Beat Happy, The Bizz, Canterbury
Beat Happy, The Bizz, Canterbury, 22nd July 2004:
I approached this gig with some trepidation. As you may know, the Bizz is part of a supremely tacky (and sometimes supremely violent) night club in an old railway warehouse at Canterbury East Station. That said, it probably isn’t as bad as some places in and around Canterbury, but anyway I digress. It isn’t, it’s fair to say, the first place that springs to mind when looking for a suitable venue for a band night, but our pals at Local Hero Records have gamely managed two in two consecutive months, and this was the third. I’ve heard dark mutterings that it may well also be the last as the Bizz Management is allegedly unhappy with proceedings (possibly not nearly enough fighting, vomiting and public sex-acts to sustain the venue’s reputation!). The more hardcore among you might also be aware that this was the venue of the gig that mortally wounded The Psychotic Mushrooms in October 1994, so my feelings were a little mixed. Remarkably, it all went well. Technical difficulties (like the PA mysteriously deactivating for the end of the set, causing us to skip “The Stupid Cunt” Song” and do the others as instrumentals) were either surmounted or ignored. Mik and Phil played their respective arses off! I certainly enjoyed myself.
Anyway, headline act was the wonderful Burning Cow with their blazing bovine rock. It was officially, definitely, categorically to be their last ever gig together. A marathon set and at least two encores later, The Cow vanished into Canterbury rock history. The band members are pursuing “other interests”. Astonishingly, there were actually two decent gigs in Canterbury on the same night. Now, the chances of this happening are so vast I can’t even begin to comprehend it, but nevertheless it was so: at Local Hero proper we had New York anti-folk svengali Lach, supported by Luke Smith & Dave The Drummer. I’d have liked to have seen this combo, especially as I had played at Lach’s anti-folk night in New York in April 2003, but timings prevented it. However, Lach and entourage paid a visit to The Bizz and we managed a brief chinwag before he vanished into the night. I didn’t make it home until 3AM, but it was worth it.
Set list:
- ES-40 (Williams)
- Cocoon (Williams)
- The Medway Crab Fisherman (Williams)
- In Your Head (Williams/Croft)
- Force Of Nature (Williams)
- Put Your Weight On Me (Williams)
- Barking Up The Wrong Tree (Williams)
- It’s a Small Town (Williams)
- Buried Alive (Williams)
- What’s Under The Stairs? (Williams)
- Bass VI (Williams)