Woke up this morning......and found myself at the O2 Academy on Glasgow's Eglington Street on the city's south side at 19:00 waiting in a light drizzle to gain access to see the Alabama 3. Having arrived early and found a good spot to enjoy the show we were treated to a fine support act in the form of The Holy Ghosts, a band from the other side of the country - Edinburgh!
The Holy Ghosts played a relatively short set but were none the less enjoyable for that. Fronted by a Jagger/Mercury/Morrison-esque lead singer/acoustic guitarist in the shape of Jacky 'Tightlips' Sandison the band performed some great rock music. The other members are Jon 'Midnight' Mackenzie (electric guitar/vocals), Jonny 'JR' Voodoo Linstead (bass guitar/vocals), Rory 'Penny' Penman (drums) and Andy 'Whistling Whullie' Barbour (harmonica /keys/pedal steel guitar). I would say that their sound is reminiscent of the Stones and Chuck Berry/Little Richard rock n' roll in the style of George Thorogood, with a touch of Gram Parsons chucked into the mix- not a bad sound at all! Their Facebook page describes them as playing rock n' roll with a splash of country and a dash of the blues and given that they formed in January 2012, they have gelled exceptionally well and came over as extremely experienced and competent. I will certainly be looking out for their début album (to be released in early 2014) called Ride Them High. In the meantime, I will be listening to their two EP's: Devil On Your Side & Voodoo Shakedown which includes the song Don't Come A Knockin' On My Rock n' Roll Coffin - get outta here! Oh, and they name check Eddie Cochran too!Check out The Holy Ghosts here.....
Whilst the roadies twiddled and tweaked 'stuff' on stage we were treated to some damn fine reggae and I particularly enjoyed Stand Up For Your Rights. Judging by the gyrating around me, others did too and there appeared to be no age restrictions!
Then at 21:10 a kilted fellow strutted on to the stage and played the bagpipes before turning around and showing that he was indeed 'going commando' in the parlance of the day. As he headed off stage Alabama 3 arrived and worked their way into our souls with their unique blend of Country / Funk / Soul / Acid House Music all dripping with Presbyterian-ism. The story goes that the name Alabama 3 derives from a 1930's case in America involving two black men who were lynched after being accused of raping a white woman, the men were called the "Alabama 2" in the media. Our very own Alabama 3 formed in 1995 when Jake Black (who comes from the Possil area of Glasgow) met Robert Alun Spragg at an acid house party in Peckham and Jake decided that they "were going to be the first band to put Hank Williams on drum beats and acid cracks". So Larry Love (Rob Spragg) and the Reverend D. Wayne Love (Jake Black) became ministers in the First Presbyterian Church of Elvis the Divine and the band was formed. The band's web site includes several media quotes but the two I like best are The Guardian's "The best live band in the country" and NME's “A monumental waste of time”! I know which camp I stand in and it isn't a three letter abbreviation!
So for the next hour and ten minutes we were pounded and pulverised by pulsating beats and rhythms as the band played out their set. Indeed, about half way through Larry Love removed his top to reveal a T shirt which exalted us to "Drop Beats Not Bombs". Meanwhile, his 'brother' D. Wayne Love incanted his version of utopia, which included advising us not to get involved in Shoplifting 4 Jesus as he has been dead for two thousand years and that we should be vary of what folk on the streets feed our kids, i.e. sugar, liquorice and so on! All the while the rest of the band laid out some seriously funky grooves and some heavy Prodigy-esque tekno beats. We, the audience were mesmerised and danced along in fine style. This was to be a modern day 'religious' experience, the Reverend spoke his words of wisdom and the congregation stood, arms aloft and said "yeah" as and when the were moved to.
Meanwhile, Aurora Dawn was keeping things popping along nicely as she sang the counter parts to the 'Loving Brothers'! Her 'ying' to their 'yang' was a feature of the show for me. On the one hand we had D. Wayne speaking his parts and Larry singing along, whilst Aurora lifted the octaves and sang some mighty fine vocals. All the while she put in an exercise shift that would knacker many an athlete!
Further back, Owen If (Ian Frederick Rossiter) was great on drums, keeping a 'rock' steady beat whilst undertaking some nifty snare and bass drum work. All the while to his right, Wizard performed on a laptop and mixer desk (?) wearing a white Spanish Inquisition style mask! Indeed, I began to think of The Village People as each Alabama 3 member had their very own persona and stylised imagery thing going on ranging from Aurora's Grace Jones / Maizie Williams, through Larry's punk front man to Rock Freebase's (Mark Sams) ageing hippy country guitar star. Oh, and let's not forget D. Wayne's laid back, nonchalant 'man in black', possibly the most static dude in the house. How he stopped himself from breaking out 'a few moves' with all that rhythm flying around is a mystery to me!
The other band members all created a magnificent concoction of musical merriment and The Spirit of Love (Orlando Harrison) on keyboards was a joy to watch as he rocked his keyboard and organ in time to the music. At one point, having hefted the organ about from left to right and back again it ceased to perform which resulted in some frantic 'roadie action' to get it resuscitated. They managed just in the nick of time as, no sooner was it back up to speed, The Spirit started out on a fine piano solo. It's all about timing, or so they say! A quick name check for the other members of the Alabama 3: Steve Finnerty guitar; Harpo Strangelove (Nick Reynolds) harmonica, percussion, vocals and Segs (John Jennings) who would normally have been on bass guitar but was on tour with Ruts DC at the time.
The stand out songs for me included a couple of slower numbers namely a wonderful version of John Prine's Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness and Hello...I'm Johnny Cash. However, I also really enjoyed the grooved up, trance inducing U Don't Danse To Tekno Anymore, Ain't Goin' To Goa, Hypo Full Of Love and Too Sick To Pray. And all of this was played out in front of a backdrop montage which resembled a latter-day stained glass window. Which was very befitting of the First Presbyterian Church of Elvis the Divine depicting as it did some everyday tableaux including the holy trinity of 'sex and drugs and rock n' roll'!
The band took a short break at about 22:20, the 'congregation' went into melt down and finally the two were briefly reunited as the band played a few final songs as an encore. This was rapturously received and built nicely from the solo singing of Larry Love to a full blown finale as the band members came back on stage in instalments to beef up and augment the sound and fury for the final couple of numbers. By now the audience/congregation were a grooving and a moving, a shimmying and a swaying and generally getting off on the unique sound that is an Alabama 3 gig. Thanks for a great show and I look forward to your next visit to our 'dear green place'!
No comments:
Post a Comment