Thursday, 26 March 2015

A tight, five-piece band of incurable romantics ?

This is a review of a mystery gig at The Stables on Wednesday 25 March 2015

More views of – or before – Cambridge Film Festival 2015 (3 to 13 September)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)

26 March (29 March, much-needed textual revision)

This is a review [sort of] of a mystery gig at The Stables (@StablesMK) on Wednesday 25 March 2015 at 8.00 p.m.


Declaration of interest : If you can work out the genealogy (which will be deliberately made confusing), you are better at it by far than The Agent : to the father of whom one member of the line-up is a second cousin (and, customarily, vice versa), and whom The Agent saw in a related band, at this venue, probably six years ago (as well as once before, in childhood)


Handshake I :
Nowadays, despite the loss of Sir John Dankworth, he is still there to point the way, as ever, to good music at The Stables (@StablesMK) ! :




Introductory



Well, at least it is legible (even if its compiler reports being ribbed for using >36pt bold caps !) – whereas previous sets of gig- or screening-notes have looked daunting (with comments written across, or over, others), the ones from last night, inexplicably, are much more likely to be pretty impenetrable to interpretation, except, when properly construed, to provide an odd reminder.




An odd reminder, that is, as to when Andrew Davis had treated us to a generously rich solo (most often, but not exclusively, on electric guitar), or to poignant phrases in the lyrics (now sadly but scribbled), or to how James Warren (usually, but not exclusively, the lead vocalist) rendered them – James’ vocal quality being almost unchanged from when The Korgis (@TheKorgis) were in the charts in the UK (and significantly so*), as well as elsewhere in the world …




For, yes, we are talking of The Korgis (but also not exclusively, for there is also http://www.stackridge.net/ to bear in mind), whose current personnel (by surname, in alphabetical order) are, and to whom reference will be made, through propinquity, by Christian name :

Andrew Davis ~ guitars (electric and acoustic), vocals
Glenn Tommey ~ keyboards
Eddie John ~ drums
Clare Lindley ~ violin, guitar, vocals
James Warren ~ bass, vocals


The main event

For reasons elaborated, trying a number-by-number canter through the (impressive) set-list may not lend itself easily to The Agent’s ‘hand-written’ material (and, no, it is not a legacy of the gig !). Yet, although it would be better by far not to look to rely on it, if at all, beyond passing comments to give a flavour of the two sets (where possible), shall we venture what can be conjured up... ?


Despite familiarity with The Korgis’ canon, only 40% of those played were not new to The Agent (four songs in each ten-song set). (Some of these would not have been known to anyone outside their usual entourage, because they had, one was told, needed to run over them new in the sound-check.) To begin with, numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, and 9 were unfamiliar (those without an asterisk) :


Need to check titles / add dates

First set (dates in parentheses are release-dates of singles, or (if not) of albums [in square-brackets]) :
1. One Life (1992)
2. Rainy July
3. * Art School Annexe [1979]
4. * I Just Can’t Help It (1980)
5. Lines
6. Hold On
7. * Young 'n' Russian (1979)
8. The Road to Venezuela
9. Rover’s Return
10. * Mount Everest Sings the Blues (1980)


‘One Life’ (1) had an opening riff (from Andrew ?), and was our introduction to Clare with strokes on violin, though by no means illustrative of her later demonstrations of dexterity, such as, gypsy style, in ‘Rainy July’ (2), with its quirky feel (hardly unusually for The Korgis, which have made a base-camp in Quirky), and tapping rhythms – this first song, though, spoke (and perhaps dreamily) of One chance to make it work, and referred to ‘power and dominion’.

Art School Annexe (3) was the first piece to utilize three-part vocal harmony (from Clare, James, and Glenn), and both guitars had a ‘twangy’ feel to them (for want of a technicalese term). This was by no means an attempt to reproduce, note for note, the track from the self-titled album in 1979 [link to the web-page on Wikipedia®] – where James' vocal characterization is more 'eager' – but to work with the musical forces and personalities in the group.

It also provided the gig’s point of entry both for the expression of, and our appreciation of, what are, probably, quite candidly lyrics in relation to the Englishness of maybe not Sir John Betjeman (just too whimsical ?), but the likes of P. G. Wodehouse, or Dame Edith Sitwell. And quite, quite different from ‘I Just Can’t Help It’ (4) :

More so than (3), this song feels like hallmarked Korgidom [a word that sounds better than it looks !]: both James and Andrew were now singing, Clare had switched to (acoustic) guitar, and we had soaring synths. Sometimes with three-part, sometimes with four-part harmony, it was calling out for a solo from Andrew, which came to meet us, then reverted to the latter, only for us to have an even finer solo from him, closing with the four voices – a captivating combination of the already experienced and the spontaneous, as befits a title such as ‘I Just Can’t Help It’.


After these well-known numbers came ‘Lines’ (5) and ‘Hold On’ (6). The first, a calypso, had another riff from Andrew, a wow-wow effects-pedal that altered Clare’s playing (and which we heard, later, in (10)), and a floated vocal from Glenn – the music was mesmeric in style, choosing to conflict with throatily telling us that the song’s persona knew, because he was right behind you (reminiscently of threat, of retribution, in Matthew Fisher's solo album I’ll Be There [Fisher as in that litigated organ-solo in 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'], and the track of that name ?)…

A very different tone from that of ‘Hold On’ (6) (which characterized the contrasts, in this set, between neighbouring numbers), solidly in the band’s repertoire of what is reassuring and (non-pejoratively) ‘easy’. In three-part harmony (Clare, James, and Glenn again), a sincere pleading of being ‘without love’ : Please don’t leave me, and an invocation of Just a little magic.

Not to be lightly passed over is ‘Young and Russian’ (7), but, for the nonce, remarking on the Moscovian, sub-zero blue hue to the lighting, and Clare playing violin motifs with a pronounced intonation – a song as relevant as ever to the rise of post-Soviet societal normative aspirations, with a nod to Pravda newly heard in The truth is revealed. Another change of mood, not to mention continent (and in unknown song-territory), was in ‘The Road to Venezuela’ (8), with its ‘multi-coloured smiles’, and a most welcome mention of Lewis Carroll’s Bandersnatch (from ‘Jabberwocky’) – whatever exactly that may have been about, guitars alternated sections with violin, leading to a distinct military beat, and, before the tragic feel of the close (?), very lively playing from Clare.

The set closed, in ‘Rover’s Return’ (9), with an instrumental, complete with red lighting, Clare’s psychedelic violin, and (at the end) sampled bark (and a bell) from Glenn [all of which, with these good people, may have been some allusion to the sonnet / programme that underlies the Largo of Vivaldi's Op. 8, No. 1 (RV 269) ?], and with ‘Mount Everest Sings the Blues’ (10) : up tempo, and a funky solo from Andrew (back on electric guitar after 9), and then from Clare (after more wow-wow pedal).


A good place to end the set – and one where to tempt you if you want to catch The Korgis live ?



* * * * *



Need to check titles

Second set (dates in parentheses are release-dates of singles, or (if not) of albums [in square-brackets]) :
11. Fundamentally Yours
12. Perfect Hostess (1980)
13. Dumb Waiters (1980)
14. If It’s Alright With You, Baby
15. * Cold Tea (1979)
16. * Boots and Shoes [1979]
17. Something About The Beatles (2006)
18. * Everybody’s Gotta Learn Some Time (1980)
19. * If I Had You (1979)
20. True Life Confessions (1985)


After tea with Johnny D. [a coinage offered to The Korgis for a tribute-song to @StablesMK], the first four numbers were all unknown, and, as Clare was to comment afterwards, some songs are rather short (and she also plays with @Stackridge, who have some epic tracks, in absolute terms**), particularly, one agreed, nos 11 to 13 (which had in common that they created ‘a mood’, before ‘If It’s Alright With You, Baby’ (14) :

Fundamentally Yours*** (11) was played ‘straight ahead’, with violin embellishments from Clare, and came directly from base-camp at Quirky. Conceivably as with ‘O Maxine’ (? from the 1979 album), a meditation on what some will do to satisfy [their] friends, but not for themselves (or, more specifically, those nearer to them) – or, put another way, on partners to whom we are [allow ourselves to be ?] drawn, but who frustrate us ?

Andrew took the lead vocal on ‘Perfect Hostess’ (12), which came at this subject of relationships / partners from a yet more ironic (even sombre ?) direction, despite Clare elegiacally weaving an extended violin solo over it. Then James resumed with ‘Dumb Waiters’ (13), which was the ‘A side’ from the single that these two songs had shared, and where the irritated mood seemed to be with life generally, but transferred (as Freud might say) to waiters [not a Pinteresque Dumb-Waiter, but the ordinary, two-legged variety] – as if it to break it, before we moved on, Clare remarked in passing That was a fast one !…


Next came what James announced as an homage (though one forgets now quite to whom / what…) in ‘If It’s Alright With You, Baby’ (14), singing – very raw and high – Is it asking too much / To be more than a friend ?. And, there, The Agent's notes evaporate in incoherence, but the song was, again, in this vein of the kind of relationship that one wants, but wants to be different.

It was followed by an exceptional version of the noir ‘Cold Tea’ (15), not employing the Doppler-like siren of the 1979 single, but played laid back, and easy on the beat, and with Clare using effects-pedals (reverb, and slight distortion ?). At one point, near the end, her playing went stratospheric, with her violin a foil to the all-male voices of Glenn, James, and Andrew. Once more, too, a counterpoint to the romanticized idealism (?) of ‘I Just Can’t Help It’ (and two numbers to come (18 and 19)) ?




‘Boots and Shoes’ (16) set its tone through driving violin and synths, and vocals from Andrew (supported by James) – the band was really rocking this song ! And it had an eerie, lengthy coda, complete with soaring and accented solo from Andrew, playing with spirit, but it did not stay with him, closing instead on Clare.


The unknown ‘Something About The Beatles’ (17), which asks Why did the apple fall to the ground ? (reminding us of Newton at Trinity College, as well as of the demise of Apple Corps), had quiet, spacy synth from Glenn, and Clare on acoustic guitar. It seems to allude to George Harrison’s ‘Something’ [You stick around now, it may show] in But I do not stick around The Beatles [lyrics caught there – or thereabouts ?], and, after a suspension, we had another vibrant solo from Andrew, groovy synth from Glenn, and a ritardando to end.


The international hit ‘Everybody’s Gotta Learn Some Time’ (18) was brought to us in a moody vein****, Eddie John playing cymbals and the smaller drums with padded beaters, and Clare on obbligato violin to James’ lead vocals. In a solo from Andrew, he made intense use of vibrato, and, when Clare came back to prominence, it was with material in the mode of reflective jazz.

Andrew then played meditatively and sweetly in a second solo, and the high sheen of the original recording was brought to us by Clare with bright, shiny effects-pedals, as James sang I need your lovin' / Like the sunshine, closing with chorused repetitions of the title-words. From, perhaps, a slightly dark opening trio of songs, we had been brought into solid, delightful territory from The Korgis – and, as it is ideal for a gig to build, and for one to be left with strong sensations, there had been no harm in that, for the audience at The Stables was solidly behind this band.

Probably The Pleasure Principle had thoroughly consumed the approach to making notes by now, because they reveal only that Andrew played slide guitar on ‘If I Had You’ (19). Which, however, can be supplemented by the fact that, for much of the song, the band sang the chorus thus (i.e. changing the last word – although, because of its inflection, it is not natural for one to sing it so) :

I could change the world
if I had to
I could change the world
if I had to


‘True Life Confessions’ (20) had the feel of a fiesta to it, with colours from Glenn and Clare, and developed in an easy-going manner : in Andrew’s vocal, we heard True life is just like that. But, even if that is life, things could not stop there, as the crowd called out for more…



Encore / reprise of :
21. Mount Everest Sings the Blues (1980)

The Korgis genuinely seemed not to be expecting this (but to make a get-away to The South-West ?), yet, to a little light-show, they gave up this number vigorously, this time with solos that had more jazzy intonations.


All in all, a good night out with a musical cousin of some sort, plus talented and pleasant chums, deserving of a break for cold tea...


Handshake II :



End-notes

* ‘If I Had You’ (no. 13, 1979), and ‘Everybody’s Got to Learn Some Time’ (no. 5, 1980), to name the greatest successes (in those terms) [courtesy of Wikipedia®].

** ’Revolution 9’, eat your heart out ?

*** Tellingly, or for want of space, rendered on the set-list as ‘Fundament’ ?

**** And, we were told, James was going back to what had been the second verse when the song was written, but he had been overruled…



Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well hurrah, no question about that.

27 March 2015 at 18:25

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