I agreed to go and review this gig with only the vaguest memory of who RED BOX were. I was sure I had seen them way back when in the 80's at one of the free festivals either raising money for the miners strike or Rock against Racism or the GLC but I couldn't remember which. What I didn't do was bother listening to any of the bands music until I knew I was on the guest list and going to see them.
That was the point when I realized that I hated them in the 80's and would probably have been heckling them live, apoplectic at having to see anything that sounded like they should be on a bill with Latin Quarter and Wang Chung. But that was all a long time ago and having done a little research was shocked to find I was going to see live a band who were currently at number 1 in the charts in Poland with the single off of the comeback album ('Plenty') that along with the band's other two albums is currently available from Cherry Red.
The Bush Hall was fairly packed when I got in there just after 8pm having seen on the Cherry Red site that the show was due to start at 8 with no Support. Well the band came on about 10 minutes later and set the controls for Ballad speed and opened with 'Lean On Me'. I think it was the first song to have nonsense almost African chants as part of the chorus in a style not unlike Johnny Clegg and Savuka crossed with Tenpole Tudor: the latter obviously with all the punk taken out.
Simon Toulson Clarke welcomed us all and was nice and chatty throughout about how happy they were to be back and how slow a band they are, and he means that in every way. 'For America' was next: a bitter and sardonic look at the USA that was apparently written for the band's label at the time to help launch them Stateside when in fact they went huge in Poland instead.
'Stay' was the first of many love songs they played and lyrically they inhabit the same territory as Within Temptation and Evanescence while musically going ungoth like but managing to remind me of the Russian band Сектор Газа which kind of made sense as to why the Poles would pick up on them. 'Brighter Blue' was introduced as being about Simon's Daughter and was a lovely song.
They then went back to the second album 'Motive' for 'Moving', a song that got a good cheer from the crowd. 'Let It Rain' saw some good interplay between ex-Dream Academy drummer Derek Adams and BBC Soundtrack God Ty Unwin on Keyboards and Apple Mac rather than the awful 80's synths of old that made the song sound like we were being rained on.
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'Love May Have Walked In' but the slow pace was getting to me a touch. Not that it would stop them as they had a way with slow songs and 'House Without A Heart' was another slowie that wrapped a story within almost treacle textured guitars that could have been stolen from Prefab Sprout.
They thanked the fans that had come from Poland, Scotland and I think Canada for this gig. The Poles were the biggest contigent as they are still huge over there rather than almost totally forgotten over on Home territory. 'Move' was at a pace that said sway to me but got some strange hand movement action in the crowd that seemed to go with the song.
'New England' sadly wasn't the Billy Bragg/ Kirsty McColl tune but one of their own that could so easily have been about playing in a Polish Neghbourhood like this one with the Polish Bakery a few doors down the Uxbridge Road, past the Polski Sklep and the Ethiopean shop next door. Sadly, I think it was more about politics than that.
They finished with 'I Saw The Sun Happy', an odd song with more nonsense Indian almost chanting and some odd dancing holding hands in circles in the crowd. The audience seemed almost as fervant about the dances as New Model Army fans can get, but either way it left the crowd happy and cheering for an encore.
They duly came back and thanked us all again and thanked Poland for the current revival and thanked the band's crew who are all from Poland and were readying the band for the Polish Tour in June before playing 'I Believed You' and ending with a song they mentioned a lot through the night - tune that broke them huge in Poland - 'Chenko.' Damn, Polish radio must be strange for Chenko to have been a huge hit, it still sounds horrible on Youtube but live with the modern sound it is certainly more bearable than it once was.
They left promising to return to the Bush Hall for a good Saturday Night Polish dance and I'm sure when they do the place will be packed again with a good slice of what is currently London's largest ethnic community.
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