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Review: 'LURE, WALTER/ BERMONDSEY JOYRIDERS'
'London, Camden Jazz Cafe'   


-  Genre: 'Punk/New Wave' -  Release Date: '17th September 2015'

Our Rating:
The last surviving members of The Heartbreakers is back in town to play a rare jazz set and he's brought along that well known Be-bop trio The Bermondsey Joyriders as support. Chris Musto and Martin Stacey sound like a modern day Max Roach and Curly Russell to Gary Lammin's Wes Montgomery guitar stylings...or not as the case may be.

The Bermondsey boys opened with a storming the gates version of All The Darkness from the debut album before Gary wanted to know why They Only Ask Him as Martin Stacey's Bo Diddley bass rumbled on in time for a good blast of Genuine and there is no doubt they are more than genuine authentic punks.

As Chris Musto was the first ex-band mate of Johnny Thunders on stage tonight, the next song, Johnny Thunders was A Human Being, was a perfect song for this show. That was followed with the other side of that 7" single, Brian Jones (The Real True Leader of the Rolling Stones) which had a lot of us singing along to it.

Rock & Roll Demon raced across the place like it couldn't be contained by these four walls; just dynamite exploding in our brains. It was followed by the band's paean to the now late and lamented 12 Bar Club down in Denmark street and the horror of what they are doing to our modern day London. It's poignant and celebratory and thankfully not maudlin.

They gave into the requests for a good blast of Who Are Ya with its shouted reply of "You Wot" really getting us going before they slowed it down at the end and after the last "Who Are Ya?" Gary told us they were The Bermondsey Joyriders. Well of course they are! You Wot!!

Well then These Flamboyant Thugs got a little bit more political on Here Come The People as they started their calls to arms and revolution. Such sentiments were also rammed into us on Society Is Rapidly Changing and ain't it just. It's so fast you can hardly keep up these days

They then closed with a great slab of an instrumental leaving most of us wanting more of their special bop rock n roll.

After the break (filled with the DJ sounds of Al Zeimer and Tom Phobic) it was time for punk's very own Sydney Bechet, the ever green WALTER LURE with the UK version of The Waldos featuring Jez Miller on guitar and Ray Birch on the bass. I'm sorry, I didn't catch the other band members' names.

They opened with the skronking jazz fusion madness of One Track Mind. It felt like Lester Young going on a bender, so full on he misses a recording session. In its wake, they launched into the timeless classic Take a Chance On Me. As ever, Walter is joking in-between songs about the dearly departed ranks of ex-band members as the dead ones seem to out-number the live ones these days. Ah well, he's been left All By Myself and no we won't shed a tear for him. Instead we all cheer enthusiastically.

Cry Baby was dedicated to the Late Tony Coiro who wrote what became the lead track off of the Waldos Rent Party album and was sung tonight by Jez. Never Get Away sounded like they were planning to escape from the Tombs rather than Camden.

The band's roadie played acoustic guitar on a very nice and slightly sentimental version of You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory before Walter got nice and bitchy for his reply to the Sex Pistols on London Boys and of course they were a bunch of poor little puppets. Chatterbox, a song so good it had a club in San Francisco named after it, was up next and this was a storming version of the old New York Dolls classic.

Aargh...Avast ye Walter, it be time for some of that there Pirate Love once more will it not? Well they may have had a fluff or two along the way but it still sounded wonderfully dangerous. They then played an old song...well a song older than all the other old songs courtesy of the old Gary US Bonds classic 7 Day Weekend. That also featured the band's rather fine female sax player on it blowing like she'd imbibed John Coltrane's rider.

Hell it was more than time to GET OFF THE PHONE: a song that these days ought to be played before every band comes on stage. This was fast and raucous and got us ready for the next special guest, Mr Jim Jones, to come on and preach the credo of Born To Lose as the whole club sang along with him. They then pulled up Rupert Orton as extra guitarist to join his ex-band mate Jim Jones and the rest of the gang for a monster rip through Chinese Rocks before they closed the set with Too Much Junkie Bizness which provoked another mass another sing along.

For the encores, they brought the sax player back on as they romped through Let Go and then slowed things down on the old Ray Charles classic I'm Busted which was as jazz as they really got. Considering Mr Lure's other career it's also wonderfully ironic but let's face it he can get away with it when they sound this good.

They came back for a second encore and closed the night with a great version of Do You Love Me? which of course made sure everyone in the place sang along. A terrific conclusion to a great set by the amazingly still very much alive Walter Lure. Long may he continue to come over and play shows as life-affirming as this.
  author: simonovitch

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