This show brings to a close one of the busiest months I've had in a while, with bands number 61 to 63 for this August. This show was to launch Hunters Moon the excellent new album by The Dirty Strangers that's out now on Cargo records.
We arrived at the 100 club during Kaedan Swin's opening set, he's a young singer songwriter from Portsmouth, the last time I saw Kaedan open for the Dirty Strangers down in Chichester he was playing in The Targets and covering Emptifish songs.
The first song we heard in full was his cover of Fisherman's Blues that had some good hard acoustic guitar and gruffer than his years vocals. Price Of Admission was more than affordable, it made some good points. Over really laid bare all sorts of issues that led another relationship to fall apart.
As he was running out of time, he closed with a good down-home version of Honky Tonk Blues that flew into Poor Boy Blues to emphasize just where he's coming from, this was a much more confident performance than the one in Chichester.
Next on were Soho Dukes the 5-piece from Horsham led by Johnny Barracuda and his miscreant crew of Rock & Roll desperadoes who in past lives managed to play in the acts that opened up for Faith No More and Guns & Roses back when The Marquee was still on Wardour Street. It was great to see them in a venue that is as close as you can get to Soho, without actually being in Soho, as The 100 club is the wrong side of Oxford st to be in Soho.
As they did when they opened for The Dirty Strangers in February they opened with Home Sweet Camden Town full of great bon mots about life on the rock & roll scene and how for them all roads lead back to Camden. Back At The Roxy takes Bomber and the boys back to the roots of punk rock in Covent Garden, this has bags of swagger as the Soho Dukes moved across the stage.
Johnny Barracuda made it clear that they would tell us What I Really Hate and it would be another great blues rock rave up, as a hard drinking band of course they have a song about a pub in Rose & Crown it sounds like they found there home and Col "The Duke" Fosters lean mean guitar solo helped get the drinks flowing. Hard to believe a band as much fun as this would self-identify as Angry Old Man, but in the times we are in it's hard not to be angry at all sorts of things.
Johnny then claimed that he had been tattooed on his Tattoo and that Tattoo was on his balls, a likely story wrapped up in a rollicking blues rock riff. I think it was at the point that Johnny brought out his super-sized flask so he could down a pint of whisky in time for Should Have Known better as he needed to avoid that hangover as Bomber's bass was needling for a fight once more. He could have it on Bovver Boys that was introduced as Oi Oi Oi Is that Your Wife, well it's quite a tale that's for sure.
They closed with You Get Me Excited which was true for most of the crowd at the 100 club as this was a great exciting set of old school Rocking blues.
Finally it was time for the 63rd band I've seen this August the always brilliant The Dirty Strangers who opened the set as a 4 piece with Laurence Fox, Cliff Wright and John Rollason joining Alan Clayton on stage as Paul Clayton introduced them and they launched into recent single My Girl's A Getaway Driver, who hopefully got her wheels moving a lot quicker than the Cab marooned outside blocking Oxford Street. They barely paused for breath as they cruised through Oh Yeah!! Full of cheeky asides and slick guitar lines from John Rollason.
Who Blew The Whistle was good and speedy as the finger pointing got going, as they tried to find out who snitched on them and left them in the lurch and deep in the mire. Are You Satisfied is a question they really don't need to answer, as we are watching The Dirty Strangers of course we're satisfied. Baby was full of spirit and a cheeky nod and a wink as you let her know just how much you want her.
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Alan then welcomed to the stage the bands third guitarist for the night Guy Griffin from The Quireboys who then traded lead guitar lines with John Rollason as Alan gave us his best Liberty Smile as he's got away with it again. They then claimed that they were Easy To Please, well of course you are, the interplay between the three guitars was quite something with near perfect timing.
Alan then scanned the audience to see if he could find any Troublemakers in the 100 Club, well he could have found no end of musicians and the odd hardman, as they got up to no good again. State Of Affair let us know just how much deceit was involved, as the tale was woven through the solid bass lines from Cliff that Guy, and John decorated deftly. So you want to nag and nag at the band well in that case the answer is always La La La I Couldn't Care Less as they had more important things to think about.
Alan then thanked his wife Jackie for sticking with him through thick and thin as they launched into Pirates Don't Get Pensions one of many songs from Hunters Moon they played. It really wasn't a Cold Night as the Dirty Strangers are always red hot as all the betrayal was woven into this classic tune.
As it was time to slow things down they brought up Stuart Dace from Jim Jones All Stars to blow some super cool sax on Diamonds as Alan tried to wipe them all away once more.
They went back to a five piece for the title frack of the new album Hunters Moon that seemed to occur just a couple of days past this weeks Blue Moon, but we were in London not Kentucky, not only that but we were Slap Bang in the centre of London, ready for the guitar clash at the heart of Slap Bang as they have been caught in the middle again.
They were looking all over the club to figure it out, then Al spotted her, so he could sing Here She Comes in the right way, as she sashayed towards him. Al then gave a shout out to all the Bad Girls in the 100 club, were there any good girls present? They had been caught at it once more, well it was time to put your Hands Up and admit it.
As usual Al told us that the next song was written in Keith Richards kitchen while they cooked dinner, as they went into the magnificently well proportioned, She's A Real Botticelli that's as full of insouciant charm as it gets. It's a pity the dolphinarium is no longer just a short hop away at 65 Oxford Street as then they'd be able to find some local Bathing Belles to sing too, even if there isn't a beach in sight.
Stuart Dace joined them again for a good blast through the western soul classic Shepherds Bush City Limits that had a real groove to it. They then took us all South Of The River to places most of us avoid frequenting.
Alan then revved up his engine and they sped through Gold Cortina like London still had sensible speed limits, not that these boy racers cared about the speed limit.
Then as the clock on the wall said time was nearly up, they closed by getting Stuart back up for a mighty romp through House Party, that broke down into a long intro's section, as they thanked just about everybody they possibly could, before they have one last rocking rave up to close a great nights music.
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