I have reviewed several albums now that had become Pandemic related between being recorded and the release date, but I never for one minute expected that to be the case for this album by Jimmy Regal And The Royals, but the British parliament has contrived to make the release date of this album, one day after they have brought in a curfew, that has banned Late Night Chicken shops from being open past 10 pm, which is a good hour or two before most customers would normally be drunk and hungry enough to go into one. It has also turned the album into a requiem for the Late Night Chicken shop in ways it was never intended too. All I can now do is encourage everyone who is missing there own Late Night Chicken to buy a copy of this album to keep their memories alive. The rest of this review was written before the ban was announced.
This is Jimmy Regal And The Royals second album and is packaged up like the menu for a Late Night Chicken shop, which is a bit worrying for the vegetarian reviewers and listeners, at least it doesn't smell like a Chicken shop as that would be truly worrying. It is also of course better than packaging the album to look like a pack of Regal Cigarettes. Instead this is high quality Thames delta blues recorded on a former Lightship that has been converted into Soup Studio's on the banks of the River Thames.
The album opens with the title track or as the menu on the back of the cd has it two Chicken wings and chips for £3.01 a bargain for sure for the harmonica led blues rock shuffle and celebration of the now endangered Late Night Chicken shop normally frequented by post pub drinkers soaking up that alcohol as unlike Dr Feelgood this lot want to live on more than Milk And Alcohol.
Sun's Gonna Rise is more of a feast with a chicken wing, a breast, some french fries and a tasty beverage all for the bargain price of £2.36 as it slowly works it way into your brain in a very deliberate fashion with a harmonica solo that has echoes of Little Walter for sure and the vocals make it sound like David Johansen at his bluesiest.
My Confession isn't that they ate all 4 pieces of fried chicken the fries and the drink in under 3.05 minutes without any dipping sauce but that this has a real lonesome feel to it with a good bit of hollering in pain at the need to confess in court as to just what you've done.
Going To The Fair is a gentle laid back blues that has hints of Mungo Jerry in it, it feels like it's a blues for a lazy day walking round a fair on a summers day while munching on those Chicken Nuggets french fries and drink you snaffled for £3.39 on your way to the fair.
Regal Alley is the place where you go to munch on a Chicken Burger Fries and drink for a tasty £4.41 that seems about right for a song about an alley in Bromley and that sounds like it's indebted to Hound Dog Taylor, it sounds like it's perfect for that drive from Bromley down to Pratts Bottom.
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That's All It Took to keep your baby quiet was some Turkey twizzlers fries and a drink that you somehow only paid £2.52 for and she was all yours in a very Dr Feelgood kind of way with frenetic drumming and spectral guitar and more of that harmonica accentuating everything perfectly.
Can't Cry No More may be a fancy Chicken Burger with tomatoes salad and everything as well as the drinks and fries that's well worth the immense £6.19 paid for it, as they had to jet the tapes to Senegal for special guest Diabel Cissokho to add his Kora to the dish, to give this a really down home feel to it as the kora and Harmonica really vibe off if each other beautifully as this slowly unfurls and Jimmy still can't get over the loss of this relationship.
The album finishes with 3 cover versions the first of which is Junior Kimbrough's All Night Long as opposed to any other songs of the same name you might want to sing at this point, and this is apparently the moment to break into the Spare ribs fries and drink for a meagre £4.11 and judging from this take it is slavered in hot sauce that will have you yelling Hot Damn at regular intervals and marveling at how close they come to Junior Kimbrough's guitar sound.
The second cover is of Howlin' Wolf's Commit A Crime that's done while eating a cheeseburger fries and drink that they got robbed of £3.48 for as they get down and boogie with Wolf's style as ever on this album the harmonica is central to what makes this a great version of the song.
The album closes with the closing time special bucket of Chicken fries and drink for £1.53 as they turn the Lights Out with a frantic cover of the Dr John classic that seals the deal and nails that door shut until the next shift starts in a few hours' time.
Find out more at www.jimmyregalandtheroyals.com www.lunariarecords.com https://www.facebook.com/jimmyregalandtheroyals/
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