Brixton Windmill
Brixton Windmill, 3rd September 2005:
Believe it or not, this is the first time we’ve been able to play in London with a full band. We very nearly didn’t make it either, due to the “tour bus” deciding to stall in the middle of the M2 and continue to stall repeatedly in central London. Several brown-pant moments were to befall us before we’d even got to the gig! Having got over the culture-shock of a Saturday night that didn’t involve being surrounded by Aftershock-fuelled pikeys drinking and fighting til they passed out; Billy Shears and his beat-tastic backing tapes; or leathery old men trying to paw your girlfriend (ladies and gentlemen, we are out of Whitstable!), we thoroughly enjoyed the barbecue and the usual support band rider of, er, our own sandwiches. We also tried not to be unnerved by the possibly unpromising twin omens of a beer garden uncannily like that of Simple Simon’s and an Alsatian with diarrhoea depositing it’s molten faeces right under our noses. Further welcome novelty came our way with a DJ set consisting of old ska tunes, Bo Diddley and some new wave, rather than Girls Aloud, or whatever (though Gav reckons Love Machine sounds like Buried Alive! The jury’s still out…). Then there was the added excitement of playing with two signed bands: one all the way from the USA and both of them really rather good. We must get out of the sticks more often.
We decided to stick to our poppier efforts and/or songs we could play blindfolded. In fact, the whole shock of being transplanted from our usual environment where even having an electric guitar is considered some kind of freakish novelty was perhaps too much and we were maybe a bit subdued (plus there was nothing for me to climb without braining myself). That said, we’d managed to attract a handful of fans and the metropolitans seemed to dig us (well, lots of strangers came to watch us, rather than stay with the barbecue, and they didn’t leave before we’d finished). The sound was good and the revamped Burns was as sexy as a bit of wood can manage. The Willis boy, flushed with GCSE success, played his arse off.
Instrument-swapping five-piece The Shortwave Set reminded me a little of our pals Hexicon, except that they appeared to be fronted by Julie Christie and a Plantagenet in a suit (maybe I should have put my glasses on). They also shared the stage with a ukulele banjo in a magazine rack, a melodica, and some kind of home-made sci-fi radiogram that included a mixer, a radio and a gramophone horn. Respect. Their music has been compared to St. Etienne, but while that’s a fair comparison up to a point, they lack the rather arch tweeness that always put me off that band, and seem a bit more varied. I can’t really call them “lo-fi”, as despite the boot-fair atmosphere of their stage set up, the arrangements are fairly sophisticated (there appeared to be a few loops and things going on). So, apart from Hexicon, they could be described as a more gadget-minded Belle & Sebastian, with a whiff of Serge Gainsbourg’s last Gitane (or something). Their album, The Debt Collection, is out now on Independiente (one of the many labels to have turned us down!). You should probably buy it, so they can afford a fishing chair each.
Dr. Dog come all the way from the USA (they’re another five-piece) and appear to live on a diet of Little Feat, Big Star and far too much sugar. That’s a recommendation! They spent half of the set running around as if the floor was very hot (or maybe electrified) and easily won over an audience who seemed to be largely new to them. This was their first “official” UK gig (they’d done a “secret” one the night before) and they have an album out called Easybeat, which sounds like it’s pretty damn good (even if Frank isn’t on it!). It’s available on Rough Trade.
So a good, eye-opening night and a we got paid too! All that remained was a veritable odyssey home: of malfunctioning car, drunk/sleep-deprived drivers a-weaving and a-swerving into our path, fog bringing the visibility down to about 50 yards, lots of Lucozade, and a snoring drummer. When someone writes our equivalent of Hammer of the Gods, by golly, it’s going to be exciting!
Thanks to (ex-Mushroom!) Raph and James for having us. Hopefully, it’s not a one-off. Also thanks to everyone who came to see us. You can also see some excellent photos of us and the other bands at Underexposed.
Set list:
- Dance of the Midwich Cuckoos
- ES-40
- Force of Nature
- In Your Head
- Cocoon
- Put Your Weight On Me
- The Medway Crab Fisherman
- It’s A Small Town