This was my first chance to practise what I preach since hearing the sad news that it's rent review time again for the 100 Club. In these difficult times that puts the club under threat of going out of business which in the case of this lgendary venue would be nothing short of tragic.
I find it hard to believe that a way cannot be found of rescuing an instituion that has been going for more than 70 years and never closed during the blitz in fact becoming one of London's most popular bomb shelters. It has hosted gigs by everyone from
Vera Lynn and Ella Fitzgerald to The Who and Rolling Stones via Champion Jack Dupree and Nico to Sonic Youth and BB King, so please can everyone who is close enough support them by showing up at gigs or Lindy Hop Lessons etc and help to keep the 100 club going.
Also without the 100 club where will I see shows like this in the West End? I walked down the stairs just as the Jolenes were getting on stage and they made an immediate impression as they
are 4 Hillbilly Bar Maids Who've Gotten Themselves in trouble as there myspace puts it.
They are all dressed in red dresses and matching acoutrements and seem to come from the hillbilly homesteads about 24 minutes from Tulse Hill.They play both kinds of music of course which
means Bluegrass and Old Time played in old time fashion with the 4 Gals close together around one big old Valve Radio Microphone: the only instrument that was plugged in was Big mama Hank
Jolenes Double Bass she also took lead vocals on several songs at the start of the set that included Leaving Kind. It was a great lovesick heart-render about the slime that men are. Rusty
Sledgehammer Jolene who is the guitarist helped to introduce some of the songs always making us smile. I loved their version of Fox On The Run, it had some great Banjo work from Jon Banjovi
Jolene and was glad that I recognised most of the classics they played.
We got a superb version of Muleskinner Blues with the lyrics
feminised for some good hollering and crying from Rusty Sledgehammer Jolene while she picked at her Guitar.But the song that got the biggest smiles was Crazy Horses, that old Bluegrass classic had some brilliant sliding screams from Dirk Humpbuster
Jolene's fiddle. Crazy for sure.
They got a huge round of applause at the end and came back for an encore of Nine Pound Hammer that I spent a good while trying to figure out whose version meant I could sing along to it. They did a hell of a job with it especially on the stylophone solo Dirk gave us.They are great fun and I want to see them again
and am glad I chose to see the female Blugrass in London that night rather than the male version by Sid Griffin and Whes McGee that was happening in Camden which I was thinking of going to.
Next on was Florence Joelles Kiss Of Fire who are a bluesy jazz juke joint style band led by Florence who looks like she stepped off the cover of a 40's Pulp Fiction like Naughty but Dead or a Walk on the Wild side in a tight black dress with a red gardenia on it and another one in her long black hair. She was also singing through a Valve microphone only this one was the sort you have to practically make love to as you sing so close to it.
Almost all the songs are are love gone wrong and how she's been
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mistreated. The backing from the legend that is Arthur Lager on the skins, nice to see him drumming away instead of spinning the platters on the wheels of steel at the Corsica Studios for Big Sexy Noise where I last saw him. He kept a good Bo Diddley beat going through most of the set and a good grin on his face.
During When I get low I get High there was some odd feedback
onstage when Florence played Harmonica but I really liked the often not-quite-drenched-in-reverb guitar playing of Huck Whitney who I know I've seen play before but can't remember who
with.
This was a cool set and I'd love to hear Florence tackle some Victoria Spivey songs like Detroit Moan or Low down man blues
(you're a rank stud).They also did more than enough to deserve the encore they played.
Then it was finally time for me to see The Flaming Stars again. It's been far too long since I last saw this lot and it's strange to think I've been seeing most of them for more than 20 years now, first in either The Stingrays or Gallon Drunk and when I first saw them as The Flaming Stars at the Garage in 1995 I was shocked by how quiet they were compared to Gallon Drunk.
This time they opened with the brilliant Bring me the Rest of Alfredo Garcia and the only thing that sounded wrong was Max Decharne's keyboards as he was playing some rather too modern
keyboard when it should have been a Fender Rhodes or a wurlitzer the older heavier alternative. But putting that small gripe aside they are 5 sharply dressed Hipsters in cool vines with 2 of them being daringly Louche in failing to wear neckties!
No matter, they would soon be looking for The Face On The Bar Room Floor and strangely in places sounding quite a bit like Joy Division especially on Ten Feet Tall but that might have been the keyboards and not because someone Spilled Your Pint. The great protest song The Man Who Would Be King was dedicated to the man who is so popular he had to cancel his book Launch at the Tate recently and what a great song it is with some superbly
stolen lines from dear old B.Liar himself. It is odd hearing London After Midnight when you're in a club that closes at 11pm! But that's life in a modern 24 hour city for you!!
This was a good set but I wasn't shocked that they didn't get an encore as The Jolenes really set the bar high with their opening set.Still I now have Max's latest book "A Rocket In My Pocket, The Hipsters Guide to Rockabilly Music" and its accompanying CD. The latter alone is well worth seeking out.
Please help save the 100 club!
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