The final gig before the big day an we were treated to a veritable feast by local band The What featuring for the first time at The Kings Anton’s son on guitar. The first set was traditional What territory of Beatles, Who etc classic covers however it was the second set when the Kings came alive which had Balding Bloke complimenting them on probably the best second set of the year.
So, just what happened?
The first cover was The Fratellis “Whistle For The Choir” followed by Eddie and the Hot Rods “Do Anything You Wanna Do”, both first-timers we reckon and also probably the next one with the Arctic Monkeys “Mardy Bum” and then into a bit of Motown with “Heatwave” from Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. A trio of Oasis numbers ensued with “”Don’t Look Back In Anger”, “She’s Electric” and finishing with “Cigarettes And Alcohol” and then the fun commenced, an impromptu open mic session.
First up was John? with a superb “Mustang Sally” followed by band member Paul’s daughter with an awesome cover of Duffy’s “Mercy”, what a voice! With Anton back on vocals The Drifters “Saturday Night At The Movies” and possibly another first-timer, Green Day’s “Basket Case” featuring, I’m told, Howie and John, then with hardly a thought straight into Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” as per The Blue Brothers, complete with all mimicking. It was then back to Anton with “Could You Be Loved” from Bob Marley & The Wailers followed by local singer Keri with the excellent “Song 2″ of Blur. The Who weren’t forgotten with “The Kids Are Alright” and the ever-popular Kaiserchiefs “I Predict A Riot”, talk about a mixture of songs and then came R Dean Taylor’s Northern Soul classic, “There’s A Ghost In My House”.
As we came towards the end of the night Reef’s “Place Your Hand” was thoroughly enjoyed and to finish the evening back on came Keri with The Undertones “Teenage Kicks”…come back again soon Keri! What a fantastic night and let’s hope that next Wednesday’s open mic night is just as good.
With just one week to go to the big day and one of The Kings’ regulars favourite bands from just up the road in Grimsby and the bar was heaving with their fans.
Obviously there is no need for a set list since what do they play? Necesssity meant that Balding Bloke had to borrow a sound deck for the night since his had suddenly developed an intermittent fault, not that one would have noticed since he was soon boss of this one and only “sound guys” would have noticed the little difference there was.
Altogether a classic night of Jam tracks for their afficionados (strictly writing it should be afficionadi) and we look forward to seeing them again later in 2011.
Is it nigh on 8 months since Mick and Lynne Stones (resplendent in a fabulous black bob style wig) last played at The Kings? Heck, where did that time go? Needless to say we had a super couple of sets with the first bringing back memories of the 60s, 70s, 80s and even a little incursion into the 90s on a surprisingly busy Friday night.
The second set was classic Pretenders commencing with an instrumental, that was definitely a first-time ever, and then continued into just over an hoursworth of great songs such as “I’ll Stand By You”, “Don’t Get Me Wrong”, “Back On The Chain Gang”, “Brass In Pocket” and culminated with the encore “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”.
Friday nights are much more mellow than Saturdays, come on, contact Sharon if you want to play.
Surprisingly the last time The Influential Factor was here was 6 months ago, heck, where did that time go? There’s always a good turn out for this band known for their quality musicianship and wide range of popular covers and they arrived with a new band member, a keyboard player, and what a fantastic job he did as well.
A couple of sets starting with “Teenage Kicks”, “Come Together”, “Light My Fire” and “Substitute” had the bar rocking and I’m fairly sure one of the very few bands who do “High Heel Sneakers”, “All Or Nothing” is always popular and they rounded off the first set with a classic Jam track “That’s Entertainment”.
Continuing The Jam theme in the second set was a “Town Called Malice” and was “Shout To The Top!” from The Style Council a Kings first-ever time? An excellent “Gimme Some Lovin’” from The Spencer Davis Group and maybe another first-timer with The Small Faces 1965 debut single “Whatcha Gonna Do About It”, “Green Onions”, “from 1955 and Richard Berry’s “Louie Louie”, the UK one hit wonder of Martha and The Muffins with “Echo Beach” and they wound down the second set with yet another Jam track, “Tubestation”.
However, their fans wouldn’t let them leave without one more song and it was simply stunning, #1 in the UK single charts in July 1979, it won the prestigious Best Pop Song and Outstanding British Lyric categories at the Ivor Novello Awards from The Boomtown Rats with “I Don’t Like Mondays”…one keyboard player and one vocalist at their very, very best, that was very special and sounded simply stunning through Balding Bloke’s P.A. system and almost certainly another first-timer. They will return in 2011!
It’s been 15 months since Jack Broadbent last appeared at The Kings however Friday night’s gig with dad, Micky on bass guitar, was well worth the wait for the much busier than normal bar. A couple of sets of classic acoustic songs many written by Jack himself and a few covers. I haven’t a clue which were which to be honest, I did recognise a Van Morrison track, some Jamiroquai style numbers and various people were complimentarily comparing him to all kinds of well-known musicians.
We really could do with more sessions like this on a Friday night therefore if you think you’re up to it and want to give it a go call Sharon for a chat.