This gig was going to be at The Trinity Centre in Bristol, however was moved at short notice to The Fiddlers, a place in the back streets of Bedminster. As a venue it's good, with two large rooms that are separated by a sliding screen, which is soon pulled back as the place starts to fill very rapidly.
First up are RADIO NASTIES, who manage to get the crowd warmed up nicely with their blend of streetwise garage and rockabilly. Their best numbers, ‘Tonight, It’s All Right’ and the bigotry-confronting 'Small Town Mind' were especially memorable. After this came HONKEYFINGER, a one man band, playing the sort of distorted psych blues rock that manages to polarise audiences. The last number had elements of the Joe 90 Theme and was really good.
At about 9:30 pm, the JIM JONES REVUE hit the stage, filtering through the crowd like a street gang. The band commands the stage and makes it their own within seconds. This is the fifth time that I’ve seen the band, and, of these, it's certainly their best so far. The acoustics in The Fiddlers are really excellent, which makes this gig a first class night out. A reasonable percentage of the songs played tonight are from their latest album, ‘The Savage Heart’, which has quite rightly garnered rave reviews.
With a “Come on boys!” the band launches into ‘Where Da Money Go?’ a scathing indictment of government and corporate greed, that gets the crowd moving from the off. Following this is ‘Never Let You Go’, with Jim encouraging some audience participation on the chorus. Needless to say, the audience didn’t need much encouragement!
‘Catastrophe’ also from the latest album was introduced by Jim “We’re on the verge of a public…” which instilled it with the perfect mix of politics and social realism.
Tracks like the latest single ‘It’s Gotta Be About Me’, and ‘Burning Your House Down’ went down a storm, with the crowd going wild right from the first “There aint no smoke without fire!” By this time, there was a bit of a surge to the front of the venue which added to the hot, steamy atmosphere.
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‘7 Times Around The Sun’ slowed the proceedings down slightly. A blues style call and response song that used only drums and piano, with guitarist Rupert Orton and bassist Gavin Jay on handclaps and vocals, this was one of the major highlights of the night, as was the absolutely magnificent ‘In & Out Of Harm’s Way’, with Jim on maracas, adding a rattlesnake feel to Nick Jones’ steady drum beat and Henri Herbert’s classic piano lines, and some excellent lyrics: - “And so as night time meets the day, your heart is gonna have to stray/ In and out of harm’s way”: sheer brilliance, and, for me, the best track on both the new album and the best live number tonight.
Towards the end of the gig, Jim Jones dedicated the set to the late Nick Curran, the American blues/rock ‘n’ roll singer/ guitarist who died earlier this month. It was a fitting tribute, as the band launched in to ‘512’ from their debut album, with its “Drop me in the middle” chorus, which again had the audience singing along.
Closing with ‘Elemental’, and ‘High Horse’, The Jim Jones Revue left the stage to rapturous applause. The audience gradually filtered out of the venue, some wondering what had hit them, but all with smiles on their faces. With an album as good as ‘The Savage Heart’, and gigs as good as this, The Jim Jones Revue prove they are at the top of their game, and that in a live setting there are few other band that come close to even touching them for their intensity and power. Certainly one of the best gigs of the year, so make sure to catch them while you can!
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