It's been a good while since I last saw The Shangrilads and a couple of weeks since I last saw The Dirty Strangers, so after a little bit of hoo ha with the trains, I made it over to Leytonstone and the as ever fantastic What's Cooking for this gig, arriving shortly after The Shangrilads came on.
The first Shangrilads song I heard in full was Get Thee Behind Me Satan that was bellowed at us by the singer like he was street preaching on the corner of Church Lane and Leytonstone High Road, he seemed to be far louder than the rest of the band, as the two guitarists battled to stay in time with each other.
Zeros had a good driving beat from Ian Kilpatrick as well as some angry vocals and the guitars just about keeping it together for most of the song. The way the singer bellowed Head On at us made it sound like C'mon C'mon while also making me think of the Glitter band, it was ramshackle garage rock.
Chins seemed to be about gravity and trying to defy it, as they tried to defy gravity and all stay playing the same tune, this also featured a guitar solo that had some super wrong notes in it. They then played there re-working of Ewan Macoll's classic What Did You Do In The War, Daddy to What Did You Do In The Class War, Daddy that was easily the best song in there set, with the bass and drums driving it on, some rightfully acerbic lyrics for the mess we are in.
It's not happening Today could easily have been about them not all staying in time, as what it was actually about, but they were having fun and as sloppy as it was, it still got us smiling. It's Not A Coup wasn't about tory party shenanigans, but may as well have been.
They closed with Tight Ship that felt somewhat ironic, as this band are nothing like a Tight Ship, being as loose as you can get.
Rambling Steve encouraged everyone enough for them to get an encore, that was a very brief and speedy Too Long, Play It Faster that rushed by in a blur.
After the break it was time yet again for The Dirty Strangers playing for the first time in Leytonstone, to a packed club and with the current stable line-up of John Rollason on Guitar, Lol Fox on Drums, Cliff Wright on Bass and the inimitable Alan Clayton on guitar and vocals.
The same as in Chichester a couple of weeks earlier they opened with Bathing Belles, that had it's normal cheeky grin on it’s face and from where I was stood John Rollason practically hiding behind all the plants and owls surrounding the stage. Well looky here what can they see well Here She Comes as Al looks for that elusive girlfriend once more.
Liberty Smile had some sparkling guitarwork and interplay between John and Al. They were still wondering who grassed them up throughout Who Blew The Whistle On Me, I don't think anyone admitted to anything, they like to keep schtumm in Leytonstone while listening to the magnificent music.
Easy to Please had lots of people singing along to it, as Cliff's rather Maccaesque Vox bass drove things along nicely, this bass was a lot more rocking and less funky than the one he played in Chichester. As ever Al was paying tribute to another Troublemaker while talking about growing up going to both Orient and QPR.
We then got the first live performance of one of the songs on the bands forthcoming album, a song called Slap Bang that hit us right in the middle, it had the normal cheeky lyrics and they all looked like they just about knew how to play the song that will hopefully be a live favorite in no time at all.
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Baby is another sing a long classic, they were having a ball playing it. Alan told us what he and Keith Richards were listening too to find the line She's A Real Boticelli that they turned into this classic song they blasted through.
As I stood drenched in sweat at how warm What's Cooking was it seemed ironic when they played Cold Night as I doubt anyone felt very cold. We then got another of the new songs Hunters Moon that I've now heard a few times and it just sounds like another classic Dirty Strangers tune with top notch guitars.
Well at least they were north of the river this time as Alan made sure we knew he preferred to be on the right side of the water before they played South Of The River in as rambunctious a fashion as they could manage. Oh Yeah!! Is such a typically east end phrase but normally with more menace than there is in this song, they were just having lots of fun by this point.
They slowed things down a bit for Diamonds as we all made sure the only diamonds being wiped from our eyes were beads of sweat.
Alan thanked his wife Jackie before new song Pirates Don't Get Pensions, all about what happens when you live your life in a proper rock and roll fashion, but don't have huge annual royalty cheques rolling in. Hands Up possibly left one or two people feeling guilty but it shouldn't have, as this was just great rocking fun.
This time when they played Bad Girls instead of a dancefloor full of Bad girls there was one solitary Bad Girl on the dancefloor having a damn good time. The last of the new songs in this set was the quite brilliant My Girls A Getaway Driver a song that I already love having now heard it two or is it three times, this should be a single.
While we are very close to the Eastway, that had it been fully completed would have linked up with the Westway, Alan was still a bit apprehensive of celebrating Shepherds Bush City Limits in East london, he needn't have worried it went down a storm. As they were ready for a speedy getaway they closed by revving up the Gold Cortina and taking it for a joy ride across Wanstead Flats making sure that everyone was happy smiling and clapping at the end of it.
They came back for an encore of (Ain't Nothing But a) House Party that was every bit as much fun as being at a party with The Dirty Strangers ought to be, complete with packed dancefloor, before they finished things off with some Good Good Loving that should hopefully guarantee they return to east London soon.
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