A new band from the Scunthorpe area with some well-known faces in their line-up therefore we knew on such a very warm night that a good sound and the selection of classic covers would be good.
The first set of 11 tracks included such gems as “Hush”, “Are You Gonna Go My Way”, “Rebel, Rebel”, “Gene Genie”, “Hate Everything About You” and finished with the breakthrough 2004 single of Franz Ferdinand, “Take Me Out”.
After a short break Black Rose struck up with classic Status Quo and “Whatever You Want” which was followed by a local Market Rasen song…”Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting”! “Emerald” and “Rosalie” were followed by a first-timer, the 1960 Johnny Kidd and the Pirates #1 hit “Shakin’ All Over”. Has Slade’s “Cum On Feel the Noize” been covered here before? I’m not too sure however what has definitely not been done is a trio of T. Rex songs with “Get It On”, the quite superb “Solid Gold Easy Action” and “20th Century Boy”.
As they came towards the end of the night did we get another first-timer with The Knack’s 1979 hit “My Sharona”? Black Rose’s finale was the Tom Jones classic and covered so well in 1975 by Scottish group the Sensational Alex Harvey Band with “Delilah”. Great fun guys and a really enjoyable night. Shall we see Black Rose again? I hope so but I do know their diary is very full therefore we may have to keep our fingers crossed.
Chester is an all-round singer/acoustic guitarist from Morecambe and great fun too. Getting up on stage on a quiet Friday night can be a bit daunting however Chester has plenty of experience to carry it off and entertained with some definite first-time-ever song covers and being solo it means a completely different type of performance.
How about Men At Work’s “Land Down Under”? This was a great version and closely followed by The Police’s 1979 hit “Message In A Bottle” and how about Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel’s classic 1975 “Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)”? Chester obviously likes the classics and yet another first was The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” followed by Billy Bragg’s “A New England”.
As an encore, and Beefy missed this, and what a tremendous finish for the night, Neil Young’s all-time classic “Rockin’ In The Free World”, a superb finish and much appreciated by the regulars. It would be good to see Chester back again and entertaining a larger audience.
Strangely we don’t get many bands from Hull at the Kings which is unfortunate if The Influential Factor are representative of their local standard. A great fun band who know what they’re doing, know how to enjoy themselves and definitely know how to get the very busy and warm night dancing and buzzing.
Apart from one Northern Soul track their selection is mostly classic Brit rock and pop such as The Sex Pistols, The Who, Undertones, Buzzcocks, The Specials, a good slection of The Jam, some Spencer Davis and the only band that visits the Kings and cover Canadian R Dean Taylor’s renowned “There’s A Ghost In My House”.
The I.F. obviously love performing Small Faces tracks and their renditions of Sha La La La Lee and Lazy Sunday Afternoon and The Who’s “My Generation” are great crowd pleasers. For an encore, and quite surprisingly considering what they had been performing, a great cover of the Kaiser Chiefs “I Predict a Riot”…naturally they will be back but not until we have had a bit of frost and snow, Saturday December 11th!
Yet another new band for the Kings and this time from Lincoln, a 5 piece band including a keyboard player which nearly always adds a new dimension.
Unfortunately they didn’t quite get the bass to travel all the way down the bar when it was busy however when it thinned out a bit it was fine. Not that it really mattered too much as they rattled off two sets of classic songs that many bands seem to be covering these days such as “Vertigo”, “Hard To Handle”, the inevitable “Fire” and “Basket Case”. More unusual was “I Gotta Feeling” and “Dani California” and definitely opening the second set with Pendulum’s “Propane Nightmare” had to be a first time at the Kings.
Continuing with popular songs was “Ruby” and “Are You Gonna Be my Girl”. An excellent version of the Kaiser Chiefs “Every Day I Love You Less And Less” was followed by a definite first and made a lot of locals look and smile…no less than Van Halen’s “Jump”…what an excellent use for the keyboard. The inevitable “Chelsea Dagger” and “I Predict A Riot” led along towards the encores of “Chasing Cars” and almost every current band’s anthem “Sex On Fire”.
Sharon loved ‘em and has already booked them for another gig…When? I have no idea!
Many thanks for Joker standing in at such late notice for a very wet, windy and electrically charged night. Unfortunately I was not there so I have to rely on hearsay, no NOT that Hear’Say, until someone else decides to send me some copy to upload…please.
Two sets of Joker’s usual high standard and once the vocals were lifted a little apparently an excellent and enjoyable night as usual from this band who have invested in some radio mics and were having a wander, or guided tour, throughout the whole of the downstairs surprising people even on the pool table and behind the bar…methinks a trend was set over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Joker are not booked in to play again until much later this year however I feel pretty sure they’ll be back before then…you know where The Calendar is.