Although I saw The Stranglers in Leeds on Saturday and will be doing the same in Manchester shortly, I don't need to offer another review on what was another fine performance by the band.
The week leading up to my trip over the penines from Manchester to see The Stranglers was a busy one to begin with gig wise: including 2 gigs with my own band in Manchester and Liverpool on the Monday and Friday respectively, but it was the gig on the Thursday that had my mind wondering with excitement ever since I found out it was going on - The Magic Band at Band on the Wall in Manchester City center
It was a couple of weeks earlier that I saw a Band on the Wall poster listing its upcoming gigs in the city center on the way home from work. Since moving less than a 10 minute walk from the venue, I've kept a close eye on who's playing there and have checked out a hand full of gigs (mostly unsigned acts). Not knowing the Magic Band were even back together, let alone have been performing for the past 10 years and being a massive fan of Beefheart's music (under Hugh and JJ's testimony in interviews), I made the slight diversion on my walk home from work to the venue to pick myself up a ticket up.
Having done so, it dawned on me that the band could feature anyone or no original members given their advanced years. After a quick bit of research on the internet, my worries were put to bed quickly with 3 members out of 5 having played with Beefheart's Magic Band in the 60's and 70's (not a bad ratio considering these men are well into their 60's)
Not long after it was the night of the gig. Unable to find anyone to join me (it's difficult being 23 and finding mates of the same age to come with you to gigs like this) i was enjoying a pint of IPA in the bar of the venue with some like minded Beefheart fans well into their 50's and 60's (sounds familiar) discussing everything from Frank Zappa and The Beatles to bands Beefheart has had a more profound effect and influence on like Magazine, The Stranglers, Velvet Undergrounf, PIL and The Buzzcocks.
It soon got to 8 30 and The Magic Band advance on the stage, from left to right it's Eric Klerks (none original guitarist), Rockette Morton (bassist, who is one of JJ's biggest influences, both playing and stage presence wise), Craig Bunch (none original drummer), John 'Drumbo' French (original drummer and now lead singer) and Denny Walley aka Feelers Rebo (with the the band during the 70's). The band start with the rhythmically perverse ‘My Human Gets Me Blues’, and the first thing that's obvious is that these five men are shit hot and tight as well Drumbo doing more than justice to Beefhearts vocals sounding very close to the great man.
Other more tangled songs such as Hair Pie Bake 1 (followed by Bake 2) and others are delivered with what seems like ease by the members and the longer the set goes on, the more you realise what talented musicians these men are. I was in stood a few feet from Rockette Morton, who played using a standard guitar pick with his index and thumb (as most bassist do), whilst the rest of his fingers exercised in using an individual finger pick per finger to strum chords or different rhythms: in effect playing two different bass lines or more at once. I've seen guitarist do this before but never thought i'd see a bassist do it. Mortons bass playing is brought to the forefront when he burst into a 4 minute bass solo whilst the drummer encourages the audience to do hand claps in the small breaks of the solo. Burnel eat your heart out
The rhythms and melodies of ‘Low Yo Yo Stuff‘ and ‘Click Clack’ provide infectious finger clicking in the style of old Holwin' Wolf and his R & B compatriots of the 50's that Beefheart owed as big a debt to as many of the bands we talk about on here do to him. Klerks breaks a string and Drumbo breaks out into the impromptu poem of 'Orange Claw Hammer' which the crowd recite along to. Drumbo then later joins Brunch on drums for a double drum solo, where I witness both men climbing over each other and swapping places on the drum stool whilst smashing out patterns that most drummers would sell their soul to come up with.
Drumbo's wide vocal range is further displayed by songs such as ‘Moonlight on Vermont’ and ‘Big Eyed Beans from Venus’ where the band uze a blistering prowess: especially Rebo on his 12 string slide guitar he began using in the second half of the set, emulating the synth sounds with it on 'Electricity' with audacious finger work and amp feed back to boot. The gig was massively helped by rapturous crowd throughout making the atmosphere electric and a brilliant sound desk man. All in all the gig of the year for me so far and it'll take some beating.
The band were out in the bar area after the set to sign things and chat with the fans. I had a discussion with Morton and Drumbo afterwords who said they had both heard The Stranglers in the early 80's and 'digged' them, "the slinky lead singer/guitarist" in particular, they must have meant Hugh. Following this I asked Drumbo why Robert Williams wasn't on the drums and he said "He was the first hand full of times we played (about 10 years ago), but he was extremely difficult, argumentative and sleazy", which sounds about right... I got a few things signed including my "Fast and Bulbous" t shirt, which Drumbo began reciting the monologue involved by breaking into "FAST AND BULBOUS" with me, I followed suit with "THAT'S RIGHT THE MASCARA SNAKE" and the conversation continued (check the song "Pena" out)
Don;t take my word for it, go and see for yourself. There's a few dates left on the tour and their manager told me they intend to tour the UK yearly for as long as possible so I highly recommend going to catch these guys for something extremely different and truly original.
