Review:
'THE MEN THAT WILL NOT BE BLAMED FOR NOTHING'
'London, Highbury Corner, The Garage, 4th Oct 2013'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
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Our Rating:
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I arrived at this show so late the Top 30 Top of the Pops bothering support act was already on stage doing his thing. Well it's been about 20 years since I last saw Tenpole Tudor or as he prefers EDWARD TUDORPOLE. Thankfully he is every bit as good as he was back in the day and just as demented and committed to working the already packed Garage. I got in just as he was starting Let's Go Tudor which was a whole lot of fun and as half the audience could have passed for Tudor, it worked really well.
This was followed by a good rambling introduction to Real Fun and some very wry and sardonic lyrics that I think he may have updated slightly over the years. Then we got another long intro while making fun of people asking for the big hit before he did another old classic, 3 Bells In a Row, which still sounds cool solo even if I remember it AS more of a production with the full band. We then got a new song called He's Got A Moustache that was a fun if slightly childish tune.
Then it was time for the song everyone wanted to hear - following a 5 minute routine warming up for the big hit that got everyone singing along call and response style. Finally, Swords Of A Thousand Men was unleashed and the whole place joined. It still sounds great, remarkably, but then Tudorpole certainly knows how to work a crowd and went down a storm. It was of course the last song of his set. Sorry I missed the start of it.
After a short break, Marc Burrows came out and introduced the next act the comedian Professor OLAF STAHLMANN who was wearing a pig's head mask and white lab coat with his name on it and whose routine was a bit of an Animal Farm pastiche. It didn't hold the audience's attention hardly at all and there weren't many laughs to be heard either. He just didn't have the comic timing of Ed Tudor Pole and suffered for following him. On a normal comedy bill he may well work fine.
Next up was LADY CAROL who had been the main support on the rest of the tour but tonight was an extra on this bill. She came on and played just one song, but what a great one: a quite brilliant version of the old traditional ballad Sam Hall. It's normally sung by dark, brooding men like Johnny Cash, Frank Tovey or John Murry and Bob Frank, so it was refreshing to hear a lady singing it while playing her mandolin. I even bought her CD hoping it was on it afterwards. Sadly it isn't but that shouldn't stop you from finding a copy at ladycarol@ymail.com.
Then after a short break it was time for THE MEN THAT WILL NOT BE BLAMED FOR NOTHING. They got a huge reception as they opened with Doing It For The Whigs, whose rallying cry chorus of "no future in Tory politics" rings as true as ever for most of the audience even if the Whigs have sullied themselves in collaboration with the vermin Tories. We'll let them off for tonight, but only tonight.
Although Marc had a few bass problems, it didn't stop Charlie from being a good stomp of a song and getting everyone singing along with the chorus with Andy Heintz (looking like a zombie artful dodger grown up) barked out "Charlie, Charlie, Charlie... what have you done". It's a brilliant song about the origin of the species; the breakdown took longer than normal whilst the bass was sorted out before they asked Charlie What have you done? What indeed.
Next up was A Traditional Victorian Gentleman's Boasting Song. It always goes down a storm and saw Andrew O'Neil switch to a guitar that could actually be heard clearly. They had a few sound issues throughout, but it never stopped them from being great and entertaining.
Still, we all needed sending to bedlam soon enough. I think The People's Common Sense Medical Advisor saw Andy Heintz break out the musical saw for the first time and also saw a sizeable mosh pit (or whatever the steam punk equivalent is) while we were asked how many times a day do we masturbate?
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Poor Georgie had some great drumming from Jez Miller who was doing his best to prove he wasn't the Georgie who had been stuffed in the song. They then introduced the first new song of the night. It's as yet untitled but was about mining and some of the conditions the old miners used to suffer. It sounded every bit as good as the old songs and should be on the third album whenever it comes out.
Boilerplate Daniel always gets the crowd going and this pretty much sold out crowd was no different as they went nuts for a great tune to mosh to. Mutiny In the Common Soldiery is a tune that no matter which war it was written about is always relevant as the poor grunts always have more in common with the people they are killing than those who send them to do the deed. Keeping with the war theme, Red Blood Red was next all about our glorious empire and the blood shed to acquire it. Andy looked properly demented as he sang Red Blood Red.
They then took us down the sewers once more for the bands tribute to Bazalgette in The Great Stink: a good reminder of why we need and love our sewers and what they do for us. It was then time for the bands New double a-side single (available here on vinyl etc the band's new single at Freewebstore called Third Class Coffin first. It's a great song about the etiquette of the Necropolis railway that used to run from Waterloo to Brooklands cemetery and how even in death you could still be third class.
They then flipped the vinyl over and gave us The Gin Song: a brilliant paean to the old Gin Places and the days when drinking gin was safer than drinking water in London.
They closed the set with a monster version of Victoria's Secret with its brilliant chorus of "Zombie Albert!" that always gets the crowd going mental. No exception to that rule tonight and once the band had left the stage, their exit provoked the loudest applause I've heard at the end of a band's set in a while.
That died down as soon as the screen descended and Michael Aspel appeared on film to show us all the wonders of Margate by way of introduction for the first song of the encore. For this, they added Kevin Eldon on guitar for a rambunctious version of Margate Fhtagn with its death metal interludes. Dark and as ever a great version that really got everyone going.
Dear old Brunel was up next and a great version of this earlier single that had us all singing along to his various achievements. Then it was time for a right old knees up to Jesus Was a Cockney; a song that is certain to get them booked on a tour of the deep south in the USA. Or not as the case may be. This just left time for a great high speed run through Etiquette and it's always great to hear a packed crowd singing along to Manners Maketh The Man.
They left us wanting more and wanting to hear the new album as soon as its ready. TMTWNBBFN are still the best Steam Punk band you are likely to hear anywhere and well worth catching live any time, any place, anywhere.
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author: simonovitch
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The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing
Lady Carol
Eddie Tudorpole
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