Yes finally, THE ROCKINGBIRDS are back for their first tour in 17 years and celebrating 21 years since these bumpkins first pulled the hay from their teeth in the pastures behind Chalk Farm to prove that Camden was indeed deep in the heart of Country music. Hard to believe it has been that long since I last saw them play.
We got in just after the evenings support band HANNAH LOU & TREVOR MOSS had come on. Now I should have seen this duo quite some time ago as they have been a hard gigging duo for a good few years now and I like what I've heard of them, but I was surprised at how young they both look.
It was good to see they perform close harmony folk music, both singing into the same microphone and-for much of the set - staring deep into each other's eyes as they sang no more than about a foot apart. This keeps everything they do nice and intimate with Hannah Lou taking more of the lead vocals and Trevor harmonizing with her as they play acoustic guitars or harmonicas etc. The first song of theirs to grab me was Erica Road about a flat they shared in South-East London.
Never More Than A Moment was a plangent love song. It was really moving and beautifully sung and was followed by Sweet Mary Jane; not the old Peps Persson song of that name but a very nice if slightly flowery folk song. They closed a very well received set with The Day the Rebel In Me Dies which was the song of theirs I was most familiar with. They are pretty damn great and well worth seeing.
It was soon time for a packed Borderline to welcome back THE ROCKINGBIRDS. They opened with Juliet, a really nice country love song from the comeback album The Return Of The Rockingbirds (on Loose Music) which formed the backbone of the set.
The only real difference from first time round seems to be that Alan Tyler's voice has got a bit deeper than it used to be. Oh and they all look a bit older but don't we all? After welcoming us all, Alan introduced the second new song, Fanny. It has some good tongue twisting lyrics and the odd sexual innuendo driven along by Andy Hackett's expressive guitar playing.
The first of the old songs was Halfway To Comatose, as if any of them had ever been in that position. Whatever, it still sounds great and a large part of the audience were singing along as Alan led. Did they really have a Brand New Plan? Well if they did it certainly sounds good with some really nifty pedal steel playing from Patrick Arbuthnot. They will need that plan if they want to Stop the War, which is as un-war like a song as we could wish to hear with some lovely harmonies and beautiful playing from all concerned.
They were now mining some deep thoughts and we got a group of songs about love gone wrong or as they say, You Can't Win The Heart That You Broke, which was great enough but when coupled with The Lonely and The Drunk and Love Has Gone and Made a Mess of Me really ramped up the heartbreak and loneliness that a band like this so memorably trade in. If we didn't know them better we'd think they were Standing On The Doorstep Of Love, once more hoping for redemption.
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I'm not sure if it was on Lady of the Llamas or Fixing The Roof In a Dream but on one of them Patrick whipped out his secret weapon, swapping his normal very cool pedal steel for a strap to play it like a normal guitar, not a regular lap steel guitar. It looked very odd but sounded great and got all the photographers going. Till Something Better comes along had a really nice piano bit in it and considering who else some of this band plays with you have to ask what they mean by it!
Still they guaranteed we'd all sing along by playing Gradually Learning and Alan joked that he hoped they had finally learned how to play it after 21 years. No problem on that front, it sounded as great as ever. They were winding things up now and we got a great version of Searching that prepared us for the closing Time Drives a Truck - well of course time does!!
In no time at all they were back for a well-deserved encore that opened with what I have down as Every Little Bird Today but that I think maybe called something else. Either way it was followed by Older Guys which was very witty when they sang it when they were still young pups but now has several new dimensions as they have the experience of being said older guys that they once yearned to become. No prizes for guessing the song that closed the show with neither: Jonathan, Jonathan the band's brilliant tribute to Mr Richman that still sounds great today. Indeed. it's one of those reminders of why we all love his wonderfully naive music.
This was a great comeback and on the off chance they play anywhere near you The Rockingbirds are still a great live proposition. Get ready for the country once again, it seems.
Loose Music online
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