As this show was billed as being part of 'Stewart Lee's Austerity Binge' I warmed up in the best way possible by spending the day at Hampton Court Palace and on getting back into town, went for a drink at the Wellington Pub where I sat underneath the incredible painting of the battle of Waterloo on the ceiling of the pub. Nothing like looking at scenes of slaughter to get me ready for a show, eh?
On arrival, I was greeted by a fairly deserted South Bank Centre. That surprised me as the Trembling Bells were in the main Queen Elizabeth Hall with Mike Heron opening for them. Apart from empty space the only thing of interest in the foyer was Terry Edwards wandering around, drink in hand.
Inside the Purcell Rooms it was less than half full for the opening set by the current line up of VIC GODARD'S SUBWAY SECT who were playing with the Nightingales for the first time since 1979. I have to admit to being no expert on either band and it quickly became clear why Vic has always been the singing postman on the grounds that his band were shambolic to the point of possibly never having rehearsed some of the materialat all. It wasn't just rough around the edges but wholly messy and I couldn't understand why Vic kept apologising to the sound man for turning his guitar up as for much of the set you couldn't hear it at all.
The closest they came to having any high points were on Let's Hit The Town. That at least sounded like they meant it. They also had a good stab at Amen, the old Fracoise Hardy classic, but for the rest of the set it seemed like they were the inspiration for the C-86 Shambling scene only without the loud buzzing guitars most of those bands had.
After the break it was time for the current, apparently only 3 weeks old, line up of THE NIGHTINGALES: a band who I really only know from hearing on the John Peel show over the years when they had regular sessions. In recent years the only place I heard them was on Resonance fm so it was good to finally get to see them even if the place was only half full and most of the people there were involved the music business. I recognised musicians, promoters and venue owners etc. They seem to pull a crowd of insiders which in some respects is a shame as they offer plenty for the casual listener too.
They opened with I Am Grimaldi that featured a great accordian solo and a grand entrance by Robert Lloyd. These days, he looks like he works in the accounts department of some corporate entity and has had a shandy or two too many and decided to hijack the Karaoke by singing every song on the list as if he is Mark E Smith's less truculent brother with dark hints of Ian Curtis style mumbling thrown in for good measure.
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All the song titles I wrote down are obviously wrong as they would never be obivous enough to introduce anything. In fact going so far at one point to make a point about the song they weren't going to play by way of introducing something else entirely.
Still, the band were cracking and he still has original guitarist Alan Apperley who has been with him since they were in the Prefects together way back when. Apperley did a good job of creating moody, stripped-back rock and roll along with new hot young guitar slinger Matt Wood who looks like he'd joined The Fuzztones. Drummer Fliss Kitson (formerly of Violet Violet) had a good spare technnique which drove the band along throughout while Robert Lloyd spat invective at us and every now and again insulted the crowd like he was a spotty 18 year old.
The big surprise of the set was an astonishingly measured and almost staccatto cover of Gary Glitters I Didn't Know I Loved you (Till I saw you Rock & Roll). It was brilliant and nervy and the band ripped emotion and feeling out of every pore of the song after which Robert was soon singing about how he wanted to kill the next one and you knew he meant it and didn't want to get in his way. They did a few of the old classics that got good cheers from the fans while Robert joked that all he had to do was hold his hands up to get them to cheer and he wasn't wrong.
They went off to good cheers, with Lloyd getting lost and not being able to find his way off stage through the curtains before coming back for a well deserved encore that was introduced as being an old Eddie Cochran riff. They launched into the Shaking All Over riff and Robert started shouting about being a Company Man while the riff built and built towards a thunderous conclusion to a show that really should have easily sold out, but in these austerity times seemed to have more guest listers than actual punters. That's a shame as we need bands as wonderfully obtuse as the Nightingales more than ever right now. The recent-ish album Insult to Injury that I bought after is a pretty great record too.
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