| A huge faintly disturbing and post-adolescent crush on Miles Hunt found me at the Town and Country Club just before Christmas, awaiting with bated breath, this 'secret' and 'festive' gig by the The Wonder Stuff. Well, 8.30 came and went, so along with some fellow appreciators of the band I went in search of a packet of smokey bacon crisps (the only tie yet to be severed between myself and meat) and some 'booze'. Making our way back to our perch on one of the staircases we noticed the lights dimming and heard Queens |
stage and found myself uncomfortably, exdtedly,
right at the front. The band played 'Who wants to
be the Disco King?' first of all and this was
followed (with the aid of an incredibly dodgy Vic
Reeves style Wheel Of Justice) with energetic
versions of (amongst others) 'Size Of A Cow'
'Unbearable' and 'Don't Let Me Down, Gently'. Initially the most striking aspect of this gig was its un-frilliness: (I know that is not a proper word) there were no effects, no insults hurled (and I'm |
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'Seven Seas Of Rye' blasting from quite
moderate speakers. We hurried back to our
place; couldn't miss Kingmaker... but a rather
more familiar bunch of lads came on stage (we
thought that Kingmaker were due to appear -
misled perhaps by the Karaoke group from
Greenwich who, complete with scantily clad Annie
voiced lasses, were hardly a plausible support.)
Realising then that Kingmaker were obviously off
doing a bit of Chnstmas shopping elsewhere, I
joined the mass of bodies surging towards the
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told that's a first) and no irritating costume
changes. The performance was unpretentious
and uplifting. I was grateful to have my faith
restored in British music. All members of the band seemed absolutely loaded with energy and Mr. Tartan stomped with the attitude of a boisterous school-boy through the set and endeared the bloody lot of us with his odd charm. Martin Bell fiddled with exhausting excellence and gave each song extra incredible spirit, in fact I'd give him 'man-of-the-match' because his keyboard playing was so damn cool on 'Size Of A Cow'.
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