Star Turn - interview with The Ilsleys

TAKE members of legendary Newbury outfits Ricky and The Gamblers and Tonton Macoute, mix it up with up to 50 years experience in the music industry per member, and reveal the dark secret that they to blame for the 1980s novelty hit Pump Up The Bitter, and you’ve got The Ilsleys - a bunch of West Berkshire 60-somethings recording an album and getting ready for their first full gig at ACE Space on April 20.

CATRIONA REEVES spoke to guitarist COLIN JENNINGS about starting a new musical journey when the band members have all got bus passes.

CATRIONA REEVES: It sounds like The Ilsleys' members have known each other for years - what made you decide to come together as a band at this point in your lives?

COLIN JENNINGS :We played in function bands together, and of course there was our excursion into comedy [as Star Turn on 45 (Pints), the act behind Pump Up The Bitter]. The idea of making an album of totally original material was the motivator, especially at our age. They always say the first album is the most important; it’s just that for us it took a little longer than usual!

Bassist Pete Fry and guitarist Dave Hicks were founder members of Newbury’s very own Ricky and The Gamblers in the swinging sixties. In their heyday, a number of record companies came down to Newbury to try and sign the band, but failed... Dave wasn’t fond of their manner, particularly The Rolling Stones’ producer Jimmy Miller, who thought that Dave should wear satin shorts on stage... it wasn’t a meeting of minds! Pete and Dave have both continued to play with various groups since then.

Drummer Nigel was in pop band Windmill before joining local band Tonton Macoute, who achieved cult status in the 70s throughout Europe. Their albums are so sought after that they are worth more than Nigel’s drumkit!

I started my career in the late 60s with The Greatest Show on Earth, a jazz rock outfit, and earned my crust for many years as a songwriter/performer working for, among many others, The Hollies and Cilla Black.

Last but not least, there’s Dave Stevens on keyboards - another local lad, who has made a major contribution in the arranging of the band’s music. Being a much younger member, he is also responsible for making sure that the rest of us are clean before we go on stage.

CR: What is your resulting musical style like - and who writes the songs?

CJ: The style is developing every time we play. The songs, the reception we get playing them live, and recording in the studio will all help. But it’s inevitable at out age that we’ll be drawing from the greats; which is fine, as long as it has our stamp on it.

I do most of the songwriting at the moment, only because I already had songs, old and new. But the two Daves have written for our live set at ACE Space, and I am sure that we all will have ideas going forward.

CR: You’ve got a provisional name for your album, Licks, Lilts & Lullabies. How is it coming along?

CJ: First recordings have started, and will be finished by midsummer. I was keen to get my old Abbey Road engineer/producer Tony Clark to produce the album. The only problem was, I couldn’t find him, until a chance conversation with someone at a studio who could put me in touch. It turned out that Tony had been following a different path altogether; he had taken a horticulture degree and was looking after a Victorian garden in London.

Luckily, when we met, he said that he was keen to get back into the studio. It’s great to be working with him - his pedigree is exceptional; he’s worked with Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Cliff Richard, among others. It will sound great.

CR: You’ve been testing out some of the songs at ACE Space’s Unplugged events. How have they gone down?

CJ: Really well, which is why we decided to do an evening of them. It’s a really nice place with good people and all sorts of talent, so it’s the perfect place for our first gig.

CR: What can people expect from the gig? Is it going to be all sex, drugs and rock & roll?

CJ: Hopefully - as long as it starts before eight and finishes at 11. Dave the guitarist likes to get the cups turned over by 11.30.

CR: And will you treat us to Pump Up The Bitter as an encore?

CJ: The gold lame suit and wig are in for a refit so probably not... but who knows!

• Below are The Ilsleys performing at ACE Space 

One Yank and they're off - interview with Doug Stanhope

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DUBBED “the Voice of America” by Charlie Brooker, Doug Stanhope is a graduate of the US stand-up comedy school of hard living- outspoken, outrageous, rarely with alcohol out of his system, and often outside, having a smoke. He’s mostly rather polite in real life though, as Catriona Reeves discovered, when she rang him on his tour bus - but don’t tell. We wouldn’t want to blow his cover.

Catriona Reeves: You're currently about half way through a 38-date UK tour - how is it going?

Doug Stanhope: I’m doing well so far - only one or two major hangovers. Stoke-on-Trent was the worst one - I had some friends come to see me and stay over at the hotel. I don’t think we’ll be allowed back in that hotel.

CR: Wow, I had no idea there was so much fun to be had in Stoke.

DS: I’ve been to 15 different countries, and they all look like the inside of a bar. As long as there’s a bar, I’m happy anywhere.

CR: So are you receiving a warm welcome from UK audiences?

DS: British audiences are scary. In America, audiences are over the top and easily amused; over here they tend to be smarter and more controlled. You have to work a lot harder over here. Luckily, the Brits tend to be cynical and cranky like me, so we get on just fine.

CR: And what exactly should your cynical and cranky audiences expect from your show?

DS: I have no idea. It usually involves whatever’s been irritating me that day. I can always find something to irritate me. I switch it around every few days, but it’s always going to be the same angry, drunken, caustic, blow-hard nonsense that it’s been for the last 21 years.

There will certainly be something about Allison Pearson and the Twitter war we’ve been having [Allison Pearson is a Daily Telegraph columnist stood on the other side of political fence to Stanhope in regards to assisted suicide]. She is fully aware that I’m not going to drop it. It keeps me fired up.

CR: You certainly don’t shy away from tackling controversial issues. Do you think that you’ve got something important to say, or are you just having fun?

DS: Sometimes I’ve got something to say, but sometimes it’s just graphic smut. There’s always plenty of smut to laugh about; I don’t have to force myself too hard to find it.

CR: So, overall, you’re enjoying the tour...?

DS: I have no idea where we’re going, but usually when I come to the UK I’m stuck in Leicester Square, losing the will to live, so it’s great to see the country. We’ve been to some beautiful places - Bournemouth is stunning - but we’ve still got some s**t holes to visit, like Leeds and Liverpool.

CR: But Liverpool is the birthplace of the Beatles!

DS: I know. Henry Phillips who’s touring with me as my support, he’s a musical comedian, so he wants to do the Magical Mystery Tour, but I couldn’t give a monkeys. I wouldn’t say hello to Sir Paul if he was stood in my way when I’m going outside for a smoke.

Not that I’ve got anything against The Beatles, but I’m more interested in having a smoke.

Doug Stanhope can be found smoking outside the stage door at The Anvil, Basingstoke on Friday, April 13, and the Concert Hall, Reading on Wednesday, April 18. Paul McCartney is unlikely to attend.

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, March 29, 2012

Ince-sane in the brain - review of Robin Ince, Happiness Through Science

Robin Ince: Happiness Through Science, at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore, on Friday, March 23

DO you remember Robin Ince before he went all sciencey? Back then, he was best known as Ricky Gervais’ support act and whipping boy, and toured a rather delightful cabaret night called The Bad Book Club. I enjoyed it so much when he brought it to New Greenham Arts, that I sent him a copy of Danielle Steele’s Love Poems. Some people may consider that the act of a stalker, but Ince saw in it the wonder of poetry at its worst, and later performed readings from it accompanied by music and interpretative dance. Truly stunning.

Clearly having exhausted the deepest seam of terrible literature with that pinnacle of artistic achievement, Ince has more recently turned his sights outwards to the universe, and the comedy to be found in the wonderful world of science and its writings. As a layperson from an arts background, Ince has an enthusiasm about theories and discoveries for their intrinsic beauty, as well as the entertainment value that can be found by an outsider trying to grasp concepts as mind-messing as quantum theory, and the fabulous quirkiness of great thinkers such as Richard Feynman.

Ince showed how Schrodinger’s thought experiment (the cat-in-box paradox; not to be confused with Pavlov’s Dog) can be applied not only to the recession (“Here’s a box of oil for you... don’t open it!”) but also to nostalgia for TV programme from childhood (“if you buy a DVD of a show you loved, you must never ever watch it”). He also did a rather good impression of his co-presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Infinite Monkey Cage, Dr Brian Cox (“he’s good at pointing”) and hinted at a chink of humanity in outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins, who was rather put out by a certain item of his anatomy as depicted in a reworking of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, with Dawkins painted into the part of Adam.

Central to Ince’s exploration was the question whether it is possible to be a scientific realist and/or atheist (as Ince himself is, despite coming from a family of vicars - some of his relatives were in the front row at Arlington) and still be happy. Can you find any joy in living if you believe that life - and the universe - is ultimately pointless? Ince believes that you can; with as much wonder to be found in the scientific world - and so much more to discover - as in religion, faith and mysticism. Maybe you can’t be happy all the time; but you can certainly find plenty of things along life’s path to both amaze and amuse.

* Robin Ince brings Happiness Through Science to Cornerstone in Didcot on Friday, June 29.

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, March 29, 2012

A Champion night - review of Ben Champion and Guests musical comedy night

Ben Champion and Guests musical comedy night at ACE Space, Newbury on Friday, March 9

I’VE always wanted to be a muse for a song, inspiring music of beauty and lyrics of joy. And on Friday, to my delight and great surprise it finally happened - the song being the moving and memorable punk-inspired future classic Ain’t Going Back To Basingstoke, by Newbury’s very own comedy singer-songwriter Ben Champion. Inspired by my dilemma about whether to see comedian Stewart Lee at The Anvil on Friday, or to come down and support something a little more home grown, he penned a ditty listing the myriad reasons that Basingstoke is not for the likes of us Newburians.

A packed ACE Space enjoyed an excellent night of musical hilarity organised by Champion, performing alongside three hand-picked acts: Natt Tapley, Ant Dewson and Horse & Louis (pictured above), who between them displayed how diverse musical comedy can be. From Champion’s own musicianship, showcasing a different style on each song, to Dewson’s laugh-a-line piano playing, Tapley’s reworking of Beatles classics (“Dear students... you’re going to have to pay...”) and Horse & Louis’ faux rock god stylings, the presentation was pleasantly varied, but never low on laughs.

Tapley kicked off the show, performing in character as “actual” London mayoral candidate Sir Ian Bowler, the self-styled Lesser of Three Evils. Reminiscent of Rik Mayall’s Alan B’Stard at his most oblivious to the little people, “Bowler”’s two musical interludes were rather an aside to his mainly stand-up routine, which worked very well considering he was performing at a “local gig for local people” (Champion’s description) who are probably mainly not that fussed about the mayoral election thingy going on up in the Smoke.

He may modestly describe himself as a “piano player (Grade 6) and singer of stupid songs”, but Dewson’s performance was pure, unadulterated hilarity. With naughty songs about his love for Carol Voderman and Richard Hammond, and a riposte to young people who believe that life ends at 30, he encouraged audience singalongs (very tuneful - well done, the ACE Space audience), and basically went down a storm.

Champion put himself third on the bill in addition to his compering duties, with some excellent songs which gave a little insight into his day job as a composer for children’s television, the perils of auto corrective texting, his thoughts on the Higgs Boson particle (“have you tried looking for it in the second drawer down?”) and his dreams of being an atheist priest and/or a ginger cowboy. Lovely stuff; another local talent we are very lucky to be able to call our own.

Horse & Louis (aka Nick Phillips and Louis Fences) took the night’s top slot, with a most entertaining set in the style of The Conchords and Tenacious D, the duo told stories about dating difficulties, call centre woes and the sexual posturing of musicians through the medium of rock opera. A frenetic and packed performance, the only disappointment was that their set was rather short, but it was an uplifting end to an excellent evening’s entertainment.

With a bar set this high, it should be hoped that such comedy nights become a regular diversification of ACE Space’s programming. I was certainly left wanting more.

(By the way, as it happened, I had to go to Basingstoke on Sunday morning, for a football match. Sometimes, there’s just no avoiding the place.)

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, March 15, 2012

A Firman Favourite - review of Pete Firman, Jiggery Pokery

Pete Firman at The Corn Exchange, Newbury on Friday, March 2

IT’S less than 18 months since magician Pete Firman last visited The Corn Exchange, and you don’t need special powers to tell that his star has risen in that time - possibly even in the last few weeks, during which he has been a regular Saturday night visitor to our teleboxes as one of The Magicians.

Back in October 2010, I described part of Firman’s charm being his “dishevelled appearance” and “intentionally under-polished performance”. Well, things have certainly changed since then. He’s smartened up (a bit), his props are much glossier (his box of tricks now has a velvet fringe), and he’s got his very own support act (self-proclaimed geek Chris Stokes; very good). Firman himself has moved on with his on-stage character, from a  mishap-prone geek who mixed cheesy jokes with snapshot lessons about the history of magic (I rather missed those), to a cod-ladies’ man with a twisted sense of humour.

However, while he may have gained some fame and fortune in recent months, his act isn’t all glitz and glamour; his way of selecting audience members to pick a card being to put the pack in a paint bucket dangled on a fishing rod - “maybe I should have removed the Homebase label”.

Quite a lot of Firman’s current Jiggery Pokery tour is cards and close-up based, and equipment he would benefit from would be a camera and big screen projector; much as the audience was blown away by the linked wedding rings trick, no one beyond the first few rows at The Corn Exchange could see for sure that they were the three actual rings taken from audience members. 

“You’ve missed the tigers,” quipped Firman to some latecomers a few minutes’ into the show, and he again poked fun at showy gaudity, with a finale that saw him ironically prancing Vegas-style to Wet Wet Wet’s Sweet Little Mystery. Firman may not be the most gasp-inducing of magicians, but he has sense of comedy that makes him very watchable. I said it before and I’ll say it again: Firman reminds me of fellow Middlesbrough progeny Paul Daniels (and not just because of their shared accent). He‘ll like that... not  lot, but he’ll like it.

• First published in Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, March 8, 2012

Champion the troubadour - interview with Ben Champion

ACE Space will be having them not only dancing but rolling in the aisles on Friday, March 9, when comedy singer-songwriter BEN CHAMPION brings along some other funny friends for an evening of musical comedy.

Having spent the last 10 years locked in a dimly-lit studio writing music and silly songs for cartoons and children’s television, last year Champion started writing comedy songs for grown-ups, and performing them at acoustic nights (including ACE Space’s monthly Unplugged events) and comedy clubs. CATRIONA REEVES found out more from the man himself.

Catriona Reeves: So Ben, are you from round these parts?

Ben Champion: I grew up in South London, went to Cambridge University, then spent my bohemian middle 20s playing in bands and living on a boat in Richmond. I eventually settled down and had children, and decided to leave London for the usual, slightly boring, reasons: house, garden etc. I now live in Newbury and have a studio in New Greenham Park.

CR: Tell us a bit about the composing that you've done in the past.

BC: I started out writing music for low budget films which led to some TV work, and in 2003 I was asked to write some bits for series five of Absolutely Fabulous.

By that time I was already involved with animators and looking at doing more children’s and cartoon work, having scored a Channel 4 Christmas special called Little Wolf’s Book of Badness.

I went on to write music for the 2007 remake of Pinky and Perky, as well as writing songs for CBeebies and several other children’s channels. My current shows are Alphablocks on CBeebies, Olive The Ostrich on Nick Jr., and The Hive on CITV and Disney Junior. I have the best job in the world, basically.

CR: What made you decide to move into the world of comedy and liv performance, and how has it been going?

BC: Well, two things happened: one was that I realised I was good at it. The other was that I got tired of being in my studio working on my own. I needed to get out more, essentially.

It’s been going really well. I’ve been playing my material locally at Unplugged and at other acoustic nights. I’ve entered a couple of new act competitions and got through to the quarter finals of one (Laughing Horse New Act of the Year). 

CR: Is this something you'd like to do more of in the future, or are you keeping your hand in with the composing as well?

BC: During the day I write silly songs for children, and in the evening I write and play silly songs for adults, so I don’t see the two things as mutually exclusive. I am treating the musical comedy as a parallel career and would love to be able to do more, with a view to taking a show to the Edinburgh Fringe either this year or next.

But I’m under no illusions as to how hard it is to earn a living in comedy, so I’m going to be doing both for a while I should think.

CR: What are your songs about? Which one goes down a storm?

BC: My songs are about all kinds of different things. Ideas jump out at me that have comic potential. For example, I was chatting to a journalist friend a while back who had just been to Holland to interview a minister in the church who was a self-confessed atheist. I thought maybe the Church of England might benefit from a similarly enlightened policy, so I wrote a song called Atheist Priest. 

I’ve also written a break-up song about the perils of the auto-correct function on my smartphone - and another about a sunburnt cowboy. 

I like my songs to have a strong central idea and a high proportion of actual jokes - if I can make it a half-decent song as well, that’s the icing on the cake.

CR: Do you have any musical comedy heroes?

BC: In the last ten years, I’d have to cite Flight of the Conchords, Mitch Benn and Tim Minchin of course.

Going back further I’d say Victoria Wood, Tom Lehrer, Jake Thackeray, and even Cole Porter and Noel Coward. I love clever, funny lyrics allied with great song-writing and musical ability. 

CR: What can people expect from the other acts you're bringing with you? Are they your personal selection?

BC: Yes, all three are acts that I’ve seen over the last year on the circuit, and bring different things to the evening. 

Natt Tapley plays an angry Tory MP character called Sir Ian Bowler and will do a couple of songs as well. Ant Dewson is a very funny song-writer who I met at a comedy night in December - he’s a bit ruder than me, but his songs are packed with jokes. Horse and Louis are a great double act who do songs and music-based sketches, and were finalists in the Musical Comedy Awards back in 2010. I first saw them in Edinburgh last August and think they will make a great headline act.

CR:. I am currently pencilled in to review Stewart Lee in Basingstoke the night you're playing ACE Space. Can you persuade me to come to see you instead?

BC: Hahaha good one. Well, you could spend a couple of hours listening to a cynic whispering his way through a studious analysis of what comedy is, while omitting anything that resembles an actual joke...

Or you could come to my gig for a couple of hours of real entertainment, and get the chance to be the first person to review my material. You never know, in a couple of years you may even be able to say you discovered me.

Plus, then you wont have to go to Basingstoke. 

CR: Anything else you would like to share with the good readers of the Newbury Weekly News?

BC: Can’t think of anything right now. Other than does anyone know a good plumber? My boiler’s been playing up.

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, March 1, 2012

Bunker down - review of Comedy Bunker featuring Naz Osmanoglu and Tom Deacon

The New Greenham Comedy Bunker at New Greenham Arts on Thursday, February 16

TAKING place in the auditorium at New Greenham Arts rather than the nearby bunkers that formerly housed cruise missiles, Comedy Bunker was a mini-Jongleurs featuring three acts from the Avalon Entertainment arsenal - compere Naz Osmanoglu (above: isn't he scrummy?), female character stand-up Grainne Maguire, and a headline set from Radio One DJ-stroke-comedian Tom Deacon.

Twenty-five-year-old Deacon wore great hair and those strange trendy trousers that young types have started sporting - sludgy colours, baggy around the top, slim around the ankle. I learnt from his act, which partly centred on the dilemma of looking cool or otherwise that such slacks are officially known as chinos, but they don’t look like the military-style chinos I remember from my youth. These ones are just silly. Although at least those who wear them don’t have their pants on show. Anyway, despite the clear generation gap between Deacon and the majority of the audience, his act went down a storm. I think all women in the audience wanted to mother him, and all the men remembered when they had hair as luxuriant as his.

Stunning Irishwoman Maguire hid behind a geeky persona and costume of nerd glasses, laddered tights, wonky hemline and ill-fitting jumper, meaning it was hard to tell if her slight awkwardness at the beginning was genuine or part of the act. Things warmed up towards the end with a good take on the likes of Beyonce making a curvy derriere fashionable again, with a song dedicated to the female belly, culminating in a intentionally disturbing Pussycat Dolls-style writhe against the mic stand. Don’t tell her mum that she’s dropped the Beowulf material, though.

It’s always a challenge to review a compere as their main purpose is to warm up the audience through ad-libbed interaction rather than to provide material in their own right - the handsomely-bearded Osmanoglu did a very good job; but to be honest I’d be much more interested in seeing him return to Newbury with his comedy troupe WitTank, after they received glowing reviews and a place on the Fosters Comedy Award longlist at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. With co-member Kieran Boyd hailing from Caversham, I think that needs to be sorted out, sharpish. I want to see that beard again. 

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, February 23, 2012

Joy division - review of Your Days Are Numbered

Your Days Are Numbered: The Maths of Death, at The Forge, Basingstoke on Thursday, February 9

ANYONE remember the early 90s when comedy was heralded as the new rock & roll? It wasn’t, of course, the new rock & roll turned out to be grunge, which made much more sense when you think about it. But 20 years on, I think it’s perfectly reasonable therefore to say that science (and maths) is the new comedy. Or, at least, that scientists (and mathematicians) are the new comedians. Yup, scientists with social skills. Who knew.

Among this breed are stand-up mathematician (or the mathemagician, as I will now call him) Matt Parker and science writer/performer Timandra Harkness who have devised a a jolly little show about the mathematics of death, investigating likely length of life and various ways it may be ended, through the wonder of statistics.

With the show set to come to New Greenham Arts in April, I am aware that I have a 99 per cent chance of giving away too much and therefore reducing potential attendance by roughly the same amount. However, I am also aware that the next phrase, while factually correct, could achieve that on its own: there were a lot of acturaries in the audience. And reference to Bayesian probability (which I just had to Google in order to spell correctly).

Don’t let that put you off, though. Really. As a mathematics numpty (AS-level predicted grade E - I didn’t bother taking the exam), I can confirm that you don’t have to be an actual actuary to enjoy the show. The concept of micromort - a unit of risk measuring a one-in-a-million chance of death - was clearly explained for us non-actural acturaries early on, making the facts that followed easier to grasp than chunking (a little joke thrown in by me for the primary school teachers among you).

I came away with the new knowledge that my plus-one is destined to meet his maker through auto-erotic asphyxiation (or suffocate in his own beard); that the likelihood of me writing a positive review increases exponentially when I am brought up onto the stage and plied with vodka; and that the stickers placed on the forehead of audience members to pronounce them dead during the 100-minute show (one minute equalling one year of life) are likely to take off approximately 50 per cent of an eyebrow when removed. None of which ever happened in a maths lesson when I was at school. I might have passed my AS-level maths if it had. Or had more fun trying.

* Assuming that Parker and Harkness survive the next two months, they will be at New Greenham Arts on April 12. While no audience members have died during a show on the tour so far; with a 0.000043 per cent chance that one could snuff it during any given performance, you can work out the risk of attending yourself.

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, February 16, 2012

Pretty brilliant things - review of The Pretty Things

Review by Bill Ainsworth

The Pretty Things at Arlington Arts, Snelsmore, on Friday, January 27

IN my early teens, in about 1974, I bought an album called PinUps by one of my idols of then and now, Mr David Bowie. I had been brought up on my dad’s record collection, no bad thing considering that largely consisted of all The Beatles releases as soon as they came out. What PinUps did however, was to make me aware of stuff father never introduced me to from the ’60s, as it was a collection of Bowie’s covers of some of his favourite British hits from that decade. In amongst The Yardbirds, The Who etc. were the tracks Rosalyn and Don’t Bring Me Down, which were apparently singles released by a band called The Pretty Things.

Nearly 40 years later, in my neverending quest for the greatest music ever made and having already bought Love’s Forever Changes, The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and The Zombie’s Odyssey and Oracle, I finally acquired The Pretty Things’ 1968 album S.F. Sorrow last December. 

Just in time then, because it gave me a chance to get to know four of the tracks performed on this wonderful night, namely S.F. Sorrow Is Born, She Says Good Morning, Baron Saturday  and Old Man Going, all of which were rapturously received by the largest and most enthusiastic crowd I’ve witnessed at the Arlington, quite impressive considering that includes gigs by Supergrass and Dodgy!

The aforementioned seminal piece of classic British psychedelia formed only part of a set that spanned five decades. The band, named after a 1955 Bo Diddley song, now comprises original members Dick Taylor (lead guitar god!) and Phil May (vocals), Frank Holland, a member for over 20 years (second guitar/harmonica) abd Mark St John (their “Bez”;  anything shakeable, ratlleable or portably bangable) plus two 21-year-olds (yes 21, and they’ve been touring with them for four years!)m George Perez (bass) and Jack Greenwood (drums). The set also   included the previously mentioned hits covered by Bowie as well as Midnight To Six Man, Mona, Roadrunner and L.S.D. (whatever that’s about....) from their early daysm through to The Beat Goes On from their latest offering, 2007’s Balboa Island.

If you want to learn more about a band whose founding members LEFT The Rolling Stones, because they thought Mick’n’Keef et al were not wild enough, more research is encouraged.

If you missed it and love great, loud British R’n’B (R Kelly fans need enquire no further), psych and rock that has inspired all those in the know from Led Zep to The Pistols and more recently Kasabian and The Libertines (co-frontman Carl Barat even called his post-split band Dirty Pretty Things), they are planning to return to Newbury soon. Miss at your peril!

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, February 2, 2012 (with my name on it instead of Bill's! Doh!)  

Ash Wednesday - review of Ash

Review by Bill Ainsworth


Ash at SUB 89, Reading, on Wednesday, November 30

HAVING never visited this venue before I expected, given it’s name, it to be below 89 Friar Street. Wrong! It’s above it. Oh well, no matter.

I’ve never been to an Ash gig before either, although I’ve seen them countless times over the years at this town’s rather popular music festival which you may have heard of; I also saw them when they were main support for fellow Irishmen U2 at Twickenham in 2005 (they’ve been friends for years and played some huge gigs to promote the, eventually successful, Irish peace talks in 1998).

Formed when they were in their mid-teens in 1992, for the last five years the band have been back to their original three-piece line up (since the departure of guitarist Charlotte Hatherly who was a permanent member from 1997 to 2006) of Tim Wheeler, vocals and guitar, Mark Hamilton, bass and, sporting a resplendent Movember effort, Rick McMurray, drums.

The set mainly consisted of tracks recorded without Ms H, so tracks from 1994’s debut mini album Trailer and 1996’s UK number one first album proper 1977, along with some of the 26 (yes, 26!!) singles released over the last year or so (part of their A-Z Series, released fortnightly).

Opening inevitably and pleasingly with Lose Control, track one on 1977, the band then launched into a set guaranteed to keep the near-600 capacity crowd happy. Second up was Girl From Mars so two tracks in and the place was rocking full tilt. We were then treated to a further hour-and-a-half of classics such as Trailer’s Jack Names The Planets, Oh Yeah, the manic Kung Fu, Goldfinger, Orpheus, A Life Less Ordinary (great track, poor film) and the wife’s personal favourite, Shining Light. Mixed in with newer material, of which I have to confess I am not familiar, but enjoyed nonetheless, including Arcadia, a rather (believe it or not) funky Return Of The White Rabbit and Dionysian Urge.

They returned to treat the fans with a four-track encore of last studio album title track Twilight Of The Innocents, Sometimes, another from Trailer, Uncle Pat, and finally again both predictably and correctly, the poptastic classic Burn Baby Burn.

You know a great singles band if after all of this, on the way home you have a “hang on they didn’t play......” moment-  and for me that was Angel Interceptor. 

So, now in their mid-30s, Ash have still got it and probably will never lose it. “It” being the ability to rock a crowd with the kind of cracking power pop from a catalogue, spanning over half their lifetime, that many current would-be contemporaries can only dream of.

I’ve no doubt that I’ll see you again at a festival soon, guys!

• First published in the Newbury Weekly News on Thursday, December 8, 2011