Sometimes rock and roll gets its own back. The raw howls and twitches of urban kids doing something with voices and instruments that owes nothing to training, practice, career goals or any of the other bullshit. Their friends and neighbours get to see them as heroes for an explosive summer’s day and it’s the best feeling on earth. The shock waves ripple into anonymous markets and the machine appropriates them till the juice has gone.
And so it is tonight. Four skinny sullen kids with brand new shoes and clothes, shiny guitars and amps straight from the shop with a brand new drum kit and a cute mascot. Mr Big has seen them right. Domino Records and a Mysterious Manager have torn them from Nowhere and here they are. Here. The Blueskins. More stoned than they should be, with Aunties and Uncles present. But definitely up for it in a big-hearted way.
The music is bang on right for the upside down half-pipe that is the Cockpit. The PA is crazily too loud and you can’t hear any words or more than half of what the drummer is doing. But there are two crackling guitars and a big rumbly root-note bass. Sometimes we get three voices in Beatlish fettle, and sometimes one or two. It’s snappy stuff, with no pauses for intros or doubts.
Two songs use the shuffle beat blues-ish feel of “Come Together”, and the rest sound like raucous B sides and concert fillers from early Slade or Mud. None stand out, even the current single “User Friendly” with its single (but wildly applauded) burst of unsteady harmonica. But they don’t need to. It’s the whole night that has the power. It’s simple stuff played with confidence and arrogant disregard. Maybe the drumming could use some pro tips to get more impact, but there’s only me in the big sweating and delighted audience that thinks that way. The crowd is packed in off the coach and everyone is grinning like a loon. Arms are raised, cheers go up at all the right moments and there’s a huge shout to get the encore back on. “They’re brilliant” one of their uncles tells me - and he means it: he’s proud and he’s right.
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The real star of THE BLUESKINS is Ryan Spendlove. His eyes are glazed, he pouts and throws his arms about, and he digs away at his new guitar with happy abandon. His urchin bad boy appeal is what will lift the band through the next phase of the rock and roll circus and win the devoted anxiety of fans. Richie Townsend does the Beatles-a-like nice boy to one side (with a sweet looking black and white Rickenbacker six string) and musophile bass player and occasional vocalist Maff Smith does tall steady and bespectacled to the other. Paul Brown’s the drummer.
Girl, Give Me Your Hand, Tell Me I’m Someone, User Friendly, Blue Sneakers, Love Boat, Go, You … The Sun/I wanna Know, The Humble, and No. 23 are the titles for tonight, with a new blues in the old mode as the encore.
Leeds longer serving blues-rooted band MOJO PIN do a credible opening set. Riffs and overall solid feel come from the Led Zeppelin / Thin Lizzy era. Billy Mason Wood is the tall hairy Plant figure – with a very good voice. He lacks the Great Man’s physical arrogance to put himself about while he isn’t actually singing. So he prefers to watch the twin guitars of Rhys Jones and Gareth Ware doing intricate and strong things in the riff department. Jason Gardner does a good job on the drums, and the whole thing works well. “The Love Song of the Preacherman” from new EP “The Breaking Places” stands out for me.
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