Unbelievably it’s been almost 8 months since one of Lincolnshire’s finest rock covers’ band, The Zimmer Band, were last here and The Kings was heaving with a wedding party and a couple of birthday parties along with all the regulars! It’s on nights like this that the barroom needs extending and the stage needs to be another 10-15 metres further back than at present since a lot of people did come to see this excellent band.
Whether it was the sheer quantity of people stood in front of the speakers which were really not quite high enough, I’m not sure, however the lead vocals were a bit difficult to distinguish at times until the band wound-up the volume however it certainly did not detract from the enjoyment all the dancers were having to classic covers from The Who, Led Zeppelin, their spectacular Pink Floyd covers and to complete the night and being the only band that ever does it at The Kings, a fabulous “Common People” from Pulp.
Fingers crossed, here’s hoping we don’t have to wait until the end of Spring 2011 before we see The Zimmer Band again!
Finally I have to pass on an overheard comment from one of the younger birthday party groups, not local I believe, who said, “This place is unbelievable, why can’t we have a venue and bands like this?” Ah I thought, after all the hard work, effort and vision Richard, Sharon and their tremendous staff have put into The Kings it’s not really that difficult to see why…
I’ve deliberately left this post for a couple of days because I wanted to ask others of their opinions since, I must admit, I was quite late in arriving and was not impressed with what I heard. However quite a few have told me that they really enjoyed The Modernaires and that they had played a really good mixture of covers. These were generally people who were stood near to the front.
To be honest when I arrived initially I did not recognise the track they were playing and, interestingly, I was immediately told by knowledgable sound people that it was easily the worst they had heard so far of an otherwise good gig. Well, I’m not sure what happened but the sound just got worse and worse, firstly it sounded like my head was in a goldfish bowl but after a while the best description I could come up with was “Do you remember when playing old records and the stylus became covered in fur?”…usually blowing the fur off resolved the problem…had the band accidentally dislodged something? I’ve no idea but it was definitely not right.
It’s at times like this that bands should use Balding Bloke since he always seems to manage to get the best out of any band.
Starvin’ Sid is one of my favourite bands and I unfortunately missed them however I am told they were well up to their usual high standard. The only thing I do know is that regular drummer Ollie had a stand-in for the night who equipped himself very well therefore if there are any budding bloggers out there who feel like doing a report for the gig please let Sharon know and there may even be a beer (wine/whatever) in it for you:-)
Apologies for a belated blog, it’s been a stress-filled week!
So, Grimsby’s Decoy and their first visit with a couple of sets covering some great classics but only 20 tracks therefore we knew that some of them would be long. Kicking off with “Purple Haze”, “I Predict A Riot” and “Wishing Well” they followed up with the Kings of Leon’s “Molly’s Chambers” and then probably a first-timer with “Runnin’ Down a Dream” from Tom Petty. A couple of more tracks ensued and taking us into the break was the great Joe Walsh “Rocky Mountain Way”.
Then during their break a very big surprise, and I have to admit I have absolutely no information whatsoever, a very talented acoustic guitarist/singer entertained us. Please feel free to let us know if you have any information on this person!
The second set commenced with the awesome “Baby Please Don’t Go” and then I reckon another first-timer with R.E.M.’s huge 1987 hit “The One I Love”. After ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” a very interesting medley/combination of Survivor’s “Eye Of The Tiger” into Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall”. By this time Decoy had their sound coming across well, the lead vocals had been a tad low in my opinion, as they launched into “”White Wedding”, “Smoke On The Water”, “Chasing Cars” and possibly another first-timer, Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down”.
Altogether a very enjoyable night and the busy crowd obviously appreciated the band as they sang along to all the songs they knew, hopefully they’ll be back in 2011.