08 Apr 2024
James Cameron is at The Horn as its Britpop revival continues…
The Horn seems to be becoming something of a refuge for survivors of the heady days of Britpop in the 1990s, with Gaz Coombes playing last week and Sleeper paying a visit in June, plus of course the Bluetones tonight.
As all of these shows sold out quickly there is clearly a market here and it’s not surprising. Seeing these artists who were a big part of my formative years in such an intimate and easy-to-get-home-from venue is an absolute treat, and so it was tonight.
Before the main event, though, we have the support band. It was refreshing after last week’s low key show where both Gaz Coombes and support act Ralphe Band played solo to have a proper rock and roll band, all with their own instruments and everything. I had not heard of Bugeye before, but this five-piece all-female band were here to have fun and brought us all along with them.
They were all dressed in very loud and distinct colours, much like the Tweenies, except for bass-player Paula Snow who seemed to be cosplaying as Peggy from early seasons of ‘Mad Men’. They presented a very tight sound, with ‘Blue Fire’ in particular having a nice driving beat, proving exactly why it is beneficial to have a bassist and drummer.
It is hard to review bands without comparing them to their musical predecessors so here goes. At various points Bugeye sounded a bit like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Replacements, Lush and Wet Leg.
They also had a song called ‘Dancing out in the Dark’, but unfortunately they did not pull me up on stage to dance with them a la Courtney Cox.
Singer and guitarist Angela Martin seems to be working through some stuff, with ‘It’s a Shame’ dedicated to those going through difficult break-ups and an earlier shout-out to narcissistic manipulators, but by ‘Summer in the City’ they had moved on, busting out the keytar for a call-and-response take on dating apps. It’s worth keeping an eye on Bugeye, they’re a band that deserve a sizable mosh pit in the future and I will even forgive them for the taller half of the band standing right in front of me during the Bluetones’ set.
Talking of the ‘Tones, they sauntered on to some very jaunty swinging music from the ’60s and quickly launched into a couple of classic tunes. This made me worried that they were not a band for between-tunes banter but frontman Mark Morriss quickly assuaged my fears. He was a witty and engaging frontman with a deadpan delivery that pointed to a possible secondary career in stand-up comedy (presented as evidence his routine about Nestle Pure Life bottles and the torque required to open them).
Physically they may not be in the first flush of youth, they seemed to have Nigel Planer playing guitar and Morriss is gradually transmogrifying into Mark E Smith (physically, if not vocally) because I guess nature abhors a vacuum.
Despite this they bust out the songs with the vim and vigour of a band half their age.
I’m so used to seeing frontmen on solo tours, both Coombes and Steve Mason from the Beta Band in January, where songs from their band days were thrown in as occasional treats for the fans, that to see the whole bunch of them able to play anything they liked from the length of their career felt almost too indulgent.
Like being allowed to have pudding for breakfast.
In the interest of balance I should also say who the Bluetones sound like. They sound like the Bluetones, of course.
They very much have their own distinct sound that they have fully perfected, although right at the end they make an unexpected swerve into the territory of odd funk-rock band Primus for a short experimental piece.
For reasons best known to them they had printed the setlists in German which gave us a chance to practise our modern language skills through the gig. As we sang along to such classics as ‘Blautonisch’, ‘Marmorkopf Johnson’ and ‘Schneiden Sie einen Teppich ab’ (‘Bluetonic’, ‘Marblehead Johnson’ and ‘Cut Some Rug’ respectively) we were reminded of why we loved these songs in the first place and what is more we fell in love with them all over again.
It wasn’t all nostalgia, though. With ‘Drive Thru’ they played what they claimed to be the first new Bluetones song in 14 years and it was great. It really lifted everyone, both band and crowd, and gave a little nitrous boost to what was already a high-energy night. They had apparently constructed the playlist to be devoid of ballads as they were in the mood to play fast and loud, and it really showed.
Morriss pre-announced the encore, which did take some of the suspense out of it, but then they came back on to play a bizarre semi-improvised theme tune in the style of ‘Are you Being Served’ so I forgive them.
If I have one criticism, it is that they leaned a bit too heavily on their admittedly fantastic first album whilst barely touching the follow-up, ‘Return to the Last Chance Saloon’, which is one of my top five all time favourite albums.
They made up for it, however, with a thrilling finale of the song ‘If…’ from that album, even getting the audience to sing along in German to complete the Teutonic feel of the evening. This sent the audience out into the evening with a buzz on and capped a thoroughly entertaining night. Possibly as we are quite early on in the tour everything felt very fresh and vibrant, which is amazing considering some of the songs are over 30 years old(!). If the Bluetones are happy to keep playing them, though, I am happy to keep listening to them and based on tonight’s performance I’ll be coming back for the next 30 years.
