Black and White and Great! The Blades live at The Olympia Theatre, Dublin 13th December 2013.

Paul Cleary reforms his legendary Irish group The Blades for 2 sell-out shows. Aggravation Place reports from the front row.

  We all know that life just isn’t fair at times and in the case of The Blades it hits home harder than most. Back in late 1979 they spent a six week residency in The Baggot Inn alternating the headline slot with another hopeful local band called U2 and as far as the local press and music fans were concerned, there was only one band heading for global success and it certainly wasn’t U2. Such was the high regard for The Blades, front man Paul Cleary beat Bono and Van Morrison to win Irish Songwriter of the Year in 1983. And so on Friday the 13^th I found myself waiting at an airport to see first of two sold out gigs in the splendid Olympia theatre in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. As the venue began to fill, you could feel the atmosphere charging, people were buzzing with excitement and as soon as the Blades took to the stage they received a heroic welcome.  Starting off with The Last Man In Europe, the crowd were singing along from start to finish, Cleary appeared a little overwhelmed by the reaction. The Reunion was followed by Downmarket, still sounding magnificent with the Blue Brass horn section giving a Dexys feel to the set. The great songs kept coming and the crowd lapped them up, Pride, debut single Hot For You, Those Were The Days and The Bride Wore White before Cleary paid tribute to his late father with a 3 song solo set ending with Everything I Own.  With the band back on stage they ripped through a cover of Young Gifted & Black and ended with Ghost Of A Chance. Back for an encore of Heatwave and Dublin City Town, they had already passed their 10.30 curfew but the audience weren’t having any of it and sure enough the band ended with a second helping of Downmarket. It was simply magnificent, the crowd singing along in unison. Cleary is quite rightly touted as one of Irelands great songwriters and hearing these songs performed live again hit home just how good they are. At an after show party, top DJ Bill Kealy finished the night with 4 Blades singles in a row, the whole pub sang along as they had done earlier. Bill then led us to another club and the best kebab shop in Dublin, I finally got back to my hotel at 4am.  By 8.30 I awoke in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room. Thankfully there wasn’t any throbbing in my head but I had to go and wait at an airport when I’d rather have been back Downmarket.

                                           Paul Cleary photo by Dave Edwards

Coming Home! Graham Day & The Forefathers live in Bethnal Green 29th November

Medway legends return with a set of gems from their long career. 

It’s early 1984 and I’m in the Tunnel Club on the south side of the Blackwall tunnel in Greenwich  along with my friend Barry to see a band I’d heard a lot about and had already bought their first album and recent single. That band was The Prisoners and they were astounding, so much so that my usually reserved friend Barry was dancing on top of a table like a man possessed.  Fast forward almost 30 years later to Bethnal Green working men’s club and ex-Prisoners stalwarts Graham Day and Allan Crockford are joined by their longtime sticksman Wolf Howard playing a selection of “hits” from the Graham Day songbook.

Support came from the ever reliable Aardvarks, plying their trade of late 60’s mod/psych pop with a smile despite the vocal mix being almost non existent.  They were followed by The Higher State, all jangly Rickenbackers and Byrds style harmonies and were well received by the ever increasing crowd.  

                                             Graham Day Photo by Dave Edwards.

By the time Graham Day & The Forefathers took to the stage, the venue was filled to bursting and appropriately they started with The Prime Movers era The Good Things before Promised Land, Better In Black and Creepy Crawlies warmed the crowd up.  The whole set was nicely balanced with tracks from The Solarflares, Gaolers and Prime Movers though unsurprisingly for most in attendance, it was the Prisoners material that got the biggest reaction. Hurricane, Be On Your Way and Love Me Lies all delivered in a no nonsense manner.  With Wolf and Allan keeping it ticking along, Graham was throwing his guitar around in his usual manner, his shirt was now soaked with sweat. Mine wasn’t that far behind if truth be told, and we hadn’t even reached the first of 2 encores which started with The Gaolers Sitar Spangled Banner and was followed by Coming Home. The crowd wanted more and they got it with I Am The Fisherman and Melanie.  Gig of the year? Definitely a strong contender and if my old friend Barry wasn’t now residing in Canada, I’m pretty sure he’d have been dancing on a table in the corner of the club.

                                          The Aardvarks Photo by Dave Edwards.

Digging A Savage Soul! Boston based Rockin' Bluesman hits London Town.

Barrence Whitfield & The Savages live at The Blues Kitchen, Camden, 26^th September 2013.

I first witnessed Barrence Whitfield at the 100 Club during the late 90’s when Jeff Horton, the venues owner enthused about him.  “You’ve got to see this fella Dave, he’s one of the best acts I’ve ever seen down here.” And if Jeff says that’s the case, then I was game and so it turned out, it was indeed a fantastic night.
Fast forward 15 years and I’m standing in the Blues Kitchen in Camden for the 2nd of two gigs he’s playing at the venue.  I have to say that it’s not a venue I’ve ever warmed to, the sounds good and there’s been some great bands on but the layout just doesn’t work for me, you just can’t seem to stay in one spot for more than a minute. But for the chance to see Barrence and his Savages again, I could suffer for one night. Preceded by The Untouchables, a competent house band at the venue playing straight forward Chicago R&B, the venue was close to full as Barrence Whitfield took to the stage and demanded the air conditioning is turned off, “I wanna sweat my adrenaline off” he announced before the band took off with their fusion of low down blues, rock ‘n’ roll and garage punk.  Highlights of the 21 song set included The Corner Man, Blackjack, Willie Meehan,  Oscar Levante and The Hangmans Token, the pace was almost non-stop bar a couple of plugs for the new album (Dig Thy Savage Soul) and a few words of thanks to the audience.  Fittingly the four song encore finished with Shake It All Night Long and I think he really would have carried on shaking it all night long at the Blues Kitchen if he could have. 

Click here for a clip of the band from Later With Jools from 24th September.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ9E-NckNiU

For more info on the band click here http://www.barrencewhitfieldsavages.com

New Wheelie Bag night!

Deejay Wheelie Bag returns with a monthly shindig in Old Street. 

Good news for all you Wheelie Baggers, Denys has a new regular monthly night at The Old Fountain on Baldwin Street EC1V 9NU, just off Old Street on the first Sunday of each month. After a successful try out on 23^rd March, the new night begins on 7^th April and you can expect the usual fun & games, pound shop prizes plus of course, a fabulous selection of music.  And for those of you who like a fine selection of ales, the pub comes highly recommended by CAMRA.  For more info on Deejay Wheelie Bag click here. http://www.djwheeliebag.co.uk

Photo by Dave Edwards.

Going to a Jojo! *

 Secret Affair unleash Soho Dreams in Soho!

Wednesday 13^th March saw Secret Affair launch the album Soho Dreams to a specially invited crowd at Madame Jojos in Brewer Street in the traditional mod playground of Soho. Ian Page and Dave Cairns’ current line up played a selection of tracks from the new album plus a few classics from back in the day thrown in at the end. Among the crowd of assembled music press and fans were Purple Heart Simon Stebbing, Long Tall Shortys Tony Perfect and Acid Jazzs’ Eddie Piller. There was also news of a new single taken from the album, All The Rage which sees Secret Affairs sound brought bang up to date with a pumped Motown beat, lashings of brass and plenty of keyboards. Add to that a great instrumental take on Brian Augers Black Cat with Andy Fairclough letting loose on the Hammond, it’s a fine addition to the bands previous recordings. Click here for a clip of Secret Affair performing Dance Master on the night.

                                      Ian Page and Dave Cairns. Photo by Dave Edwards.

                                          Ian Page. Photo by Dave Edwards.

*A big thanks to Well Suspect for the title!

The Godfathers – Jukebox Fury - Godfathers Recordings

 First new studio album since 1995’s Afterlife.

It’s all looking good for The Godfathers, with a support slot on The 
Stranglers tour and a mighty fine new 12 track album released at the start of March.  I love the title Jukebox Fury, already my contender for album title of the year. Let Your Hair Hang Down opens the album, it’s low down and dirty and if Bolan had lasted long enough to take in punk, I could imagine him doing something similar.  If I Only Could is more poppier, there’s a Byrds-esque twang to Del Bartles guitar in the middle.
Next up is Primitive Man which is classic Godfathers all the way, a great guitar riff with Peter Coyne spitting out the words with a growl and is followed by last years download single The Outsider, this time there’s a great organ riff throughout, as Coyne’s vocal menaces like he means it. And you just know that he does.
The only cover on the album is a beefed up take on Link Wray’s I’m Branded, all twanging, brooding surf guitar while A Can Of Worms veers towards Squeeze territory with a vocal delivery similar to Chris Difford.
Another download single Back Into The Future follows with more hypnotic, killer guitar riffs,  before I Can’t Sleep Tonight throws a touch of The Ramones into the mix.
Mary Baby nods towards West Coast 60’s pop with a twist of psychedelia thrown in for good measure, and Theme To The End Of The World echoes back to those great spaghetti western film scores.  The Man In The Middle is straight ahead garage rock and grows with each play before the album closes with Thai Nights which could easily pass for John Lennon.  The Godfathers have always been a straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll band, never afraid to hide from their influences preferring to embrace and build upon them. Thankfully, that hasn’t changed, this album is a testament to that and long may it continue. 

The album is available from the following:-

Cargo Records :- http://www.cargorecords.co.uk/release/20908

I-Tunes :-http://bit.ly/jukeboxfuryitunes 

Sainsbury's :- http://www.sainsburysentertainment.co.uk/en/Music/CD/The-Godfathers/Jukebox-Fury/product.html?product=E11197513 

& all usual outlets. 

For the latest Godfathers news, live Tour dates, other info, please visit The Godfathers NEW & only OFFICIAL website on:-http://godfathers.uk.com/