The expectations from a new band to the Kings can vary depending how well we think we may know them…The League Of Mentlemen are a band with people we know from several other bands who get together to have some fun with different music to which we normally associate them, so how did they go?
Quite simply, superb, two sets of 23 tracks many of which have never been heard live in the Kings before and, as always, a cracking sound from Balding Bloke who did the almost impossible by being in two places at once!
This was not normal “pub band” stuff, this was serious, tight, mostly heavy, professional rock numbers with tracks such as “Slither” from Velvet Revolver, “Show Me How To Live” and “Cochise” from Audioslave, “Pretend Best Friend” from Terrorvision, “All My Life” and “The Pretender” from Foo Fighters, “No One Knows” from Queens Of The Stone Age”, “She Hates Me” from Puddle Of Mudd, “Harder To Breathe” from Maroon5 and a very surprisingly well-performed Darkness “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”…just try it, it’s difficult!
A great 20-odd minute medley with all sorts of stuff thrown in completed a fantastic night which was appreciated by everyone there and I, for one, am certainly looking forward to their return on Saturday October 22nd.
Gin House are a very popular regular band at The Kings and need no introduction to their classic rock and 12 bar blues numbers from the likes of Robert Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Freddie King, Tommy Castro, George Thorogood and the Destroyers, Otis Redding, even Sir Mack Rice’s “Mustang Sally” but better known by most is the version from Wilson Pickett, all very high quality material and, as usual, extremely well executed by the band.
The Gin House band won’t be back again until mid-August however their stormin’ BackStreet Blues Band will be performing the four day bank holiday wedding weekend at LudaFest on the Sunday night 1st May 2011…don’t miss it, this will be extra special.
What a great Friday night with one of our favourite local bands together with lots of regulars and a few surprising visitors.
There’s no need to repeat what The What do, they’re well-known for their Beatles, Who, Oasis and Kaiserchiefs covers together with some Northern Soul from R Dean Taylor etc. Anyone who was at The Kings for their Xmas party on December 23rd will remember their impromptu jam session and, yet again, we got another one!
First up was Debbie from Leeds out for a birthday party night with the tremendous Bob Dylan track “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, the soundtrack for the 1973 film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. Next we had John and an absolutely superb 1996 Manic Street Preachers “A Design for Life” followed with his version of the classic “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”, Howie got up on stage and sang…”I can’t remember the track name!”…and finally all of them were on stage culminating with the 1968 Lennon and McCartney “Hey Jude”…superb, Friday nights are turning into real belters.
Needless to say the sound engineering from Balding Bloke was, as usual, spot on, not bad for an amateur eh:-)
Ok, my Simon Cowell head on for this review! The Gas Band think they got their name from the 1970s, this must be when they wrote their set list and it evidently hasn’t changed much since! Any band that performs a Bay City Roller medley and manages to turn a T. Rex song into a Country and Western number ought to seriously re-consider their performance. As Simon would say, this was seaside cabaret and not very good cabaret at that.
Furthermore, yet again we had a new band at The Kings who had serious problems with their sound engineering, the lead vocals were far too loud drowing out almost everything except for the bass which was also so loud and over-powered whatever else was there consequently very little else could be heard. I believe the bass player actually sang a couple of songs however he couldn’t be heard and I did hear the drums a couple of times otherwise they may as well not have been there.
I have to give them good marks for effort and enthusiasm but needless to say overall it was a very lacklustre performance.
Normally I would not write a blog purely on hearsay however I have had so many comments made to me this week from regulars that a note has to be made.
The set-list was not the problem, the issue was with the sound which, by all accounts, was appalling, bass speakers on the floor are ok however the top speakers at shoulder level is a pointless waste of time. One very learned “muso” did not even realise there were two guitarists until he approached the stage!
When will some bands learn to use the experience of regular sound engineer Balding Bloke? He has all the necessary gear and knows the problems with the venue when full, half full and empty.
As the saying goes: “You only get one chance to make a great first impression.”