It’s always great to see these guys take the time and effort to come all the way to The Kings since they bring a variation in music very rarely seen these days. They move seemlessly from one genre to another however it is their own brand of Brit-influenced Reggae which always has the crowd up on their feet and dancing all over the bar.
If you were there during the first set you know they were not dancing then since The Kings was chocker block, even the front doors had to be opened! So what’s this about a Marathon and a dance session? The world’s best leading times for a Marathon is about 2:04 for a man and 2:15 for a woman. The Sawdust Caesars second set was somewhere inbetween that and did not finish until gone 01.30. Obviously by that time the bar had thinned out however there was an extremely hard core set of revellers determined to enjoy music that they had either never heard before or not for a long, long time.
This was the first time that Balding Bloke had engineered their sound but once he had got his head wrapped round it, what a joy to listen to. Everything was spot on and crystal clear but when the Caesars struck up with My Generation we knew the night was drawing to a close…was it really gone 01.30? What a great night, the only pity is we don’t know when they will be back again however if you happen to be on the Isle of Wight over the Bank Holiday weekend you can see them supporting at the Summer Madness Concert Sun 30 Aug 2009 at Carisbrooke Castle Fields.
I can tell you that it’s not fun writing this blog when something goes amiss. A couple of weekends ago we had a ridiculously loud band and this weekend we had an unbelieveably quiet night but what do both nights have in common? Quite simply they both declined the services of in-house sound engineer Balding Bloke…Guys BB knows what he’s doing, use his expertise and his fantastic kit.
Merlin’s Keep have played The Kings many times, they are are a competent and entertaining band with a good mixture of popular cover tracks including some much more unusual ones however if the crowd cannot hear them it’s a mute (sic) point. Nevertheless The Kings crowd always enjoy themselves with it being Louth’s only regular weekend live music venue which is a total blessing since a party of us went on to one of the so-called DJ venues in the town and their sound was truly diabolical…it was described as extra loud cell phone music!
This weekend sees the return of the thorughly entertaining Caesars Sawdust from London. Now this is guaranteed to be a good night with Balding Bloke not only mixing their sound he is also featuring a one-hot wonders night on the Friday therefore do you Fancy a Really Meaningless One Night Stand With Baldingbloke? All the best - & some of the worst One Hit Wonders…..Ever !!!! Friday 14th August From 9.00 p.m.
Those who have been following this band for years will know how its line-up has fluctuated however the past 3 years (?) has been as a classic trio. Bass player Jazz had double-booked himself and was replaced by local guitar hero Micky Broadbent (performing his third gig of the day) therefore an entertaining night was bound to ensue.
All these guys have been around for so long it’s difficult to know what they cannot play without enthusiasm and tremendous expertise with such classics as Sunshine Of Your Love, Gloria, Black Magic Woman, Dimples, Bad To The Bone, I Feel Free, Hi Heel Sneekers and the only Rhythm and Blues track ever to have officially reached #1 in the U.K…Little Red Rooster.
Hooker, Diddley, Dylan, Waters, Cream, Thorogood and many others all came in for some serious Sid attack and just into their second set a friend of the band called Roger was invited to the stage for a couple of tracks on the drums instead of Olly…but that still makes a trio you say!
With Sid when you say you want an encore you get an encore and do not ask me what the track was they played however the audience went wild. At least a ten minute jam session started as Balding Bloke wound up the sound as a sensational drum beat rumbled down the bar. It took yours truly a few moments to realise that Roger had returned to the stage and we actually had two drummers playing one set of drums and boy did they go for it.
Everyone who knows me and my appreciation for drummers is legend however this was something very special and the crowd knew it, that’s not to say Sid and Micky were passengers, far from it, without their supreme guitarmanship this track could easily have fallen apart, but of course it did not and the temporary quartet rounded off an altogether superb night of classic R and B.
I just wonder who will come back with them on 21st November??? I can’t wait.