Yes my last gig review for 2014 and stepping into the traditional gig desert between Christmas and New Year was this quite brilliant and rather packed free gig by The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing and an array of support acts that were mostly made up of members of the band themselves!!
Opening proceedings were SEAL OF RASILLON or at least I think that's what they were called. Yes if you know better, please correct me! This is a brand new side noise project featuring Andy Heintz and Andrew O'Neill and sounded like Suicide refracted through the Giorno Poetry Systems being tweaked by Wharton Tiers and Glenn Branca. It wasn't for everyone and the packed gig room cleared out a bit during their set. Those of us remaining were treated to some interesting found sound samples and guitar and keyboard distortions. It was distracting and interesting in its re-imagining of soundscapes for a modern utopia or maybe a rebuilt Gallifrey.
Next on was MARC BURROWS to do a solo set of modern Christmas carols and old favourites. He opened with a song I have down as Christmas With Jesus as if we'd want one of those. After a few jokes, Marc sang I Saw Dad Kissing Santa Claus which was a good re-working of Cousin Joe's much covered sordid Christmas song. Grown Up Christmas kept up the good natured tongue in cheek nature of the set. Marc then gave us a tale about his favourite royal Princess Charlotte and the venue named after her in Leicester.
Things then got properly weird with an almost straight take on Wham's Last Christmas of all things. It had most of the room singing along to it but nowhere near as much as his version of Billy Bragg's A New England did as when everyone joined in from about the third word of the song and as he was playing a telecaster it had a real Wiggy-mania feel to it. He then finished the set with a huge sing along to Pulp's Common People that left most of us smiling.
Next on was ANDREW O'NEILL who opened with Jingle Bells and continued with a chunk of his stand-up routine. It was pretty funny as long as you don't come from Bromley. He stuck in some of If You're Happy and You Know It, but no, we won't clap our hands thanks, well maybe if you ask nicely! He was cool and got us nicely ready for the only non-band related support of the night.
Yes stepping up to the keyboards in a very short tight skirt was LAURIE BLACK who opened her set with a cover of a song by The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing. Yes, a cool lounge punk take on Brunel that won most of the now heaving room over very quickly indeed. I'd love to tell you what was next but my notes had become hieroglyphs in the heat of the room. I can say her sparse playing worked nicely on Winter Nights and she closed her set with I Will Never Dance again (or something like that) and it was almost impossible to dance in the gig room it was so packed by this point.
Finally it was time for the evening's main event. THE MEN THAT WILL NOT BE BLAMED FOR NOTHING opened with Tesla Coil that guaranteed the already hot and packed room got that little bit hotter on one of the coldest nights of the year. Charlie was next that got everyone singing and shouting the origin Of The Species at this great song about Mr Darwin.
Then it was time for the first of the new songs in the set with Powder. It was raucous and slightly raving with some interesting lyrics that I'll need to hear properly to totally get what they are on about. Miner was next, about the joys or otherwise of working down a pit.
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Doing it For The Whigs was treated like the rallying cry it is as this crowd are certainly sick of Tory politics and are happy that women have the vote. That was followed by a brilliant new song The Worst Side Show Ever, during which Andy Heintz listed many of the things that made up said worst side show. It was funny and wry and well, a damn cool tune with some sludgy guitar from Andrew O'Neill. It was followed by a slightly ragged version of Margate Fhtagn; the breakdowns seemed a bit more shambolic than normal but didn't we all have a lovely time anyway.
We then had another new song about Rats, lice and fleas. Although the band did divulge the song title at the end I never got it down properly. Anyway I can't wait to hear the finished version of this vermin-encrusted jewel on the forthcoming new album. This House Is Not Haunted has a real spooky creaking floor boards feel to it as they explain that ghosts don't exist.
Andy then sat down to play the saw on Mutiny In The Common Soldiery. It is a great anti-war song that is ever more pertinent as we hear all the talk about World War One and the Christmas Truce. As ever, the poor sods in the trenches always had more in common with the enemy in the other trench than with the officers and politicians who put them there.
I think we then had a couple more new songs but I'm not sure. The heat was getting to me and quite a few others by this point.Still they were followed by a great romp through Gin before we got the second version of Brunel: this time the full on sing-along stomp along mosh pit mania version. It was great and everyone seemed to be getting more unhinged. Which is just as well as they then did something I listed as Die Oi Oi Oi. I bet it has a better title than that.
Well we should never forget that Manners Maketh The Man: a point rammed home in Etiquette, which had me thinking back to being a 6 year old and having that phrase rammed into my head at junior school. We then got one of the more bizarre sing-a-longs for Jesus was a Cockney: a right royal knees up of a tune that had a mass of a mosh pit appear in this packed sweat-filled room before they closed with One Ebeneezer, who is of course quite a geezer.
Even though they said there wouldn't be an encore, the crowd went so nuts they were forced back for an unrehearsed run through Goggles as we all love a girl in goggles. Well as long as she isn't on the new HSBC posters as that might get us in trouble. Whatever, it was a great end to a truly great gig to finish 2014 with. May I thank everyone involved in putting on this free show.
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