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Review: 'Pink Fairies'
'Live at Dingwalls Dancehall Camden'   


-  Genre: 'Seventies' -  Release Date: '7.11.14.'

Our Rating:
Well leave aside the background music that was apparently coming from the support act when I arrived at Dingwalls to see this most legendary old Dingwalls band back to play one more show.

When the first thing that Duncan Sanderson says at the start of the show is "This is what's left of the Pink Fairies." Before he apologises that Russell Hunter and Larry Wallis are too un-well to perform he sets the tone that it is a miracle that they are here to play for us. Add to that the last time I saw most of this lot they were playing in the Deviants just a few weeks before Mick Farren collapsed and died mid gig and it truly is a remarkable sight to see and hear.

This current line-up sees Duncan joined by Andy Colquhoun on Guitar and Jackie Windmill on keyboards and percussion and George Butler on drums.

They opened with Say You Love Me and it sounded great as Andy Colquhoun's guitar sound was dirty and sleazy and just about perfect against some pretty heavy drumming and they know how to work the crowd a great version of The Snake was next that had some great sleazy lyrics and music all that was missing was a fog of smoke they would have played under in the old days.

Then Duncan made a touching introduction paying tribute to several departed friends including Lou Reed before the band told him he was getting ahead of himself and they were playing what was introduced as Wall 'em and I don't know enough to confirm that or otherwise either way it featured Jackie singing and was a psych prog stew of the first order. They then played a good version of I'm Waiting For The Man dedicated to the bands fallen friends and members.

Tomorrow Never Knows was the next cover and a damn good version it was too as Andy's solo really brought out the trippy side of things. They apologized that Larry Wallis couldn't sing Police Car for us but no mind just about the whole crowd sang along to this classic punk song anyway. Waiting For the Ice Cream To Melt kept us nicely out there and the band were certainly warm enough to melt the ice cream.

Rock & Roll Joint only emphasized how times have changed as I'm sure in the old days most of the crowd would have sparked up during the song and now in a Smoke Free venue it's become almost a period piece sadly even if it didn't sound like it at all. The next couple of songs I kind of guessed at as You and Me and That Was Later either way they kept the foot to the floor of Psyche rock and kept rocking like they were still young and fit.

The set came to a climax with a great version of Skeleton army and then they closed with a stunning and long version of White Girls On Amphetamines that had me thinking back to the days when Lemmy would have been stood by the slot machine dishing out the pills to the admiring girls buying his drinks for him. They left the stage to loud cheers but didn't come back for an encore.

This show was finished by 10.15pm by which time the first support act might have been thinking about coming on back when I first used to go to Dingwalls but those were different times and we have to be grateful that a few of the original stars of Dingwalls are still around to play for us.
  author: simonovitch

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