This was a rare show for me in that it was a Sunday Afternoon session and when I'm healthy I normally work Sunday Afternoons and miss shows such as this one put on by What's Cooking in the rather large bar of the Union Chapel. These shows find all sorts of reprobates at Chapel on a Sunday, but we arrived early enough to find a sofa to sit on at the front which was very comfortable even for my broken shoulder.
On first, playing a rare solo show was Paul-Ronney Angel, wearing a rather daring Salmon-coloured seersucker suit rather than his standard Black and red attire. He played seated and dedicated the set to his son Teddy who was at his first gig aged not quite 6 months old!
Paul-Ronney opened with Captain Of A Sinking Ship during which he muses on the possibility that he's gonna drown. Well a set like this will keep him afloat and allow him to Carry Your Weight (up next) and as with most of this set will probably be on The Urban Voodoo Machine's next album Love, Drink and Death, due out in September.
While We Were All Asleep sounded really familiar almost like it's a re-write of Kevin Ayers' Why Are We Sleeping but from the point of view of a delta blues man. It went down a storm and Paul-Ronney's slightly grizzled vocals worked a treat. Baby's Turning Blue wasn't a Virgin Prunes cover but I'm sure I've heard Paul-Ronney play it with the Dalston Devil Trio previously. It's a wonderfully sad song about that moment of overdose that we all hope we never reach.
All Mixed Up (Bon Ton Roulet) finds us down in the French quarter in New Orleans having a high old time and looking for another glass of Bourbon to help the party along while we look for another fish fry to go to. Paul-Ronney picks at his acoustic guitar as if he's worried Clifton Chenier is gonna accuse him of stealing his tune. Next Up was Lullabye a perfect tune for getting Little Teddy and the other babies in this audience to sleep.
Paul-Ronney then told us a little tale about being given his new Steel guitar while in a florist's shop trying to buy some flowers. Said guitar made its live debut on a cool, laid back version of Trainwreck Blues: a song he's been playing live for a while now with the Urban Voodoo Machine but this was the stripped back sitting on a porch version. Indeed, all that was missing was the crickets chirping in the background. As we were in a Chapel it was time for a sing along only it was about the Bucket Of Blood: a terrible and dangerous. Still Paul-Ronney got most of us singing along to this tale of woe among the drunks as the glasses and bar stools start flying.
It wouldn't be a Paul-Ronney Angel performance without some special guests so for the next Urban Voodoo Machine single Pipe and Slippers Man he got J Roni Moe up to play Snare drum with brushes only the Late J Roni was not green for this performance but still did some of his usual moves which really helped the song along.
Then for the last song of the set he also got Paul Seacroft of The Dalston Devil trio and Florence Joelle's band up to play lap steel on a version of Help Me Jesus dedicated to the speedy recovery from Cancer Surgery of both Nick Marsh and Wilko Johnson who are both on the recent 7" single the Urban Voodoo Machine Put out. They played a great version with a large part of the audience singing along as the sun shone through the windows almost making it look like Paul-Ronney Angel had some heavenly light illuminating him. A great close to a very enjoyable set.
After the break it was time for Florence Joelle to slink onstage in a turquoise cocktail dress and Taupe stiletto mules to sing about the Devils Overdraft while backed by her current trio that no longer features Arthur Lager on drums. He has been replaced by Matt Jackson who played a snare and a couple of bongos with his brushes for that Sunday afternoon smokey cocktail feel to compliment Chris Campion's laid back bass playing, allowing Paul Seacroft to add the colour with his guitar playing.
Next it's time to jump onto a local bus for the 29 Bus Blues. That takes us all the way to Wood Green on a good day, but this is more a tale of being stuck on the Seven Sisters Road again hoping to be elsewhere. The first cover in Florence's set was a good take on Duke Ellington's Caravan where she didn't quite get as sultry as Valaida Snow as the band gave us a pretty good Mambo beat with Paul's first switch to the Lap Steel. There again, the tune was missing its trumpet solo and the Lap Steel did a good job of filling that gap. They then got all late afternoon and smouldering on Now, Baby Or Never, the old Billie Holliday standard written by Count Basie. Their version had plenty of swagger about it.
|
2 and 2 Don't Make 5 was a cool original that fit right in with Florence's torch song-meets-Jazz-Ballad style approach, as did her version of Dat's Love. It was perhaps a little less playful than the Vernon Girls' version, though. But the cover that was perfect for this band was Unchain My heart and it went down a storm as they really started to hit their stride. They needed to as they took on the Django Reinhardt classic Cou-Cou: a song I was brought up on being a Hot Club De Paris classic that my Dad never tired of playing over and over. Paul Seacroft did everything he could to sound just right and I have to say I really liked Florence's take on Josette Dayde's vocal style and although she's a touch lower than Josette it was damn good.
Darkness Before Dawn saw one of Paul's many costume changes; this time back to Lap Steel. It sounded good as the sun shone down through the windows and how the very Piaf-sounding version of Fever needed darkness rather than sunshine but still it was very alluring sung in French. Not quite Eartha Kitten-ish but well on the way. How High The Moon was also pretty sultry and that Lap Steel certainly helped it to take us on a journey back to the Hot Club De Paris even if Florence name checked the Les Paul and Mary Ford version at the start of the song.
The highlight of the set for me was a stellar version of Johnny Tu N'est Pas une Ange; the Edith Piaf/Les Paul classic as I think this was the tune that saw Paul Seacroft make his guitar sound like keyboards. Either way a great version of this great song.
They then dipped into Chick Webb's songbook for When I Get Low I Get High and Florence made a good attempt at getting close to Ella's original vocals; certainly a lot closer that Fiona Apple will ever get! Florence closed her set with True To Myself which is as close to giving us advice as she gets and it went into Ray Charles' Sticks & Stones and then they said thanks and good afternoon.
They came back quite easily for a encore featuring a nice loose version of Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby which rounded off the sort of set my Dad would have loved to hear. I have to say I really enjoyed it too. They were selling the recent Stealing Flowers album after as well as some 7" singles as well all of which can be bought from Florence Joelle online.
On our way out while we were having a little chat in the smokers' alley we were lucky enough to catch a very short jam session with Paul-Ronny Angel and Paul Seacroft as Paul-Ronney wanted to hear Paul play his new Steel Guitar. They did a blues jam and then a cool version of Jesus On the Mainline that was perfect to hear in the alley up the side of a chapel on a Sunday Evening. It provided the perfect end to a great afternoon out, oh and the steel guitar has very heavy strings on it apparently.
|
