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Review: 'URBAN VOODOO MACHINE'
'London, Notting Hill, The Tabernacle, 10 June 2016'   


-  Genre: 'Rock'

Our Rating:
This show was the launch gig for Urban Voodoo Machine's latest album Hellbound Hymns so of course the launch has to take place in a church with an album title like that! We got there as early as we could but still missed most of the support acts. Instead, we were greeted by a woman singing what sounded like an incantation to some sort of god while Suri Sumatra and Trixie Tassels danced provocatively with fire aglow in front of them.

The singer then left the stage and we got a very cool and Hindu-inspired fire dance to whet our appetites. This was followed by a short routine by Johnny Macaulay who was wearing a bad wig and did a comically bad magic routine that owed a huge debt to Tommy Cooper. It was in turns very funny and slightly or should that be very embarrassing. Some of his tricks are the sort of things that in the 1980's used to be performed by old ladies far better than he is doing it now.

Still, brothers and sisters, we were all here for one thing and that thing is the wonder that is The Urban Voodoo Machine now in its 13th year and sashaying onstage as per usual to the Theme from the Urban Voodoo Machine and walking zombie style through the crowd as the 7 piece core of the group open the show. As ever, the proceedings will see the band shape shift throughout as no two songs feature the same line-up, so it gets hard to keep up with them.

Hit The Road Rag is the first number from the new album and it sounds, well, just like them with Paul-Ronney Angel as ever leading the now 9-piece band through another tale of real life sorrows and fun to the barrelling blues rock and roll backing. High Jeopardy Thing expands them to 10 and has almost everyone singing along to it as the party is starting to get going.

They get a little rueful on Not With You a great break up (or is it broken up?)song that if I remember rightly was the first song where Slim Cyder switched from accordion to piano as they seemed to get a real choir going for the chorus of "Not With You!" reverberating around the room. All Mixed Up is a good description of the band's sound as well as a great song from the new album and it went down a storm as half the audience already knew all the words to sing along to.

Bucket Of Blood was introduced as being about the band's early gigs before bursting into life as the tale of being in a real bad bar unfolded and switched up in pace a couple of times with the brass really bringing it to life. Crazy Maria seemed to have the biggest line-up of the night with 14 of them on stage for this tale of one woman's destructive and wild life.

The Slim stepped forward to prepare us with a few runs through the "La La la" parts on the chorus to Orphans Lament which started once Paul-Ronney returned to the stage having gone to adjust his stockings or whatever he had to go and do. Still the Orphans Lament still sounded great and everyone did sing along to the chorus as J-Roni Moe and Jary went into overdrive on the dual drum kit.

Not sure what the next song was but it led us into the fabulous Rusty Water & Coffin Nails: a great song about whiskey and ciggies that they seemed to vamp up in the chorus quite a bit. Shattered Dreams had enough of a downbeat feel to it to get across the sadness in the lyrics while they still as ever sounded pretty damn joyous.

They really slowed things down on Goodnight My Dear. This one opened without any drums and a stripped-back band that only built up after a couple of verses as it built to a nice climax. They brought the fun back with a good run through old single Pipe And Slippers Man. While We Were All Asleep has some great lyrics about how the world is going to hell and the idiots running the show are doing it all on the sly.

Of course they had to play Help Me Jesus while playing in a church and it sounded just as great as usual. If I remember rightly, it also featured half the band in the audience with us all sitting on the floor while Trixie Tassels did her thang with the fire up close and personal. They closed the set by dedicating the final song to the band's two dead members Nick Marsh and Rob Skipper. Fallen Brothers is a fitting tribute to them and a good set closer.

Of course they came back for a well-deserved encore. It opened with Love And Addiction and I think that Paul-Ronney mainly sang solo before most of the band re-joined him for Cheers For The Tears. They really went to town on it and were also joined by a third drummer who I'm guessing was Jary's son (apologies if he's someone else's). They descended into the audience for one last vamp which was spoiled by the soundman making the amps distort as they had overrun a little bit. Ah late night London had struck again and it wasn't even 11PM by then.

Still if anyone still hasn't got the message, The Urban Voodoo Machine are one of the best live bands around. Always worth seeing without a doubt, brothers and sisters.


  author: simonovitch

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