa played an intense, instumental solo set that made great use of a slide guitar – you often hear it with sustained high notes in country tunes but she gets dirty blues sounding basslines a plenty from it. A great set.

Sharon Van Etten has a great voice but seemed to be a bit nervous at first. Her band belted out a couple of rock tunes and I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy the gig…..but her banter between songs (she’s from the town in New Jersey where the Sopranos is filmed, it was her boyfriend birthday) was so funny (sometimes unintentionally) and the music soon got more to my liking with some fantastic guitar work on sprawling epic songs. Her songs sound confessional in nature and if they are, she’s had a lot of heartache.

We bought her ‘Tramp’ CD on the way out but my favourite song of the night isn’t on it – it was a song for strong women called “Life of his own” that went along the lines of “I want a man with a good social life and friends of his own that he see’s without me, cos that’s what I’ve got and I ain’t giving it up” – Gonna find a copy for my Marisa!

Bob the Chiropodist

For her 40th Birthday, Ana Luisa booked the same venue I had for my 40th and had a wonderful Ska band play, made up of fellow musician friends – specially named ‘Ana Luiska’ for the night.

Several friends got up and did a turn and there was fine South American style food before ‘Ana Luiska’ played a blistering set of Ska faves. There’s no happier music than Ska and these guys had the place jumping.

BTW The drunk guy shouting on this clip wishes to apologise for his tuneless but enthusiastic interjections. The Pisco had got the better of him!

Bob the Chiropodist

 

 

 

A photo special (taken with a Kodak Brownie?) in the third volume of Johns 80’s magazine see’s him meeting the Bunnymen (and probably slagging off U2 somewhere) – Enjoy!