Three bands for the price of one…? Last Saturday afternoon was the wedding day at The Kings for Graf Zeppelin’s lead singer Richard, what a day and little did we know who they were bringing with them as support for their two sets, not only some Graf Zeppelin but also The Bazooka Band and The Carnival for their Sex, Drugs and Sausage Roll jam session, or was it Rock N Roll Boogie session?
Needless to say there was no set list, well, I didn’t see one, they just let rip with all kinds of covers starting with, on their wedding day, “Under My Thumb” from The Rolling Stones, some Rory Gallagher, several Dr. Feelgod songs including “Back In The Night”, obviously a couple of Led Zep songs, “Rock N Roll” and a mighty, mighty “Whole Lotta Love” and very surprisingly, since some of us had been talking about this specific song and band a few nights before, Sam The Sham and The Pharoahs 1965 hit “Wooly Bully”…definitely a first-timer at The Kings.
Altogether a superb, and very long night, ably sound-engineered by Balding Bloke and hopefully they’ll be back again but under what name or guise I have no idea!
It’s been a full 11 months since this band last appeared at The Kings which is far too long for one of the entire region’s best covers’ bands who definitely do not do the standard stuff. If you want poppy stuff turn away now as I shall list their full two sets.
They kicked off with a trio of AC/DC numbers, “Are You Ready”, “Rock N Roll” and “You Shook Me All Night Long”, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” from Poison, Def Leppard’s “Animal”, “Fat Bottomed Girls” from Queen, Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell”, another AC/DC number “It’s A Long Way To The Top”, Don Henley’s “Boys Of Summer”, “The Middle” from Jimmy Eat World and closing the first set and for the first time ever a full version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Feebird”…tremendous stuff and sounding superb.
Just to prove they’re not one-trick ponies the second set commenced with Wilson Pickett’s “Midnight Hour” and followed by Neil Diamond’s “I’m A Believer” as performed by The Monkees. A Blues Brothers medley ensued as the band were rightly introduced and then an AC/DC version of Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits”, and then a very unusual track from one of the 80s biggest bands, Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like The Wolf”. Trying to get up-to-date Britney Spears “Baby One More Time” seems different and it most definitely is when it’s Bowling For Soup’s version! A couple of 35 year old Sex Pistols numbers “Pretty Vacant” and “Anarchy In The UK” preceded “Jump Around” from House Of Pain and then an asbsolutely storming first-timer from Faith No More with “Epic”…that worked guys, that worked really well.
And into the noughties we went firstly with Foo Fighters “All My Life”, a couple of first-timers with Buck Cherry’s “Lit Up” and “Crazy Bitch”, a great Velvet Revolver “Slither” and concluding the night Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and another AC/DC “Whole Lotta Rosie”, so was that it? Nope, the crowd pleaded for more and they duly complied with “Gay Bar” from Electric Six followed by, I think, the only band at The Kings who has covered Rage Against The Machine with their 1992 “Killing In The Name” and what a sensational job they did with it. Sadly we knew time was up when the Toy Dolls version of “Nellie The Elephant” commenced and it was very funny to see some people’s faces who had obviously never heard this cover but they were soon bopping down the bar completely forgetting it was a BBC “Children’s Favourites” regular.
Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another 11 months before we see Feedback again.
Friday 5th August 2011 saw the Gas Station Blues Band appearing for their first-ever gig at The Kings and they did themselves proud and especially so considering they had a couple of bits of rarely failing equipment blow up! Nonetheless together with Balding Bloke they managed to perform a fabulous two sets of some classic blues plus some of the best Hendrix I have heard in years, yes I was at the Isle of Wight in ‘70, furthermore a fabulous Chuck Berry melange of Jonny B. Goode and Roll over Beethoven.
The very busy bar was suitably impressed, the band genuinely seemed to enjoy themselves despite the failed kit and I can’t wait to seem them again since they have that very likeable x-factor.
Saturday night 6th August had the return of Stolen Fridays. I didn’t make the gig however by all accounts the place was heaving and the bar was used as a make-shift dance floor by several of the girls. If you feel the need to gyrate on the bar they’ll be back on Saturday November 19th.
Last Saturday 13th August and a welcome return to the superb Gin House. You all know I rate this band very highly and, as always, they did not disappoint other than, please Phil, more harmonica, you sound superb! Gin House won’t be back again this year however their more bluesy band, BackStreet Blues Band, will return on Saturday November 5th…hmmm…that’s bonfire night.
Friday 22nd July 2011 saw the excellent local jazz and blues band Vanilla Smooth for the first time since last September with a couple of great sets. I missed the first one which included their superb “Night In Tunisia” however they more than made up for it in their second set with a first-timer, the tremendous 1977 jazz-fusion “Birdland” from Weather Report, all that practice was well-worth the effort. A special mention must also be made to another first-timer with Adele’s 2011 hit “Set Fire To The Rain” plus, needless to say and very poignant, “Back To Black” from Amy Winehouse.
I missed The What on the following Saturday night however all reports tell me it was yet another good night from this great local band. Sunday July 24th saw a well-attended outside afternoon BBQ & accoustic set from Who’s That Girl and all who went told me they had a great time.
There was a first-time visit from Loop Cycle on Friday 29th July and I managed to miss it all! But I did manage to catch a fabulous set from Graeme Stanton and his support, sorry guys I didn’t get your names. We only get to see Graeme about once a year and even though his set was only about 45 mins or so it was well worth the wait for his fabulously-penned songs. Balding Bloke made the guys sound superb and what a drummer…errr…box drummer…errr…self-made sound instrument…oh look it up!
Saturday night 30th July saw the retun of D.O.G. (Delusions Of Grandeur). I have to say the last couple of times I’ve seen them I was not impressed by their sound engineering and this time it was only marginally better but the big question has to be just who was the frenetic drummer? He was obviously playing for another band at a different venue, he was all over the place, and as for their encore and “Johnny B. Goode”, even the band lost time and place in the middle of the song…was the Elvis bit deliberate or an attempted rescue?